Financial Lessons As Taught By Game of Thrones

Choose Your Heir With Care

As with any typical show or story involving the royals, the topic of succession is bound to be brought up at some point in time. And as fans of Game of Thrones, we all know too well that those who wear the crown aren’t exactly fit for the job and merely got the titles because they are descendants of their royal parents.

In Season 1, we see the world of Game of Thrones still dealing with the aftermath of the end of a reign from the ‘Mad King’, so named because of his murderous and erratic behaviour. But he was not the worse, with the introduction of boy-king Joffrey Baratheon, who later takes his place on the Iron Throne and displays his lust for blood. His successor and younger brother, King Tommen, although more mild and kind, also seemed emotionally ill-equipped to be a King.

What Can We Learn From This: A little estate planning goes a long way.

The series shows us how badly things can play out when we do not have suitable succession/estate planning in place (in a very dramatic way, of course).

The cost of getting a will ready may not be as expensive as you think, with many online will generators made available over the years. Not getting yourself one is the equivalent of not having your army around you in the world of Game of Thrones.

Place Your Trust In The Right Person

It is a well-known fact that you should not place too much emotional attachment on your favourite characters in the series, seeing as to how there is barely any plot armour and they may die anytime, like Ned Stark or Jon Snow (for a brief moment in time). Every season is filled with betrayals after betrayals and characters fleeing for their lives.

Betrayal is a big thing in Game of Thrones, and no characters, big or small, powerful or weak, can escape this evil. In fact, it is the betrayal of Ned Stark in the first season that started the ball rolling.

What Can We Learn From This: Do your own research.

With the constant backstabbing theme occuring in Game of Thrones, it does spark the thought of how challenging it is to thrive in a world where trust is a rare commodity.

In our world, without such dramatic betrayals, we have our own trust issues to face as well, particularly when it comes to financial matters. “Am I being tricked into getting this product?” “Can I trust my financial advisor?”

Fortunately, with the advancement of technology, there are plenty of tools and resources available online that allows us to cross-check and verify the information provided by the experts we entrust our money with.

Be Prepared for Accidents

Unfortunately for young Bran Stark, he did not get to enjoy modern day luxury of what we call life insurance. He was pushed fell from great heights and ended up in a coma for a period of time, only to find out he has lost his ability to walk when he eventually regained consciousness.

Since then, he has to depend on his slow-witted giant of a caregiver, Hodor (also happened to be the only word in his dictionary), who was strong enough to carry him around on his back.

What Can We Learn From This: Get yourself a financial equivalent of Hodor.

Getting yourself insured with health insurance is a good thing, but it might only cover your immediate medical care. Should you find yourself incapable of working due to a disability, you would need a financial Hodor to hold and support you.

While we may rely on or get some assistance from the government (depending on your overall financial situation), it is best that we get disability coverage to ensure that our lives can continue as per normal.

Stay Current

The world of Game of Thrones is so big, that 2 of the major threats in the series, the white walkers and Daenerys’s dragons, were so obscured that majority of the characters had not seen them and believe it to be a myth, up until the reveal, of course.

What Can We Learn From This: Staying ahead by gathering all the information you have

As with the characters in Game of Thrones, we live in a big world too. But unlike them, we have the use of technology (though not as cool as a dragon), that would aid us in staying informed of news or events that happened miles away, which could eventually affect us financially.

So if there’s something we could learn from the series, it’s this: We literally cannot afford to ignore what is going on elsewhere, otherwise, we are on the losing end.

“Winter is Coming”

Ahh, that familiar phrase that we have all grown so attached to by now, it might as well be the official tagline for the entire series.

It is first said by Ned Stark after his wife Catelyn objected to letting young Bran Stark watch the execution of the deserter from the Night’s Watch.

On the surface level, it might just be a reference to the weather, which shows a drop in temperature as the series progresses. However, the Stark words could also mean that life is tough, and the sooner young Bran learns and accepts this, the sooner he can learn to prepare himself from what is coming his way. It is a metaphorical way of losing one’s childhood innocence and coming into adulthood.

What Can We Learn From This: It’s never too early to prepare for the future.

It is good advice for most people since we often procrastinate and wait till it’s too late for anything to be done. A great way to prepare for the future is to start saving early and make use of the power of compounding to grow your money.