Who doesn’t love the movie Scarface? This was an instant classic and a lot can be learned financially from Tony Montana, so why don’t we discuss it? Who better than Tony Montana? We are striving to be a mob of millionaires, right? Millionaire Mob is a community of over 3,000 mobsters seeking financial freedom, so we have a lot to learn. Especially in terms of money management. One thing we won’t do is achieve financial freedom the way Tony Montana did. After re-watching Scarface, here are 7 money management tips I learned from Tony Montana.
7 Money Management Tips Learned from Tony Montana
Gaining financial freedom takes significant hard work, but it is achievable. Financial freedom is actually quite easy. It just takes time and patience. Tony Montana gained financial freedom very quickly and there’s a lot to learn from it. Whether that be his downfalls or hustle on the rise to the top. The money management lessons learned are significant.
“Who put this thing together? Me, that’s who! Who do I trust? Me!”
-Tony Montana
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What is the movie Scarface?
Scarface has received a lot of press over the years. Scarface is a movie about a Cuban immigrant that moves to Miami to build a large drug cartel operation leading to fame and fortune.
Tony Montana continues to receive praise (or even idolized) from rappers around the world due to Tony’s hustle. He has all the characteristics of a self made millionaire, but did so without consideration to long-term stability. Tony Montana is (of course) played by the great Al Pacino.
Here is a trailer to the movie Scarface if you’d like a primer into Tony Montana’s lifestyle… “The World is Yours.” This should get you motivated to learn some awesome money management tips!
Did Tony Montana teach us money management in the movie Scarface?
First off, our money management tips learned from Tony Montana are exclusive of the idea regarding HOW he was earning his money. Tony was clearly earning income in a manner that we do not condone as a source of second income or passive income.
What are money management tips exactly?
Money management tips are guides or knowledge about how to manage your money. I like to learn about money management from both positive and negative experiences. You learn from both, but in very different ways. With excellent knowledge about personal finance, you are able to achieve financial flexibility and (I believe) live a much happier life.
Personal finance is PERSONAL. Let’s not forget about that part of the equation, so while we learned some money management tips from the movie Scarface. Every single one of our situations is different.
We all live very different lives. There is no one size fits all approach with personal finance, financial freedom and money management. Millionaire Mob recognizes that there is no size fits all. However, I believe all of these money management tips identified herein can be applied to everyone.
Let’s pick apart Tony’s money management.
Our 7 money management tips learned from Tony Montana in the movie Scarface
Money management is easy if you learn from the erratic, successful and greedy Tony Montana…
#1 Always Trust and Invest in Yourself:
From day one Tony Montana knew he was going to make it big. He started from nothing. Tony lived in a refugee camp at an overpass. Then, he worked as a cook at a local restaurant. He certainly came from humble beginnings, but he always told himself that he would make it.
You can too. Find your passion and find your excellence. Once you find out what is working, scale it out into something bigger. Managing your own finances takes time to learn, but once you know how to use money properly it is only a matter of time before you achieve your personal finance goals. If you trust and invest yourself you can achieve anything:
- You can be better with money
- Control your finances
- Manage your salary
- Become better at financial management… and
- Achieve financial freedom!
Continue to invest in yourself and learn how to manage your money effectively. Our personal finance category can help you along as well.
#2 Do Not Succumb to Greed:
Even the movie title explains subtitle explains it… “In Miami in 1980, a determined Cuban immigrant takes over a drug cartel and succumbs to greed.” Oftentimes when we accumulate wealth over time (long or short time periods) temptation sets in.
Don’t let temptation set in to overspend more than you usually would in your ordinary life. It’s totally okay to spend a little extra money to treat yo’self. In addition, do not let greed take over your personal life that will ruin relationships because of your money.
#3 Control Your Finances:
Tony Montana clearly did not control his finances well. Tony would have piles of cash sitting around! Keeping your cash in secure, insured places should be a top priority. We never saw Tony managing an investment portfolio (I will give you that). However, Tony continued to be too loose with his financial management by showing everyone around him he had money.
When you build wealth over time and people know it, this WILL change the way people view you. Focus on your money management and keep it close to the vest. Control your finances by staying organized and tracking performance. Using net worth tracking platforms (like Personal Capital or Blooom) can be an effective way to control your finances and useful money management.
#4 How Not to Handle a Budget:
Tony never budgeted. Tony was the opposite of an effective ‘budgeter.’ He clearly seeked out to show that he had money. Tony was willing to spend it just to show that he did not care about a budget.
Make sure that you know how to handle a budget by tracking what you have spent on a weekly and monthly basis. I like to take a look at my annual spending using Personal Capital. This allows for me to see what expensive items I purchased throughout the year.
The best way to manage a budget is to stay organized, discipline and stay up to date! You can manage a budget simply by knowing how much you have spent and comparing it with how much you should spend. Do these things when you need money now.
#5 “The World is Yours”:
That is right. The world is yours. Don’t forget that you work hard for the money that you save or invest. The world is yours to go out and explore. When you have a chance to travel the world and experience something, go for it!
Life is too short to not live out amazing experiences. You should always manage your money. However, you should not forget to live your life. People on the pursuit to financial freedom get too caught up on tracking your net worth on a daily basis.
Gaining financial freedom won’t happen overnight, so go live your life. THE WORLD IS YOURS!
#6 Know How to Handle Risk:
Are you putting all of your eggs in one basket? Who are you surrounding yourself with financially? Tony Montana in Scarface put all of his chips in one spot. Managing risk was clearly an issue as Tony participated in a very risky day job. While his friends were childhood friends, they also succumbed to greed. A couple of points on know how to handle risk:
- Surround yourself with people that you know and trust with your finances. I wouldn’t put all of my hard earned savings with some unknown financial advisor that thinks it’s a great idea to invest all of my money is the VIX.
- Know how to handle risk by diversifying your income. Do you rely on one source of income? What if that one source of income went away? Make sure you are in a position with a number of different sources of income in case doomsday strikes. We like to build a dividend portfolio as a second source of income. We created a guide to building a dividend portfolio to help you.
Do you know how to handle risk? Avoid these real estate investing risks.
#7 Surround Yourself with Like Minded People
Everyone in Tony’s camp had a similar mindset. Work hard and achieve your goals. Do whatever it takes to rise to the top. The same goes with money management. What are you going to do to surround yourself with like minded people trying to achieve the common goal of financial freedom? I suggest you join a community. Here’s a shameless plug! Join Millionaire Mob which is a community of like minded people trying to achieve their travel, passive income, dividend growth investing and personal finance goals!
Or… You can use a few of these resources to help you surround yourself with personal finance nerds that love money management tips and budget:
- Reddit Community for Financial Independence / Retire Early: I love this group. So many constructive discussions.
- World Map of Personal Finance Bloggers: Use this world map of personal finance bloggers to go grab a cup of coffee with a fellow personal finance nerd. They are all over the world!
- Social Media! Use this to your advantage by joining Facebook groups, Twitter chats or even Pinterest boards! A lot to be learned from a number of experts out there.
- Last one… teach your friends about personal finance, money management and financial freedom. Go grab a beer with a close friend and talk shop. Why not?
I would say Tony’s financial management skills were average at best, which comes with a lot of lessons learned! You always learn most from the experiences of failure or improvement.
These money hacks are followed by savvy millionaires. I don’t think Tony Montana truly followed these….
What does it really mean to have accumulated wealth?
Positive experiences are important for sure, but those are less easy to analyze. How about Tony Montana’s leadership skills?
Bonus! Here are a few amazing leadership skills learned from Tony Montana
In addition to money management tips, there’s a couple points to be made on his leadership skills. Here are a few points on Tony Montana’s leadership skills.
- Assemble a team that will work hard for you.
- Think about your dreams, talk about your dreams and live your dreams.
- Live in a place that can empower you to do achieve your goals.
- Once you know something is working, scale it until it doesn’t work anymore.
Those are just a couple tidbits as I contrast Tony Montana’s leadership skills with the average money management skills. Up to a money challenge, you can join the 52 week money challenge to see how you can fare.
Conclusion on Money Management Tips
Becoming financially free is a learning lesson. There will be bumps and bruises along the way. You don’t achieve financial freedom overnight, so be patient, stick with the plan. Here are several other wealth creation tips to understand in your financial planning.
The key takeaways from these tips on how to manage money efficiently are:
- Live within your means
- Know where you money is and control your finances
- Go out and live life. There more to life than managing your net worth… “The World is Yours”
- Figure out how to handle your budget early in your career
- When you achieve your ultimate financial freedom, don’t succumb to greed
What do you think are the best money management tips from Scarface? How do you manage money efficiently? Let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you! There’s a lot that can be learned to gain financial freedom from millionaires.
With the Personal Capital Retirement Planner, we’ve been able to manage our money efficiently. I love the intuitive dashboard and tracking.
I highly suggest that you sign up for Personal Capital if you’d like to improve your money management skills.
Related Resources:
- Best robo-advisors compared to help you invest wisely
- How to invest money for success
- These apps pay you real money for using them
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3 Comments
Great post! Love the creativity with this post!
Love it, great analogy
Thanks!