Case Study Confession of a Shopaholic Movie Review PDF

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Movie review of Confessions of a Shopaholic in relation to financial literacy...

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Financial Planning Process At the first scene of the movie, young Rebecca is inside a store where her mom buys her a black shoe. Her mom chose the one with 50% off and other girls are laughing over her black shoe. After that, Rebecca saw a boutique and inside is another world where grown-up girls shop and get what they wanted. What fascinates her the most is that they don’t even need money, instead they paid using “magic cards”. At that moment, young Rebecca wanted one that but little did she know, she ended up with 12 credit cards. Rebecca, now grown-up can buy what she wanted. The next scene was Rebecca walking down the streets of New York saying her jacket was from Visa, dress from Amex and belt from Mastercard which are all credit cards she used to buy them. Rebecca is a compulsive buyer. She cannot resist and cannot control her urge to shop. She gets easily swayed whenever there is a sale and whenever she enters a store, she always has shopping bags on her hands when she leaves. Rebecca clearly doesn’t have financial goals; she just spends her money on everything she wanted to buy without weighing options. She doesn’t think of the future and just continue to live her life without financial planning. She was constantly drawn to enter different stores maybe because she moved out to New York. New York of course has all the shopping centers in town. It is the center of fashion and Rebecca has always been interested in fashion so it’s no surprise her credit cards limit was reached. She was carried away of the sparkles and the blings of shopping. Rebecca spends more than what she earns which became her biggest mistake that resulted to accumulation of debts. When Rebecca was hired at Successful Savings, she was tasked to write an article for her new column but instead she goes to a clothing sale. Rebecca’s shopping problem result to lose of control of financial planning. Managing Cash and Savings Rebecca clearly doesn’t have savings at all. All she has is $9,412.25 debt and when she lost her job in the gardening magazine, she was devasted because she lost her only source of income and don’t know how to pay it. Rebecca’s mania includes buying new merchandises and her reckless use of credit cards and clearly relying upon the credit card to purchase different items. Rebecca spends insanely to the point that she doesn’t remember what she bought and where did she buy it. She doesn’t keep track of her expenses that’s why she is always surprise whenever she receives her billing statement. Rebecca describe that when she shops, the world gets better and then it’s not anymore and she need to do it again and it became a cycle. She thinks that her identity is defined by what she buys. That kind of reasoning makes her difficult to stop from shopping. There was a scene where Luke said to Rebecca that cost and worth two very different things. Cost is the amount incurred in producing and manufacturing a product while worth is the subjective process of estimating the value of an asset. Rebecca’s purchases cost her a lot but didn’t have much worth to her in the end as this bad habit of hers jeopardize her relationship with her friend and her boyfriend.

Managing Credit Rebecca owns a total of 12 credit cards. Since she has a lot of credit cards, she does not remember which card was used to purchase an item and what card has reached its limit. Another bad practice by Rebecca is that she failed to review her billing statement and neglected her mails that contain her billing statement as well. Rebecca used her credit cards to make even routine purchases like using it to buy underwear, paying at a foot spa, bodyshop and others and because of that she has carrying a balance month to month. Rebecca’s buying habits have gotten her into a lot of debt. Becky’s credit problems are so bad that she is on the run from debt collectors and is even afraid to answer the phone. This shows how dangerous the use of credit if we do not monitor the transactions during making a purchase. c. Rebecca was able to pay off her debt by selling all her clothes, shoes, hats, and bags with the help of her friends from Shopaholic Anonymous and even auctioned her famous green scarf. Budgeting Rebecca does not even know the word budgeting. She was so addicted to shopping that she always forgets that her income is lower than her expenses which resulted to budget deficit. There was a scene where she still purchased a Barney’s dress which costs her entire first month salary. She has no plan and no control when it comes to her spending. There was a scene where she got surprised when she spent 900 dollars in a shopping spree after arriving her bill statement. Maybe this habit of hers has something to do with her childhood, young Becky felt she was deprived of material goods and left behind in a world filled with glitz and glam because of her parent’s frugality. This trigger Becky that when she grows up, she would buy everything that she wanted. Suze, her best friend wanted her to change this habit of hers so first they watch a video of a guy that advises people on how to control their urge to shop. The guy tells that the first thing they should do is to declutter. Instead, Rebecca vacuums seal majority of her clothes and stored it in the cabinet. The new mantra that Rebecca should always tell herself is “Do I need this” which is the first question you should ask yourself before buying anything. But none of this work for Rebecca as she is constantly drawn to go shopping wherever there is a sale and whenever there is an occasion, she would always buy new clothes or a new bag. Risks In the movie, Rebecca has lost her job as a journalist in a gardening magazine. The job is her only source of income and when she lost her job, she was devasted because she doesn’t know where to get the money to pay off her debts. Good thing she was renting the apartment with her best friend who was generous enough to not let Becky pay her rent after she learned that she lost her job. But what if Becky was not renting the apartment with her best friend? She would probably been kicked out by the landlord. Having no investments and other streams of income could get you in get you in trouble the moment you lost your only source of income. The movie also shows the risks of the credit cards if you left them unpaid. Rebecca was easily tempted to purchase anything that she wants because credit cards make them appear affordable until the moment the card got declined because it has reached its limit. Credit cards are indeed not magic cards. Every purchase you made has to be paid back.

There is also a risk when purchasing to clothing sales. Like in the movie, Rebecca was ripped off when she thought the cashmere sweater she bought were real....