Page 12 - Explore Your AAA – AAA Southern Pennsylvania – Winter 2022

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EXPLORE | SAFETY & SECURITY WINTER/HOLIDAY EDITION 2022
Financial Lessons to Learn from Your Favorite Holiday Movies
Some of our favorite holiday films that make us laugh, cry and provide us with the joy of Christmas spirit, can also be a guide to managing your money. Here, we take
a look at a few movies and what financial lessons we can learn.
Home Alone (1990)
Lesson Learned: Benefits of having complete home insurance.
If “Home Alone” were filmed in the connected world we live in today, Kevin McCallister would simply need to text his mom that he was home by himself and she would be able to get off that plane and come home to him sooner. The end.
Clearly that doesn’t make an exciting
storyline. Watching an 8-year-old spoil
two dim-witted robbers’ plans is highly
enjoyable. But thinking of all the damage
the “Wet Bandits” caused in not only the
McCallister household – partly because
of Kevin’s defense plan – but also in the surrounding homes they were able to vandalize, should make you think about your own home insurance coverage and security systems,
as break-ins do happen. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, summer is the peak season for burglaries, however, the holidays are an exception because of families traveling out of town. Check with your insurance agent to review your policy and make sure you have an adequate amount
of coverage.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, summer is the peak season for burglaries, however, the holidays are an exception because of families traveling out of town.
Roberto Valz | Shutterstock
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Lesson Learned: Don’t spend your paycheck before it’s in your bank account.
A “good old-fashioned family Christmas” is Clark Griswold’s hope for the holiday gathering, but as it is a National Lampoon feature, you know things are going to go hilariously awry. Throughout the film, Clark endures many gaffes, like accidentally being locked in the attic, welcoming uninvited guests into his home – including a squirrel and Cousin
Eddy – carving of the turkey and the famous Christmas lighting faux pas, but one of Clark’s many blunders should make you cringe.
Clark is so determined on surprising his family with a swimming pool for Christmas, that he writes a check for a deposit in hopes that his Christmas bonus will arrive soon. It’s only afterward that Clark finds out his bonus is a year subscription to the “Jelly of the Month Club” – or in Cousin Eddy’s words, “The gift that keeps on giving” – not the extra pay he was anticipating. He now doesn’t have the funds in his bank to cover the pool deposit. Of course, it all works out in the end, but this holiday season, don’t spend more than what you can afford.