Financial Wisdom from the Movie “UP”

If you ever want to get yourself to cry, watch the opening montage from the animated Pixar movie Up. It gets me every time.

It starts with newlyweds Carl and Ellie, a young couple in love, full of dreams of how their lives will unfold. New home, children, and, of course, many, many adventures.

Joyful and optimistic, Carl and Ellie do their best to save, tossing coins in a jar toward their dreams, and only dipping in when there’s a true emergency. But alas, emergencies continue to come. As with many of us, life gets in the way, as life tends to do.

If you’ve never seen the film, I promise it gets lighter and much funnier, but this first part is a tearjerker.

So what in the world does this fictional children’s movie have to do with you and your money? Surprisingly, the animated clip is quite profound and has so many financial and life lessons we can learn from:

1. The first lesson is the importance of emergency savings. While I recommend something more income producing than a jar in your living room (such as an online savings account earning 0.090-1.00%), this was nonetheless a smart move on Carl and Ellie’s part. It helped them out of situations that could have turned more catastrophic had they not have some savings.

The general rule of them is to hold at least the equivalent of 6-12 months worth of expenses. If you have credit card debt or student loan debt, you may want to pay these down first, but another good approach is to allocate a certain percentage to both debt-repayment and savings build-up so that both goals are being addressed simultaneously.

2. The second lesson is to be intentional with your money and have specific goals you are working toward. Although Carl and Ellie were unable to meet one of their goals at the end, having them was still important because it provided a financial focus and strategy.

Whenever possible, make goals detailed and tied to a specific dollar amount, so you have a clear idea of how well you are tracking toward them. It’s not enough to say “retirement”, “new home”, or “vacation.” Do some calculations and projections on your own or with the help of a financial professional so you know exactly what steps you need to take and when.

3. The third lesson is to re-visit. I’m projecting a bit here since, as talented as I am, I can’t read the minds of animated characters; but I imagine that each time Carl and Ellie dipped into their savings, they were assessing their values and choices.

Some of these choices probably seemed like they actually had no choice (for example, when their car broke down). But I wonder, at some point, could they have re-visited their financial obligations at different points of their life in order to accomplish others goals? For example, perhaps they could have downsized earlier, in order to fulfill their dream of travel? Could they have earned more money in a side-hustle, another job, or reduce their weekly expenditures?

Yes, life gets in the way (as in when their car breaks down and needs an immediate repair). But remember, there are always trade-offs and choices.

In your own financial plan, take time to evaluate areas such as discretionary spending and career choices. Even take time to evaluate expenses that seem to be “necessary,” like your mortgage, bills for groceries and dining out, clothing purchases, etc. – are these in really required expenses in alignment with your short- and long-term goals or can they also be reduced in order to accomplish other dreams you may have?

4. The fourth lesson is that money is important, but it’s not everything. Yes, Carl and Ellie needed to save and it’s a good thing they did. But in the end, they had a happy life in spite of falling short of one of their most important goals.

A 2010 Princeton study by Daniel Kahnerman and Agnus Deaton found that at the national level, making more than $75,000 per year does not significantly improve day-to-day happiness. Additional research shows that money spent on experiences, not things, increases happiness and overall satisfaction.

So, does that mean we should all aim for the $75,000 benchmark and be done with it? No, because it’s also true that having more income and savings increases one’s choices, which often equates to having more freedom.

But, I imagine that Carl and Ellie would say that it’s all a great big balancing act. They enjoyed their life, the simple pleasures that were available to them. They worked toward their goals, met some, had others fall short. In the end, it was still all a wonderful adventure.