Will a windfall of wealth find you prepared or ill-prepared?

When Robert Greene said,

Avoid the free lunch, it always has hidden obligations. The 48 Laws of Power - Robert Greene

I'm not sure I understood better. Often, I see and experience those tiny revelations in our relationship with people but it wasn't as strong and lesson-worthy as when I saw the movie, Dangerous Lies, today.

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You see, the way the events added up to the end made it feel as though one person orchestrated the whole thing. I was beginning to feel whoever it was was some sort of god because every turn of events went as though it was well planned.

It was too absolute to not be orchestrated by a god. But I guess just as the choices we make always alter what happens next, the universe had no choice but to deal the hand she did to the characters based on their choices and decisions.

The thing is Katie lost an old job at a diner, and got another one as a caretaker to an old man, Leonard, only for him to die a few weeks later. His death did not feel right to the detective and they tried to find a motive as to why anyone would want Leonard dead. Katie and her husband, Adam, had financial issues, anyone would think they both orchestrated the whole incident. Plus, Katie lost an old job because of a robbery which Adam had helped stop the robber from killing more people and got him arrested.

The fact that he was there at the time up till Katie's new job, made him look like a suspect. It turned out he wasn't. The partner of the fellow who robbed Katie's old store was. Only, the universe brought Katie all the way to the house where the stolen diamonds and money were kept. It was as though the universe wanted them to finish what her husband started at the diner.

Leonard dying. Gifting Katie a bigger pay the day before his death. Willing the house to her after he was cremated. And every turn of events was suspicious, to say the least. The detective could no longer ascertain the cause of his death because, by the time these things surfaced, the body had already been turned to ashes.

All of these aren't important to my post though. The part I am most interested in is the part where Leonard supposedly willed the house to Katie. It was shocking and to people who were financially strained, it was a relief to not only find money in the house but get to own the house as well. But the series of events that led up from there made Robert Greene's words true.

No one knew that the house was illegally willed to Katie, after all, Leonard had no family to claim the inheritance and it would have gone to the state anyway. It turned out that those who orchestrated the robbery also made sure the house stayed where they would see and find the stolen diamonds and money. So they willed the house to Katie. Now, that I think about it, I have a feeling they were trying to make sure the death would be pinned on her if anything went wrong with the plan.

Free things come with lots of obligations. Even the trailer of the movie says;

Sometimes fortune comes with a price. Dangerous Lies- 2020

Katie and her husband paid the price for having that house as theirs after Leonard died. Although Adam almost allowed the fever that comes with getting a windfall of money or inheritance to put a strain on their relationship, it worked out fine in the end, because the culprit behind the death of Leonard was caught... Dead, and Adam's name was cleared.

He had a wise woman in Katie because left to him he would have made the mistake of beginning to flaunt and spend the money excessively. His character is peculiar to anyone who has been in lack for so long that once they experience sudden wealth or abundance, they can't help but flaunt. But Katie helped him contain his financial weaknesses while they figured out the next line of action.

It's not everyone that gets into sudden wealth. Most people who do, are often back to where they started because they did not learn how to handle plenty. They had no history of financial education so they hadn't the faintest idea how to spread the money around in an investment portfolio that keeps them from paying huge taxes for the money they claimed. They had no idea how to make the money work for them instead of walking them back to poverty.

So the question isn't always if wealth will find us, the question we should ask and try to answer is if wealth will find us prepared to maneuver the ropes and grow it instead of destroying our newfound fortune.