Money is essential, but there's so much we aren't taught about it.

In fact, while I was in college, I've racked up $20,000 in credit card debt on top of my student loan.

That was all before I actually learned anything about money.

I'm Janelia Spinal, an online new podcast financially inclined from Marketplace.

I'll teach you simple money lessons so you don't make the same mistakes I did.

Listen to financially inclined wherever you get your podcasts.

Truth be told wherever you get your podcasts.

So I'd argue that one of the most defining pieces of cinema from our time is the 2004 classic

Mean Girls. Because while it may be a light-hearted movie about drama and girlhood,

it's also really about all the ways money and status warp our sense of identity.

We're the plastics. 13 royalty. If North Shore was us weekly, they would always be on the cover.

The plastics, of course, is the coveted cool girl clique that runs North Shore High School.

And just like in countless other teen movies like Clueless or Never Been Kissed,

cool is really a synonym for rich. Regina George is flawless. She has two

fendee persons and is still the Lexus. I hear her hairs in shirt for $10,000. I hear she does

car commercials in Japan. And in the way that each class and society seems to have an arbitrary

set of rules, so do the plastics. So we all know how the movie ends. Katie Heron are

favorite protagonists. Tries really hard to navigate this elite world of the plastics.

She's desperate to signal that she belongs. Until of course, she realizes she doesn't need to be

anyone but herself. The social hierarchy is upended and everyone is friends. More or

less, they don't hate each other. It's a nice idea that we outgrow worrying about how other

people perceive us, especially when it comes to our class or income. But off screen, yeah,

...