Financial planning is a key theme of Hamilton, the blockbuster musical about the first secretary of the Treasury. The client is the newly independent United States. The challenge is to craft a financial plan that keeps the client honest about spending, managing debt and getting on track for financial freedom. “Cabinet Battle #1” takes the form of a hip-hop debate between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson as they argue about a central bank for the new nation and how to manage the national debt and the debts of the individual states.

CABINET BATTLE #1

[JEFFERSON]

This financial plan is an outrageous demand
And it’s too many damn pages for any man to understand.

[HAMILTON]

Would you like to join
Us, or stay mellow
Doin’ whatever the hell it
Is you do in Monticello?
If we assume the debts, the union gets
A new line of credit,
A financial diuretic

Hamilton opened: Aug. 6, 2015

Number of performances: 1,919

Composer: Lin-Manuel Miranda (music and lyrics)

Perhaps the most enduring musical in history, Hello, Dolly! opened in 1964 and has been revived on Broadway four times, most recently with Bette Midler in the title role in 2017. The musical follows the story of Dolly Gallagher Levi, a strong-willed matchmaker, as she travels to Yonkers, N.Y., to find a match for the rich but miserly Horace Vandergelder. The song “Penny in My Pocket” was dropped from the original Broadway production during tryouts but restored in the 2017 revival. Advisors often try to communicate the benefits of dividend reinvestment. In the song, Horace recounts that the source of all his wealth was a single penny, wisely invested and reinvested, thereby illustrating the truth that all great accomplishments start with a simple asset invested with dedication (and often a bit of luck).

PENNY IN MY POCKET

[HORACE VANDERGELDER]

I put a penny in my pocket
And in a little time, that penny in my pocket had grown into a dime
And in a little longer
A quarter jingled out
So I put the quarter in the teapot and I waited until the teapot had a dollar in the spout

I put the dollar in my mattress and had some pleasant dreams
Till’ suddenly my mattress was bursting at the seams
And that is how I acquired the wealth I now possess
That little penny was the secret, yes that penny was the secret of my success

Hello, Dolly! opened: Jan. 16, 1964

Number of performances: 2,844

Composer: Jerry Herman (music and lyrics)

It’s 1905 in Czarist Russia. A precarious setting for Tevye and his Jewish neighbors. Tevye is a poor milkman. Poverty is staring him in the face, but he can dream about being wealthy. As Tevye imagines the material comforts that money would bring, we learn that his goals are very concrete. He imagines a tin roof above and a real wooden floor below. He imagines servants to help his wife with the chores. Keeping goals concrete and realistic makes them easier to achieve. To add an emotional wallop, Tevye’s ultimate goal is simply to have more leisure to study and pray. “If I Were a Rich Man” is a moving example of what funded contentment looks like.

IF I WERE A RICH MAN

[TEVYE]

I’d build a big tall house with rooms by the dozen
Right in the middle of the town,
A fine tin roof with real wooden floors below.
There would be one long staircase just going up
And one even longer coming down,
And one more leading nowhere, just for show.

Fiddler on the Roof opened: Sept. 22, 1964

Number of performances: 3,242

Composers: Jerry Bock (music) and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics)

The setting of Gypsy is show business. We’re in the uneasy transition between vaudeville and burlesque. Late in the musical we meet three strippers who in “You Gotta Get a Gimmick,” illustrate the benefits of competitive advantage and product differentiation. Financial advisors operate in a commodity-like market with low barriers to entry and multiple competitors. As a result, the most successful operators have a gimmick or customer focus that differentiates their services in a positive way.

YOU GOTTA GET A GIMMICK

[STRIPPERS]

Do something special
Anything that’s special
You’re more than just a mimic
When you got a gimmick
Take a look how different we are
So get yourself a gimmick and you, too,
Can be a star!

Gypsy opened: May 21, 1959

Number of performances: 702

Composers: Jule Styne (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics)

The Pajama Game takes place in a pajama factory where there is a labor conflict between the workers’ union and factory management. The union demands a general wage increase of seven and a half cents per hour. As the workers consider the implications of the raise, in “Seven and a Half Cents,” they longingly identify the many things—a washing machine, carpeting, a TV, a car—they could buy if they save the increase in wages. It’s moving to watch the workers making calculations to the penny as they create their budgets for one, five and even 20 years out. The song is a good illustration of how specific goals can be achieved by saving and budgeting. The song would be even more realistic if it also considered compound interest—one of the wonders of the world.

SEVEN AND A HALF CENTS

[WORKERS]

Seven and a half cents doesn’t buy a heck of a lot,
Seven and a half cents doesn’t mean a thing!
But give it to me every hour,
Forty hours every week,
And that’s enough for me to be living like a king!

The Pajama Game opened: Nov. 24, 1956

Number of performances: 1,063

Composers: Richard Adler (music) and Jerry Ross (lyrics)

While this lighthearted recounting of the Bible story of Joseph and his brothers is geared to children, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat illustrates an important lesson about hedging risk in light of varying business cycles. Joseph has emerged as a leader in Egypt as Pharaoh counts on him to interpret a terrifying dream about seeing seven ears of grain “plump and good” growing from one stalk only to be devoured by sickly stalks. In “Pharaoh’s Dream Explained,” Joseph explains that the dream anticipates that seven years of plenty will be followed by seven years of famine. He further recommends Pharaoh set aside one-fifth of the crop to ease the bad times. It may be the first risk-management/hedging strategy ever recorded. In macroeconomic terms, Joseph articulates countercyclical policy, in which excess from a boom economy cushions a subsequent slump.

PHARAOH’S DREAM EXPLAINED

[JOSEPH]

And I’m sure it’s crossed your mind
What it is you have to find
Find a man to lead you through the famine
With a flair for economic planning
But who this man would be I just don’t know

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat opened: Jan. 27, 1982

Number of performances: 727

Composers: Andrew Lloyd Webber (music) and Tim Rice (lyrics)

Matilda the Musical is the story of Matilda, a precocious 5-year-old girl with the gift of telekinesis. In “Bruce,” the evil principal of the school discovers that one of Matilda’s friends has stolen a piece of cake. As punishment, the sadistic principal forces Bruce to eat an entire cake, illustrating the concept of diminishing marginal utility. The first slice of cake can be tasty; people are eager to pay for the privilege. The second slice is not nearly as valuable. After a few more slices, the additional (marginal) utility from one more slice can be negative—that is, a person would need to be paid to eat an extra slice of cake.

Financial advisors understand that for most clients, delivering more and more gains is perceived with incrementally less value. If a client has no wealth, it’s a big deal to go from $0 to $100,000 (a gain of $100,000). A gain of the same magnitude from a base of $1 million, not so much. The law of diminishing marginal utility shows that identical wealth increases produce different impacts.

BRUCE

[MISS TRUNCHBULL]

Wonderful. Marvelous. That makes me so happy. It gives me a warm glow in my lower intestine. Oh, cook
What’s the matter, Bogtrotter? Lost your appetite?

[BRUCE]

Well, yes. I’m full

[MISS TRUNCHBULL]

Oh, no, you are not “full.”
I’ll tell you when you are full.
And I say that criminals like you are
Not full until you have eaten the entire cake

Matilda, The Musical opened: April 11, 2013

Number of performances: 1,555

Composer: Tim Minchin (music and lyrics)

Based on Mel Brooks’ raucous movie, The Producers tells the story of two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich by fraudulently overselling interests in a play carefully selected to be a big flop so they can pocket the oversold investments. Of course, the producers, including accountant Leo Bloom, get in trouble because Springtime for Hitler becomes a hit, and all the investors expect their payouts. In “I Wanna Be a Producer,” Bloom entertains the thought of quitting his boring but secure job for the high-risk-high-reward work of a Broadway producer. At the end of the song, Bloom quits the accounting firm. The song illustrates opportunity cost—the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one particular alternative is chosen.

I WANNA BE A PRODUCER

[LEO BLOOM]

I wanna be a producer
With a hit show on Broadway
I wanna be a producer
Lunch at Sardi’s every day

The Producers opened: April 19, 2001

Number of performances: 2,502

Composer: Mel Brooks (music and lyrics)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes doesn’t play well with contemporary gender politics. In fact, its sugar daddy theme makes mounting any production today unworkable. Based on a 1925 novel by Anita Loos, the story follows Lorelei Lee, a not-so-naïve “little girl” from Arkansas as she makes her way to Paris to perform in a nightclub. It’s at that nightclub, after many interactions with men who promise more than they can deliver, that Lorelei belts out a song illustrating that while offers of stocks and apartment leases may be grand, in the end, when the going gets rough, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” It’s a good reminder that it may be wise to diversify investment portfolios with gold or other hard assets.

DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND

[LORELEI LEE]

He’s your guy
When stocks are high
But beware when they start to descend
It’s then that those louses
Go back to their spouses
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes opened: Dec. 8, 1949

Number of performances: 740

Composers: Jule Styne (music) and Leo Robin (lyrics)

Evita recounts the life of Argentine political leader Eva Perón, the wife of Argentine President Juan Perón. She becomes a beloved political figure by giving away money in a lottery disguised as philanthropy. “And the Money Kept Rolling In” illustrates a tactic well known by politicians: Use tax money to pay off supporters. The problem is that it isn’t its own money that the Eva Perón Foundation distributes. By hiding the source of the money, Eva can’t help but be corrupted and accept that much of the funds go astray. The song illustrates the folly of lotteries and the diligence we all must pay to avoid governments that look to nontransparent distribution schemes for support.

AND THE MONEY KEPT ROLLING IN

[CHE GUEVARA]

And the money kept rolling out in all directions
To the poor, to the weak, to the destitute of all complexions
Now cynics claim a little of the cash has gone astray
But that’s not the point my friends

When the money keeps rolling out you don’t keep books
You can tell you’ve done well by the happy, grateful looks
Accountants only slow things down, figures get in the way
Never been a lady loved as much as Eva Perón

Evita opened: Sept. 25, 1979

Number of performances: 1,567

Composers: Andrew Lloyd Webber (music) and Tim Rice (lyrics)