Wealthy Ever After

An ending trope, where the protagonists become rich.

Usually, the writers want to avoid the Family-Unfriendly Aesop that money can buy happiness, so this is only added after the generic Happy Ending tropes, such as love, or family, so it is not actually money that makes them happy, but it surely doesn't hurt either.

It might be an example of Sweet and Sour Grapes, if the characters just learned the Aesop that there are more important things than money, but they get rich anyways.

Compare If I Were a Rich Man.

Comic Books

 * Inverted in the classic Daredevil story, "Born Again" where Matt Murdock is ruined by the Kingpin when he learns his enemy's Secret Identity. The Kingpin is eventually defeated and disgraced, but feels he at least made Murdock miserable by impoverishing him while he plans to strike at him again. However, when you see in the final panel of Matt and Karen being happy in their situation, you'll know the Kingpin has truly lost.

Fairy Tales
"Bluebeard had no heirs, and so his wife became mistress of all his estate. She made use of one part of it to marry her sister Anne to a young gentleman who had loved her a long while; another part to buy captains commissions for her brothers, and the rest to marry herself to a very worthy gentleman, who made her forget the ill time she had passed with Bluebeard."
 * In Catherine and Her Fate, a rich merchant's daughter is asked whether she would rather be happy in youth or age. When she chooses age, her father loses his wealth and dies, and she lives in poverty, but she ends up marrying a wealthy king.
 * In "Jack and the Beanstalk", the gold Jack steals from the giant makes him and his mother rich.
 * "Bluebeard" ends with the heroine rich.

"And as they had no longer any cause for fear, they went in the old hag's house, and here they found, in every corner of the room, boxes with pearls and precious stones. "These are even better than pebbles," said Hansel, and crammed his pockets full of them; and Gretel said: "I too will bring something home," and she filled her apron full."
 * "Hansel and Gretel" return home with money.

"The old man led him back into the castle, and in a cellar showed him three chests full of gold. "Of these," said he, "one part is for the poor, the other for the king, the third is thine.""
 * In The Peasant and the Devil, the peasant outwits the devil to lay claim to treasure in his field without giving anything for it.
 * In The Boy Who Went Out to Learn What Fear Was, staying the house three nights wins him treasure as well as the king's reward.


 * In Thirteenth, Thirteenth is given treasure by the king.

Film

 * Run Lola Run. Lola wins a ton of cash from a casino to help her boyfriend, who had a bag of money that he was supposed to deliver to a mob boss stolen by a homeless man. But before she can give him the money, her boyfriend runs into the homeless man and takes back the money, so they end up with more money than they need.
 * Paycheck ended with the protagonists winning $90 million lottery. By seeing the future.
 * It Could Happen To You: In a beautiful twist, they were destitute, but took in a homeless man to give him soup when they could ill afford to share anything. That homeless man was a reporter for the NY Times who described them as kind, gentle people who were not bitter they'd been made destitute. And then the donations came pouring in, making them rich again. Meanwhile, the selfish harpy that took all their money gets all of it stolen by a con man and is forced to move back in with her mother and return to her old job in a nail salon.
 * Though they seem to just use the money to keep helping people and both of them go back to their menial but rewarding jobs.
 * National Treasure had the museums paying 1% of the treasure's value to the protagonists. It was stated a few times the treasure was worth about $10 billion US dollars, so even 1% set them for life.
 * Slumdog Millionaire, anyone?
 * In Atlantis the Lost Empire, the real reason why the explorers went to Atlantis is just so they can help the villain become rich. However, at the end of the film, said explorers turn to the hero to stop said villain and save Atlantis, yet they still end up rich because of this, judging by their clothing the last time we see them.
 * The end of The Mummy 1999 finds Rick and Evy riding off into the sunset on a camel that is, unbeknownst to them, loaded down with treasures. Their giant house in the sequel indicates that they've made a pretty good living with the grave robbing.
 * When Marty McFly fixes his parents' past in Back to The Future, he returns to a present where his father George is a wealthy science fiction author. Interestingly this ending didn't sit right with Crispin Glover (George's actor), who felt it sent the wrong message and didn't return for the sequels.

Literature

 * The 500 Hats Of Bartholomew Cubbins
 * In the Doctor Who Expanded Universe novel The Gallifrey Chronicles, former companion Anji turns out to have become one of the richest women in Britain because Trix, while traveling with the Doctor, managed to send her financial information from the future. Since Fitz and Trix have decided (for the time being, anyway) that they want to settle down together, she cuts them in on it.
 * The Warlock O' Glenwarlock by George Mac Donald (alternative title: The Laird's Inheritance) ends with Cosmo Warlock discovering a great treasure within the walls of the family keep. After, of course, learning that money doesn't really matter if you have faith in God and a good heart.
 * Jack and the Beanstalk, making this trope Older Than Radio
 * Sara Crewe from A Little Princess, after Mr Carrisford finds her and adopts her and the investment that her father had put into was actually worth much, much more than they thought.
 * By the end of Mara Daughter of the Nile, Mara has realized that there are things that are far more important to her then freedom and gold, her motivations at the beginning. However, she ends up receiving both of them anyway, one through a boon of the new king, and the other through marrying her love, Count Sheftu.
 * At the end of the final book in Dean Koontz' Frankenstein series, wins the lottery.
 * The Egyptian tale "The Eloquent Peasant," from the Middle Kingdom, apparently ends with the protagonist Hunanup richly compensated for his troubles and rewarded for his eloquence with numerous goods confiscated from the household of Djehuty-nekht, the man who had wronged him.
 * Marius and Cosette at the end of Les Misérables when Jean Valjean gives them all the money he earned while he was mayor of Montreuil-sur-mer. Marius' aunt and grandfather are very pleased; Marius and Cosette themselves are too absorbed in their love to take any notice.

Live-Action TV

 * This would have been the ending to Only Fools and Horses, if it hadn't been brought back five years later.
 * Comically subverted in The Young Ones episode "Cash", where a lorry full of money crashes into the Young Ones' house, apparently solving their financial problems forever, until the house and money get blown up.
 * Outrageous Fortune
 * In the Doctor Who episode The End of Time,.
 * The last few episodes of Roseanne.
 * Wings ended with Joe and Brian finding money left to them by their father, then having to decide how best to use it.

Theater

 * Annie ends this way.
 * The Taming of the Shrew ends with Petruchio and Katerina winning a bet, adding twenty thousand plus one hundred crowns to the dowry Petruchio was after in the first place.