I’ve been reading Rich Dad’s book series on and off now for a year or two. Today I just finished “The Cashflow Quadrant” and decided to have my first go at the “Cashflow 101” board game also produced by Robert Kiyosaki’s company. Am I really a millionaire? No. However tonight, in “monopoly money” I did become one. This story is about my first experience playing this wonderful, financial education board game. (Wait – that sounds boring!) I mean, I will tell you how I became a millionaire in only 2.5 hours! It’s super late, so I won’t be too detail oriented tonight. But in case you are personally interested in investing in your financial education, this write-up can be a data point for you.
So, the premise of the game is that you start out in some “rat race” job. You can either grind your way through life like most of us do hoping your savings will be enough to cover your retirement when you get old. Or you can reinvest your hard earned dollars into cash-generating assets, like rental houses. The game teaches you how to understand your own personal financial statements (yes, just like underwear we all have them… or we should).
I picked the “starter financial statement” of a generic Engineer, because I’m an Engineer. Hey, I’m playing an educational board game at 8:45 on a Wednesday night… alone. My lack of imagination is not what is wrong here. Anyhow, I copy the financial data from the generic Engineer’s card to my own paper copy of a financial statement template. The game has example financial data for Doctors, Teachers, Mechanics, etc…, so you don’t have to make that stuff up. Shown here are my financial statements (in their final form at the end of the game):
I start out with no assets and a standard stack of common liabilities – mortgage, loans, etc… I spend two hours in the Rat Race circle on the board. See the photo at the top of the article. That is a monthly cycle of generating your work income, paying the bills, while carving off some savings into a pile that you can use to invest in cash-generating assets. After 2 solid hours, I’ve grinded my way out of the Rate Race circle and finally make it into the Fast Track. I “get out of the rat race” by getting my monthly “passive income” to be larger than my “total expenses”. So in the financial statement above, I am generating $3800 in passive income that will pay for my $3710 of total monthly expenses. Sweet. This particular part of the game seems painfully real, as it took me quite a while of die rolling and accepting/rejecting investment opportunities to pull it off. As shown above, I was able to do this by buying and selling my way up to a 24 unit apartment building, a 3/2 rental house, and a 4 plex. Those assets generated my passive income.
Into the Fast Track, which has a 100x game mechanic to launch you into deals in the hundred-thousand dollar range, the deals are bigger, and your overall goal is to get your additional cashflow from cash-generating assets to over $50K/month. The Fast Track is that larger rectangular path on the board. By 11PM, I have gotten my $50K/month in additional income with a couple lucky rolls of the die and by having some decent cash reserves that I use to take advantage of investment opportunities. And just when I think I’m bullet proof to hit the finish line, two rolls later, I get divorced:
Yep. I’m flat broke. Life is a highway. So in this situation, I have to give all my cash up, but my cash-generating assets are still in full force. (I expect in real life my spouse would get half of everything or more.) With those assets, I bounce back pretty quickly and by 11:15PM, I am able to fulfill my “dream” of founding a school that teaches financial intelligence to kiddos:
Pretty sweet. Although I pulled out the board game to take the next step in learning what Robert has to offer, I got a good laugh out of the “divorce drama” and roller coaster feeling from the Fast Track and figured you might enjoy it too. I have learned a few things in doing the game, and I plan to play more. I even hope to go to one of the Cashflow Club meetups one day, when I have more time, where they are said to play this game as a way of self-teaching in a group/community atmosphere.
Overall I really enjoy Robert’s books, and I recommend them to you, if you are interested in seeing how one guy says you can change your and your children’s financial futures. To date I have read:
I confess I listen to them on Audible as I drive to work, and this particular narrator (Tim Wheeler) is terrific. A narrator can help or hamper a book, and this one is quite comfortable to listen to. Of course like every recommendation, this write up is just a data point. You are in charge of your own financial future.
Anyway, although I am rich in monopoly money, I am normal in real money. Tomorrow morning, it’s back to the Rat Race…
Anyone out there tried this?