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Do you indulge in splurging or over-spending? Do your parents or your spouse complain that you spend too much? Do you find that you actually charged more than you thought in your credit card bills? Do you find your room cluttered with things you don’t use? Do you sometimes end up buying something even though you only intended to window shop? If you answer yes for any of these questions, you may suffer from one or more of the following splurger-syndrome:

1) “Ooo shiny thing” splurger
This splurger spends on high-tech gadgets and will buy anything new in the market every month.
Symptoms are:
- “This one comes with the newest ______ (fill in the blank) feature which my old one doesn’t”
- “With this, I don’t have to carry so many gadgets because it’s all-in-one” (and he still carries his old gadgets)
- “All my colleagues have this PDA/MP3 Player/phone/etc, I must have it too”

2) “It’s soooo cheap” splurger
It’s easy to get this splurger’s attention with the words “on sale”, they will buy anything even when it’s totally useless because “it’s sooo cheap”.
Symptoms are:
- “I bought another pair of sunglasses (to add to my 23rd collection) because it was on sale”
- “I just had to get it because it’s sooo cheap”
- “I don’t think I’ll ever you use it, but it’s such a bargain, I can make it a gift for friends” (but never does)

3) The depressed splurger
They go on a shopping frenzy to get over their depression only to find out how much they have charged to their credit cards at the end of the month
Symptoms are:
- “I deserve it after a bad day at work”
- “Shopping makes me feel better”

4) The designer splurger
These type of splurger wants everything branded. Some certainly can afford it, some can’t but still only buys designer brands. They are even happier if it comes in instalment payment.
Symptoms are:
- “I bought this Gucci handbag to match my Patek Phillippe”
- “My credit card company offered an easy instalment payment to own a Tag Heuer, I just had to go for it!”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It’s an impulsive behaviour that most of us have thanks to the constant attack of the media ads that tell us we are missing something in order for our lives to be better. To overcome impulse, you must learn to differenciate your needs from your wants. To reduce your impulse spending, try some of these methods:

1) When you see things you like, don’t buy them first, write them down then go home. After a few days or weeks, look back at your list. Often times, you will realize that you don’t need any of the items on the list.

2) Pay by cash. When you use credit cards to charge for items, it doesn’t “feel” that you are spending because you just sign and get back your card. However, if you pay by cash, you won’t spend more than what you have, and you may change your mind when reality hits you on the head that you are “really” spending on things that you don’t need.

Learn to control your spending habits by knowing what you need and want and you’ll be far ahead financially.

The objective of this article is very simple – to teach you to Pay Yourself First. Although a very common advice in the financial planning world, not many people practice this simple but powerful wealth-building technique. If you find yourself wondering what you spent that paycheck on at the end of every month, here are 3 extremely simple steps to start NOW:

1) Decide on an amount
Many financial planners suggest to save 10% of your pay, if you can’t put that much away, then you should start with as much as possible and gradually increasing that to at least 10% or more. At the meantime, also try tracking your every expense for 3 months and you’ll be amazed at what unnecessary expenditure you have. In no time, you’ll be able to pay yourself more than 10% or more.

2) Have it on auto-pilot
Have your money transferred to another account automatically each month. If you think you will be tempted to use those funds you save up, make that account less accessible by cutting up the ATM or debit card associated to it.

3) Build wealth on the money you save up
Once you have developed your investment plan, you can use these funds that you saved up to build your wealth. Imagine if you save $150 per month invested at a rate of 10% annual return =

1 year = $1,885
2 years = $3,967
5 years =$11,616
10 years = $30,727
15 years = $62,171
30 years = $339,073
40 years = $948,611!!!!

What are you waiting for? Give yourself a raise and pay yourself first!

Cashflow 101 E-game is the pc game version of the popular financial education board game, Cashflow 101. To those of you who are unfamiliar with who Robert Kiyosaki is, he is the author of the best-selling book: Rich Dad, Poor Dad. The objective of Cashflow 101 E-game is to get out of the rat race and into the fast track to achieve your dream, that is, to achieve financial freedom. As a person who has never played the real Cashflow board game before, I find the digital/software version pretty interesting and quite addictive. At first impression, the e-game was amazing in graphics but needs more improvements in the background music and game options.

Visit the Rich Dad store to see customer reviews of Cashflow 101 E-game or get info on the real cashflow board game.

Throughout your journey to achieve your dream, there will be two characters accompanying you. They are Red E. Rat (RR) and Timid T. Turtle (TT), RR serves as your mentor (Voice by Robert Kiyosaki himself) and TT is pretty much a newbie in financial literacy. Sometimes during the game, TT will ask RR questions about bank loans, brokers, etc and RR will answer them from a Rich Dad point of view. Both TT and RR will react to the choices you make (for e.g. if you made a good buy, RR or TT will give a thumbs up!). Furthermore, you’ll be required to fill in your financial statements (balance sheet and income statement) with the right items, so as to get you familiar with balancing your cashflow accounts and differentiating assets from liabilities. In this computer version, it’s an easy click-and-drag of the items to financial statements. I heard from cashflow board game players that playing the board game is more "tedious" but it provides a better learning experience because you do your own calculations and fill in your cashflow statement with a good ol’ pencil.

At the main menu, you will be given an option whether you want to play in single player, multiplayer or hot-seat multi-player mode. Hot-seat multiplayer means you can play with more than 1 player on your own computer. As for the multiplayer mode, a subscription is necessary to play over the internet.

The game also allows you to have access to all of Robert’s videos, it can also be watched during the game when you need help. I find this a bonus as the videos are conducted by Robert Kiyosaki himself.

Before the game starts, you will be given a random profession. You can be a lawyer, k-12 teacher, etc. Each profession has different salary, expenses and debts when you start the game, giving different playing experiences. A lawyer has a higher salary, but more expensive education loans to pay off, more expensive car & house loans, etc.

The Rat Race
At the rat race, there will be these squares:

Opportunities

When a player lands on this square, the player will be given a choice of “Big Deal” and “Small Deal”. The small deals are less than $5,000 – Certificate of Deposits, stocks, small residential houses, etc. The big deals exceeds $5000 and includes deals for apartments, plexes, businesses, etc.

Paycheck
When a player steps on or crosses this square, the player will receive a pay check/ net monthly income

Downsize
The player will have to pay an amount equal to the total expenses and lose 3 turns.

Baby
Your monthly expenses will increase because you have to feed your new baby. Baby expenses depends on which profession you have.

Doodad
These are mostly one-off expenses which are small unnecessary/luxury items we buy (watches, fancy dinner) to big items which requires loans like boats.

Market
In this square, you’ll know that a buyer is looking for properties or business. You get to sell your property or business if it matches the card.

Charity
In the rat race, you can only roll one dice. Unless you donate 10% of your income to charity, you get to roll up to two dices

Once your passive income exceeds your expenses, then you shall
proceed to the fast track. Although this sounds very easy when I first started, I lost about 4 times before I was able to finally reach the fast track.

The Fast Track

Your income in fast track is nothing like the income you get in the rat race, your income will be in hundred thousands. I find the fast track too… well, too easy. You’ll never need a loan in the fast track. Except for losing all the cash and unable to purchase anything, it doesn’t really matter at all because you’ll eventually get back your monthly income. The deals in the fast track are, of course, higher in price. You’ll be buying franchises, IPOs, etc, etc. Most of the time, the FIRST person who reaches the fast track will also be the FIRST to win the whole race… except in some rare cases that the first person keeps losing money and can’t buy his dream or assets which generate passive income. On the fast track, the winner is determined based on how fast you are able to buy your dream or get $50,000 in passive income.

Rants

Although the game has its educational values, being a person who enjoys playing computer games I have to criticize on some of the game options aspects. Personally, I find it annnoying to have to click “ok” everytime the computer players draw a card or rolls the dice. Also, the animation (like rat walking on the board after dice is thrown) is repetitive, I’d like to have the option to turn it off. At the end of the game, the top 3 winners are shown with their respective scores, and I have no idea how these scores are calculated!

Wish list

Here’s my wish list:
- A choice to turn off the TT and RR characters.
- Choice to turn off the animation of the rat walking on the
board everytime the dice is thrown
- Option to disable the need for me to click “ok” everytime a computer player rolls the dice or draws a card
- More conversation dialogues between TT and RR
- More variety of background music

Overall Conclusion
So did Cashflow 101 E-game teach me a lesson in financial education? It sure did! I didn’t mind taking out a loan to finance my real estate as long as it gave positive cashflow. I grunge when I step on the “downsize” square, NOT because I have to pay an amount equal to my expenses, but because I won’t have the chance to step on any “opportunity” squares to increase my passive income for 3 whole rounds! After playing the game a few times, I wasn’t worried about the amount of money I have and I easily build my passive income through good debt. However, I think the real Cashflow board game is more flexible because players can make up their own rules to add more "real-world" situations in the game, I guess this is what the cashflow 101 e-game is lacking. But Cashflow 101 E-game is great for beginners, furthermore it is cheaper than the Cashflow board game and you can with computer players when you are alone.

Visit the website to see customer reviews of Cashflow 101 E-game or get info on the cashflow board game.

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“You know, Robert said… ”
“Robert says people like me should…”

…When my colleague was first introduced to the “Think it, Learn it, Do it – Choose to be Rich” audio program, she started referring to Robert Kiyosaki (best known as the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad) as if he was a close friend. She just loves listening to him, it is of no surprise that her husband eventually became jealous of “Bob”.

The program is perfect for everyone, people who are new to Rich Dad Poor Dad will also enjoy it. Some may say that this is just an audio program that repeats his ideas from his previous books, but I find the program very enlightening even though I have read all his Rich Dad Series. There’s more human warmth to it than the books. The best part in the course which I love is Robert and Kim (Robert’s wife) sharing their experiences of their journey to achieve financial freedom. You can feel their emotions when listening to both of them speak. Kim is often mentioned briefly in Robert’s book… you can see a picture of her and Robert horseback riding on the back cover of the book “Retire Young, Retire Rich”. She’s rarely seen or heard of in the public, that’s why I am delighted that Kim is involved in this audio program.

The scope of the program should be highly regarded. “Choose to be Rich” also includes Robert’s team of advisors (mostly authors of the “Rich Dad Advisor Series”) Micheal Lechtor, Sharon Lechtor, Diane Kennedy, Dolf De Roos and Blair Singer. All of whom shares their area of expertise and also their personal stories. Different business models are discussed: franchising, network marketing, traditional businesses and also different investment vehicles such as real estate, paper trading, mutual funds, etc.

Like all Robert Kiyosaki’s products, “Choose to be Rich” isn’t a how-to program but rather, it provokes our thoughts on the subject of wealth and our status quo with ideas out of the norm. Overall, “Choose to be Rich” is a very comprehensive program, it is very interesting and engaging and it does open your mind to a new way of thinking. I’d say it’ll be worth your investment.

When I first saw the name “The Automatic Millionaire”, I shunned away because I thought the title sounded like a get-rich-quick audio book. However, after listening to a few samples at nightingale conant’s, the advice given by David Bach is actually very down-to-earth and extremely simple to implement…. so simple that I can’t imagine I have not been doing it all these time. I’m glad I bought it.

David’s enthusiasm makes the audio program always interesting, I just love listening to him. It’s not a program on how to make more money, but about wisely using and keeping your money using simple, baby steps. However, there are some sections of the audio that talks about 401k plans or IRA which doesn’t concern residents outside US.

But overall, David gave numerous useful tips such as his famous latte factor.

Buy The Automatic Millionaire!

A year has gone by since the introduction of cashflow 101 e-game, and the long awaited Cashflow 202 e-game has finally been released. Cashflow 202 e-game takes you to the next step of financial skills, it teaches you the advanced skills of technical investing – make money even when the market is going down with stock and real estate options and short selling.

You need to have Cashflow 101 e-game in order to play cashflow 202 e-game, if you don’t have Cashflow 101 e-game.. read that review here

Visit the Rich Dad store to see customer reviews of Cashflow 202 E-game or get info on the real cashflow board game.

Okay, enough with the introduction… on with the review.

Installation part was a bit confusing, but this won’t happen to you if you read this review.
When I popped the disc into my computer, the auto-play screen came up with a default installation directory which I assumed to be correct.

However, after the installation, I was unable to run cashflow 202 e-game! Why? Because it’s suppose to be installed in the same directory as 101!

Note: I received my copy of cashflow 202 when it was only sold to richdad Insiders, I hope this problem is fixed when it’s sold to the public.

The introduction movie follows the same style as cashflow 101, great animation/graphics but virtually no background music. The movie, however, does a good job telling us that it’s for experienced cashflow 101 gamers (Mr. rat (that’s us) complained to Timid T. Turtle that he needed more adventure after getting out of the rat race.

Now for the Interesting Part, The Game

202 introduces a new character, Mr. Weasel. He’s sleezy, slimy and cunning but like all cashflow characters, he is adorable. Cashflow 202 e-game is definitely harder, I went bankrupt in a few minutes the first I played it. If you are a regular player of cashflow 101, you can easily guess the next stock price. My circle of cashflow friends always lend money to buy stocks at low, low prices then they’d wait and hold till the highest price comes up. Good thing is… you can’t do that in Cashflow 202. The stock price is random! And sometimes the company stock you buy may go bankrupt,
playing 202 can give me heart-attack sometimes.

Changes in Cashflow 202
The backdrop and background music has changed to a much jazzy-feel to it. Cashflow 202 doesn’t use the term “big deals” and “small deals” anymore, it is changed to “cashflow”; and “capital gain”.

More significant changes:
Options & short selling
202 introduces puts and call options, real estate options and short-selling. I’ve studied these in theory when studying in college, it was pretty boring calculating them in classes but fun and interesting when applying them in practice on cashflow 202.

Real-time Stock Ticker
Check the charts for stocks you bought and sell it anytime you want.

Player Financial Statement
Instead of starting the game with different salary, players also start with different debts and assets. Don’t be suprised to find out that you already hold some amount of stocks.

Doodads
Furthermore doodads aren’t one-off expenses like in 101, most of the doodads in 202 require you to add to your monthly expenses (Ouch!).

Conclusion
Although for some minor bugs in the installation part, Cashflow 202 e-game is a great game at teaching personal finance, if you think that 202 doesn’t make any significant improvements to Cashflow 101.. then you are very wrong. If you are a seasoned player of cashflow 101 e-game, then you really should get this. 101 is boring compared to 202.

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Cashflow 101 Board Game teaches financial education board game made by Robert Kiyosaki. To those of you who are unfamiliar with who Robert Kiyosaki is, he is the author of the best-selling book: Rich Dad, Poor Dad. The objective of Cashflow 101 is to get out of the rat race and into the fast track to achieve your dream, that is, to achieve financial freedom.

Visit the Rich Dad store to see customer reviews of Cashflow 101 E-game or get info on the real cashflow board game.

In the game, you’ll be required to fill in your financial statements (balance sheet and income statement) with the right items, so as to get you familiar with balancing your cashflow accounts and differentiating assets from liabilities. It may be a bit tedious especially when time is limited and everybody acts fast, a deal may come up when you are still writing your assets down in your balance sheet. However, it provides a great learning experience because you do your own calculations and fill in your cashflow statement with a good ol’ pencil.

Before the game starts, you will be given a profession card: you can be a lawyer, k-12 teacher, etc. Each profession has different salary, expenses and debts when you start the game, giving different playing experiences. A lawyer has a higher salary, but more expensive education loans to pay off, more expensive car and house loans, etc.

The Rat Race
At the rat race, there will be these squares:

Opportunities
When a player lands on this square, the player will be given a choice of “Big Deal” and “Small Deal”. The small deals are less than $5,000 – Certificate of Deposits, stocks, small residential houses, etc. The big deals exceeds $5000 and includes deals for apartments, plexes, businesses, etc.

Paycheck
When a player steps on or crosses this square, the player will receive a pay check.

Downsize
The player will have to pay an amount equal to the total expenses and lose 3 turns.

Baby
Your monthly expenses will increase because you have to feed your new baby. Baby expenses depends on which profession you have.

Doodad
These are mostly one-off expenses which are small unnecessary or luxury items we buy (watches, fancy dinner) to big items which requires loans like boats.

Market
In this square, you’ll know that a buyer is looking for
properties or business. You get to sell your property or business if it matches
the card.

Charity
In the rat race, you can only roll one dice. Unless you donate 10% of your income to charity, you get to roll up to two dices

Once your passive income exceeds your expenses, then you shall proceed to the fast track. Although this sounds very easy when I first started, I lost about 4 times before I was able to finally reach the fast track.

The Fast Track

Your income in fast track is nothing like the income you get in the rat race, your income will be in hundred thousands. I find the fast track too… well, too easy. You’ll never need a loan in the fast track. Except for losing all the cash and unable to purchase anything, it doesn’t really matter at all because you’ll eventually get back your monthly income. The deals in the fast track are, of course, higher in price. You’ll be buying franchises, IPOs, etc, etc. So, most of the time we skip the fast track and remain in the rat race even though we qualify for the fast track. The reason being is that we learn a lot more when we play the rat race than the fast track.

Rants

After playing this game several times, you’ll know the lowest prices of the deals and the highest price you can get. The stocks are very predictable when you become a pro at playing the game. Everyone just borrows money when they can buy the stocks at the lowest price and sell all of them when they see the highest price. The great thing is that when you own the board game, you can change the rules to increase the difficulty level. For e.g. you can change the stock deal applicable to the person who picked the card.

Overall Conclusion
So did Cashflow 101 teach me a lesson in financial education? It sure did! I didn’t mind taking out a loan to finance my real estate as long as it gave positive cashflow. I grunge when I step on the “downsize” square, NOT because I have to pay an amount equal to my expenses, but because I won’t have the chance to step on any “opportunity”; squares to increase my passive income for 3 whole rounds! After playing the game a few times, I wasn’t worried about the amount of money I have and I easily build my passive income through good debt.

“The books that help you most are those which make you think the most.” – Theodore Parker

Rich Dad, Poor Dad was one of the books that has the biggest influence in my life. It didn’t only inspire me to control my finances, but it also changed my perception of things. Kiyosaki can be seen as an iconoclast, what he says makes sense but goes head-to-head with our traditional ideals. It was my first book on finance and that was all it took to sprout my interest in personal development, business and finance.

“Rich Dad, Poor Dad” starts off talking about Kiyosaki’s childhood and how he met his Rich Dad. He has two dads, his real dad and rich dad (his best friend’s father). His real dad, a highly educated, high-ranking education officer gave his son advise on life: “go to school, get good grades, and then find a safe secure job”. Whereas his rich dad, who dropped out in elementary school, offered him advise to: “go to school, graduate, build businesses and become a successful investor”. Both dads had conflicting thoughts on the subject of finances, Kiyosaki eventually chose to follow his rich dad’s path as he saw how both dads ended up: His educated dad ended up in debt, had little time for his children during his working years, didn’t have enough funds to retire on; his rich dad built a business empire in Hawaii, spent lots of time with his children, left his wealth to his children, owned lots of properties.

The book simplifies finances in a story-telling way… too simplified, in fact, that some people do not agree with Robert Kiyosaki. It’s a book meant to inspire, not a how-to book. All in all, if the book opened up your mind to an alternate way of living, or make you aware of another possibility, then it has helped. It has for me, and I highly recommend you get a copy.

Buy Rich Dad Poor Dad here

‘Get a job, work till you are 55 then retire’ was what I’ve always been told until I stumbled across a book in my senior year of high school. The idea of retiring early or becoming financially free became a possibility, and my mind started to open up to new opportunities.

To me, being wealthy doesn’t only mean having a high income because income alone doesn’t determine wealth. It’s easy to make money, but it’s never easy to keep them.

My definition of wealth is:
- to have a consistent passive income
- to have the freedom to choose whatever I want to do
- to use money wisely
- to pass down my wealth generations to come
- to teach my children and grandchildren to build their own wealth
- to leave a legacy.

This site mainly consist of my thoughts on the subject, my reviews of books/materials which I’ve used to enhanced my wealth-building knowledge, and my opinion on businesses or investments I’ve come across.

“The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books.” – Katharine Mansfield