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.
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Comments
Great educational tool
If you suck at personal finance management, this is a great learning tool. The board game teaches all of us the basics of which is where; which ones are your assets, which ones contribute to money-draining liabilities, and generally what you should and shouldn't invest in. The game simplifies the whole finance thing and concentrates on few key areas so it is easily understood and reflects real life finance management decisions.
Buy the game for your kids and yourself. (If you don't have kids, buy it for yourself and play with your friends.)
If you suck at personal finance management....
I agree with you Ian. If you suck at personal finance management this is indeed a great learning tool. Even if you don't think you need help with personal finances you do. Just the simple difference between an asset and a liability can make your whole financial world go into overdrive.
Cashflow game feedback
This game is pretty interesting. For those who think this game is just another monopoly, you are somehow correct. But it is also MORE than the monopoly. It is a great reflection of the everyday spending habits and behaviour.
I had the privilege to play own both the board version and the electronic version. Both 101 and 202. Both games are worth to be exposed to as they allow to interact with people of different levels.
For the board version, it allows interaction and learning from one another via communications that enhances your learning experience. The whole process is much more fun witht he "Human connection" and it helps to leverage the time put into it to the lessons learnt. You get to learn more from others as well as network with them. The game is not cheap but the amount of fulfillment and exposure is wonderful. And you will definately get it everytime you play with different people.
The only problem is that you NEED to have more than yourself to play with it.
As for the electronic version. It is much easier and you can play alone if you are those who are always on the go or have time and difficulty trying to schedule for game. With this version, you can play alone and what's great is that you can play online INTERNATIONALLY! And it is because of this, I have found friends in various parts of the world and whenever I travel to those places, I will make effort to meet them up and have a physical game with them. This really helps to build my international contacts and with the board game, the relationshi is enhanced when we meet up.
The negative point about this is that you don't really learn that fast or exposed to more learning experience as compared to the board version. And there is less "humanractivity". And lastly, to play internationally, you have to sign up to Rich Dad's Insider's Community.
Being a Rich Dad's Insider, you will gain much more insight of things. Robert has recently make a comeback and try to improve the internal communication of the whole organisation. You can have access to ALL the reports and educational video footages which are lessons Robert conducts for his employees. This means you get to LEARN with the employee of Robert's community!
You will also be able to have your own blog space and access to other people's blog. I have one too! (But i gotta update it again soon..have been busy).
There, you will also be able to monitor your online gaming points. You actually get point rankings based on how you fare. This is a good way to see how your progress is. Also, after every online game, the lesson learnt that you typed in, it will be recorded and archieve as well. (You can play online alone too. You can choose to play with the computer Rats and the points earned will be recorded). There, the community will have rankings as well so it makes playing more challenging and encourages you to improve everytime and not playing it without learning.
There are also some reference you can use to help monitor your own finances. Again this is ther other benefits. Lastly, you get 10% off ALL things in the store. This could encourage you to encourage your friends and relatives to invest in all the stuffs. Yet another benefits.
Because of the game I played and being an insider, I've gotten to be connected to a wonderful lady, the creator of this site. I've also learnt a great deal from her on leveraging the internet.
Hence, the benefits of having this game is limitless. It bring like minded people, thos who want to be financially free, and those of the same mindset together and share our experiences and our social life.
For those who just want to try either one and afraid it might be too expensive, you can try the electronic version first. It's cheaper and you can play it alone first and see how it goes.
What more can you ask for? As an aquaintence (if you'd consider me as one reading through this review), I hope this feedback would help you decide. Should you heed my advice and buy the electronic version but hate it, I am willing to buy it back from you. Just drop me an email at wilson.ang@eco-singapore.org and I will definately get back to you.
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