Aunty first played Robert Kiyosaki’s CashFlow game at a 3 day Rich Dad Education seminar in Las Vegas. Boy, was it fun! All of Aunty’s competitive juices kicked in, and everyone couldn’t wait for their turn to toss the dice and impatiently waited while people did the changes on their Income Statements.
Bam! Already, a lesson in accounting was built in, the kind of accounting that each of us really needs to do for our own circumstances. These income statement worksheets are available in each game box or a more scrutinizing one can be accessed online at RichDad.com/resources page. Career cards are shuffled and picked, each person having an occupation such as doctor, lawyer, teacher, truck driver, etc. with their own corresponding income and expenses. The goal of the game is to acquire enough passive income (income that your investments kick off) to cover ALL your expenses, thus eliminating the need for a job.
The game is played by taking turns rolling the dice and either landing on Opportunity, Market, Pay Check, or Doodad spaces. You then draw cards that correspond to those categories, and either buy, sell, trade, collect, or pay. Income Statement adjustments are constantly being made, with the goal of the game being out of the rat race of working to collect a pay check and using that pay check to pay for your expenses.
This game is something like Monopoly – on steroids. Usually it is limited to 90 minutes of play, otherwise people will want to keep playing and playing.
More lessons are learned when one loses than when one wins. People’s personalities and tendencies become very evident. That is perhaps the biggest lesson to be learned, your own tendencies, inhibitions, and faults.
Aunty HIGHLY recommends that everyone, no matter their age, to play the CashFlow game. It will change players’ mindset from self limits to what is possible.
One of the most dramatic changes Aunty saw was with Uncle. Uncle is like a rock. Solid, stable, careful, hardworking. When we purchased our Kaimuki house in 1985, it was to be our one and only personal abode. We weren’t ever going to move.
However, after the 2nd time of playing, it was as if a lightning bolt zinged through Uncle’s mind. ZAPPP!!! “Hey,” he says to me, “maybe we should sell our house…” WHAAAAT?? I was shocked. Uncle had done a 180 degree turn, willing to use our main asset (our house) as a vehicle to get better results for our future well being. THAT was progress, and all it took was a few rolls of the dice and some changes on a paper play sheet.
CashFlow games are played with friends, sometimes local organizations sponsor games (google search Cashflow game and your city), and now you can even play online. Play to learn. Learn in order to change. Change in order to grow and improve.
We haven’t sold our house – yet. However, we have used the maximum amount of equity that we had built up over the years in order to invest. Was it scary? You betcha, but it is turning out to be a great decision, building our passive income slowly and steadily until one day soon, Uncle can retire and get out of the rat race with enough perpetual passive income to support our lifestyle together.
Aunty has already used the CashFlow concept to purchase her latest (but not last) car.
Mahalo to Robert and Kim Kiyosaki for inventing this great way of teaching us in a really fun way.