Cashflow Game at Settlers Cafe

Those who have read Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad Poor Dad" recall that Kiyosaki describes how one should get out of the rat race. He idea of financial freedom comes when one moves away from earning a living through working for others as an employee and gets into owning businesses and assets that generate passive income that makes money work for us instead of working for money.


Financial Freedom
True financial freedom is achieved when we manage to get sufficient passive income to cover our total living expenses. Kiyosaki also came up with the Cashflow game to illustrate that concept and like many curious folks, a group of my friends and I decided to give the game a try at Settlers' Cafe -- A Board Gaming Cafe.

There are a few Settlers' Cafe outlets and we tried out the one opposite Buona Vista Swimming Complex along a row of shophouses tiered along a slope. It is nestled in an old estate behing the bustling and happening Holland Village hangout.

Cashflow retails for about USD 195 and hence it was value-for-money to try the game at the cafe where the staff was also able to get us started on the game. As I had played this game before about a year ago. This was a refresher for me on the concepts of how one can get out of the rat race and think more about using our hard-earned money to generate positive cashflow accreting assets instead of spending money on clothes, music and lifestyle products.

What is Cashflow About?
The game basically involves players selecting a "career" with its accompanying income, expenditure, assets and liabilities. Then we start off by choosing a dream e.g. Joining the Peace Corps and having a life of volunteerism and then off-we go on the Rat Race.

The Rat Race
Everyone starts on the inner circle where each turn moves like Monopoly. We throw 2 dice and try to advance past payday to collect our positive cash flows. During each turn, we stand a chance of getting a big/small deal and also market events that can affect our assets, liabilities. There are also traps such as getting downsided in our jobs where we can lose 2 turns and have to cough up 1 round of our monthly expenditure.

The objective of the game is for us to acquire assets (property and stocks), businesses in order to generate sufficient passive income that exceeds our total expenditure. It sounds easy but to succeed in the game, one needs to be lucky in the throw of the dice not to land on Doodads (expenditures that we make which do not help us achieve financial freedom).

As we played the game, we realise that the only way for us to get out of the Rat Race really was to save money, buy businesses or assets yielding positive cashflows so that our passive income is build up to such a level that it exceeds our living expenses.

The nature of the game is such that even if you start off as a less glamourous career as a secretary, one could get out of the race race fairly quickly if one bought small deals that helped to add to one's passive income. Small capital gains from stocks and shares or sale of rental property also helped but really the focus was on getting those deals that help you build up passive income.

One also had the flexibility to pay down liabilities that contributed to the monthly expenses e.g. retail debt, car loans etc or one could sometimes go for big deals and borrow money even from other players to get more positive cashflow businesses or assets.

How the Game Went
In our game, almost all of us managed to get out of the Rat Race but at varying speeds. The lady who managed to get out the quickest and was the one who got into many small and big deals early on to purchase rental properties that were cashflow accretive. She started getting out of the Rat Race and into the Fast Track with $600,000 per cashflow day!

Fast Track
When you get out of the Rat Race, your income becomes 100x your passive income. In the fast track, one would win if we could land on our financial dream selected earlier or if we acquired sufficient opportunities to generated positive cashflows of $50,000. This would be winning the game! Sceptics among us would think this is a bit unrealistic but then this is a game and hence certain game rules do not apply in real life! ;-)

Learning Points
The takeaway from the game is really to be more aware of what financial freedom is about? I.e. what are the objectives of the game that mirrors life? For me, it was about financial goal setting and to be really precise and not fuzzy about exactly what constitutes financial freedom for me.

Also, it make me more aware of the need to build up passive incomes through assets as simple as time deposits and treasury bills. It also made me more keen to learn about managing my own money for growth at an acceptable risk level to myself. It also reinforced my general approach to living a simple life less cluttered with the trinkets, doodads and other luxuries that really do not matter in the longer term. Of course, one does not need to live as an ascetic and deprive oneself of life's pleasures but one becomes more aware of the trade-offs inherent in decisions we make when we choose to spend or save.

Those who are interested in playing the cashflow game should consider visiting Settler's Cafe and try it out. I found the second time playing it has been educational, entertaining and above all energising me to continue with this blog to share about personal financial management.

Being rich is not about how much money you have. But how much can you touch other's lives without being worried about your own financial independence.

Have a financially rewarding future!