April 15, 2008 | How coolio is THAT?, Life in General, The 4-1-1 on Me
So, last night I went to this networking/board game event, the Ladies Who Launch CashFlow Club;
The CASHFLOW game that “Gets people to take action” was designed by Robert Kiyosaki, international speaker, entrepreneur, investor and bestselling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad. Come elevate your financial intelligence and personal growth through developing relationships that support and encourage success-minded members to achieve money goals.
The object of the game is to think outside the box, financially, to get out of the Rat Race (middle to low income) and on to the Fast Track (think Donald Trump or Bill Gates level). This game is 10 times better than Monopoly! The board pieces are mice, cheese and chips (like gambling chips) in coordinating colors. To win, you either need to get to your new Cashflow Day Income Goal (once you reach the Fast Track) or buy your “dream”. So, you’re given an Income Statement sheet that looks like this: CLICK PIC FOR BIGGER VIEW (then click it again to an even closer look)
This is considered to be the Rat Race side and everyone starts out on this side of the paper. You first pick a profession (I think there are close to 20 different professions) and then you pick a “dream” on the Fast Track portion of the board (this can be anything from a vacation to a material item); you set your piece of cheese on this dream because it’s what you’re trying to attain once you get on the Fast Track. All the dreams have monetary value. My “dream” was a Kids Library for $175,000: A wing to the public library devoted to young writers and artists. Fitting for me, don’t you think?
As you can see, I got lucky and chose Lawyer. The information on the card (Salary, Expenses, liabilities, Per Child Expense and Total Income) is to be transferred to your sheet. The board is made up of green, yellow and purple spaces. In the inner circle (a.k.a The Rat Race, obviously) the yellow spaces represent a Paycheck. Every time you pass it, you get your “paycheck” from the bank. For instance, my original paycheck was $2000-something. So, every time I passed the yellow space, I received money from the bank. If you forget to say “paycheck” when you pass it, you don’t get it. Just like in real life.
The green spaces represent the “Market”: opportunities to buy something. If you land on this space, you have an opportunity to choose a Small Deal card or a Big Deal card. The only difference between the two is that the Big Deal cards require more investment (if you’re allowed to sell it to another player, you can). The purple spaces are “Doodads”. If you land on this, you have to choose a Doodad card, which also means you have to give up money. Also, when you start out, you don’t have kids until you land on a purple spot marked Baby (you can have up to 3 children); then that Per Child Expense is added to your Total Expenses. There was also a Charity space, too, and if you landed on it, you got a chance to roll with 1, 2, or 3 dice for 3 turns (if you land on this spot in the Fast Track, you get to roll 1, 2 , or 3 dice on every turn). In order to get out of the Rat Race circle your PASSIVE INCOME has to be greater than your TOTAL EXPENSES. Bevla, the moderator, messed up calculating this and I ended up on the Fast Track sooner than I should have (oops! LOL), but I had fun doing it. I got on the Fast Track by buying a Duplex for $5000 and then selling it for $150,000. I never landed on Baby and I never forgot to say Paycheck.
The Fast Track side looks like this:
CLICK PIC TO SEE BIGGER VIEW (then click on it again to get an even closer look)
You carry over your PASSIVE INCOME and multiply it by 100 to get your new Cashflow Income. Once you reach the outer circle, known as The Fast Track, the Small Deal/Big Deal cards no longer matter because you’re in the big leagues now. You still get a paycheck on the Fast Track, too, they’re just bigger. And if you miss it, you can go back and get it. You see that $500,000? That was my income. So, every time I passed the yellow Paycheck space, I received $500,000 from the bank. The green spaces still represent “Market”, but you get to choose if you want to buy it or not (once you buy something, you need to put your “chip” on it to keep track of what you bought). An investment amt is always listed and how much your monthly cash flow would be. The purple spaces represented dreams: vacations or material items. The object on the Fast Track is to reach your Income Goal (see How to Win box) and you do that by adding to your income; therefore you had to buy businesses that put out a lot of monthly cash flow.
All in all, I bought a Goldmine ($150,000 investment), a Burger Joint ($300,000 investment), a T-shirt company ($200,000 investment), a vacation to see the Seven Wonders of the World: 1st class all the way ($200,000 investment)…and my “dream”, the Kids Library ($175,000 investment). My final income? $33,29,500.00 There were supposed to be five of us, but other than Bevla, I was the only person that showed up. I got out of the Rat Race about an hour after playing. Sometimes, it takes people longer.
There are thousands of unofficial CashFlow Clubs out there, but Bevla’s group is only the 2nd “official” group. Meaning, the creator (Robert Kiyosaki) knows about her group and put his stamp of approval on it. This board game is about $200 and cannot be bought in the store. If you’d like to buy it, let me know and I’ll pass the info on to Bevla.
I can’t wait to play again. Didn’t mean to bore anyone, but this is the first game where I actually learn something of value. I can use this statement and plug in my own numbers! How cool is that?
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Suzy :) says:
Sounds quite intriguing. I wonder if there are any clubs here in Rock Springs…
How often do you play?
Celise says:
Suzy - This is the second time I’ve played. I hear the game itself can be quite expensive, but it’s worth it. I’m not sure if there any clubs out your way. You might want to look into it or starting up one of your own.