Cashflow 101 -
The M.B.A. of financial education

Back in 2002/2003 I were in America on a student work exchange programme and bought the Cashflow 101 board game. I was enticed to this action by Robert Kiyosaki's references to it throughout his various books and thought it will be a good way to learn even more.

Buy Cashflow 101 from Amazon!

At first I were somewhat disappointed. The game itself was superb and there were no serious flaws in the reasoning behind it. My problem was that I had difficulty finding willing and able players. This went on for the whole while that I was in America, as well as most of the rest of 2003 while I was finishing my university education.

Late in 2003 I went to an unrelated course on inner-city property development and things started happening. I got some calls from people who wanted to play and soon we had set up our own little investment/Cashflow circle. Though I previous got a feel for the game, I now had fun experiences with people that had a similar mindset to my own. We were all people wanting to learn more about finances and investing.

How to play Cashflow 101

The game itself is fairly straightforward: you start in the 'rat-race' with a salary and normal expenses, and the objective is then to get out of the 'rat-race' by increasing your 'passive' income to more than your expenses. You then get onto the 'fast-track' where you can win the game if you buy your dream or increase your cash flow from businesses by more than $50k.

The game teaches you many basic things like money, business and accounting (rich dad's M.B.A.). But what I most enjoy learning from the game is the rules. What? Yes, the rules, but not the normal rules. See, though the game gives you the basic rules, not every contingency are covered. So for these we make our own rules/deals. We go halve/halve (splitting the cost of the deal and splitting the reward), or (my favourite) when somebody else has cash and I don't, I consistently go for the big deals to sell the card to the other person for cash. You do get the person that only plays to spite everyone else, but generally we try helping each other.

Our small group of friends gather every two weeks to play the game. The game takes us about an hour and a half to complete (when you're regular players like we are and playing slowly), but our meetings can take upwards of three hours. We end up discussing investments and properties, businesses and failures. And this is the part that I like most - the networking with like minded individuals.

Also see:

• 12 tips to get the most value from the Cashflow 101 board game.

Where can you get it?

Yes, it is more expensive compared than normal board games. If I were asked if I would spend that money again, I would answer with a resounding YES. The game gives you a basic introduction to money and finances, but it allows you to connect to different people who are at different stages in their journey to financial freedom. It will probably be these people from whom you'll learn the most.

The game itself is fun to play, but it is the people who you play it with that will make or break the experience for you. Overall, I consider Cashflow 101 a worthwhile investment, if you can find like-minded people to play it with.

Links

• Get the game from Amazon
• 12 tips to get the most value from Cashflow 101
• About Cashflow 202 - The Advanced Investor