Whether you are confident in your current financial abilities or not, I invite you to play the highly addictive browser game, Cashflow Classic*, by Rich Dad Poor Dad to exercise your skills with a safe online board game.

Spoiler alert – to learn the most by DIY, do not continue reading until you’ve played the game at least once !

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A recollection of one of my latest game plays as an example:

1. Fate

I started with $600 in the bank as a mechanic earning a W2 income of $2,000 per month carrying expenses of $1,800 per month. For all of the early rounds I’m on the verge of bankruptcy, trying to research stock picks since I can’t afford real estate deals. At some point, my stock pick pays out and I get a big windfall of cash in the bank around $30,000. Phew, I can breathe in a sigh of relief! Things were going to be on cruise control from there on out as I could play with the big money players.

2. Moment of Truth

After thinking about my post-windfall situation, I had relatively a lot of cash but my net pay each month was still a lousy $200 per month after expenses paid. I could not afford to invest in something that would lose me much money, so I had to be ultra safe with my bets given I also had 3 kids and a mortgage to take care of… so I was slow to act on deals and often passed on what could have been good ones for a bigger player because I wanted to have a really good deal generating a big enough cashflow spread (difference between the deal’s prospective revenue and expenses) in order to feel comfortable if things did not work out. I had rationalized my fear, and quantified what a “good deal” was for me to sleep soundly at night.

3. Choosing to Grow

I actively reviewed deals in search of the right deal to come along, and with each opportunity I practiced evaluating it inside and out to sharpen my ability to compare my rational criteria to deals I was looking at. When the right deal matched, I would need to pull the trigger and it could not be an emotional moment, but a calculated one. By repeating my personalized evaluation-pass review process on deals, my gut grew immune to market hype as I became more confident at identifying the risk I was willing to take on. My fomo was not so present in my thoughts at each round to bat because I knew what I was looking for and was willing to stay patient despite market mania. I reached an inner peace in exercising my self-restraint as I was able to assess a deal with an ice cold discipline and determination, resting in the belief that success was not a moment, but a series of carefully made decisions.

Given I was no longer attached to any one opportunity that came along, I was able to discern between the shine of gold in good deals sitting in the mud from the glimmer of sunlight behind a mirage of a bad deal served on a silver platter.

3. Impossible to I’m Possible

I was not born a full-time big investor, I had a family who depended on me with another child on the way, friends who needed checking-in on. Unexpected financial and time expenses that threw me off and chipped away at my windfall could have made me sweat more at the deal table. After a bad deal or two, I was calloused from experience, with a cooled temperament, I knew the deal of a lifetime showed up every turn and I just needed to get ready for the day I was going to pull the trigger.

As turns passed, my purpose and energy grew stronger and directed, calm but powerful. I meditated through growing stifling expenses, and learned to discern between what I could control from what I could not. The time would come to act and I would have to be ready.

The impossible moment arrived and I pounced, past mistakes trained me for that moment. An asset that met my criteria for returns, upfront skin (down payment cash I needed to put in) was comfortably lower than my threshold, it was a no brainer deal for me. With the investment, I successfully multiplied my W2 take home pay by over a factor of 5 times to $1,000 in-pocket income. I could have gone full-time investing, but my trusted gut told me it was too soon so I kept with the day job for a while to see how things played out. A second “deal of a lifetime” came around and I carpe-ed it. My criteria having been largely met, I don’t see the point of my day job anymore, I’ve grown in a different direction from the job and I want to pursue my dreams with the same tenacity that built my financial strength.

4. Your Turn

Play the game as if it was your real life at stake. The resemblance with financial scenarios you may have encountered yourself may surprise you. Post your experience as a comment below for others to benefit. Learning is the first step towards mastery.

*Cashflow Classic Account Creation – creating an account and playing the game is free and Money Beyond Borders is not in any way affiliated with Rich Dad Poor Dad.