Do you have what it takes to get out of the rat race?
Score: 90/100
Type : Board Game
Manufacturer: Rich Dad
Owner: Robert Kiyosaki
Cost: £50.00
Seller: Amazon
Rich Dad (Robert Kiyosaki) has come up with a game showing you how to be more aware of your money.
You are taken for a trip over the next years of your life – one hour of play time equates to 10 years of life. According to the game I am never going to get out of the rat race!!!!
Using your skills learnt through life, try to get out of the rat race. You may be surprised at how long it take the first time to get to the outer ring.
This is a board game of two halves. The first half is played on the inner circle of the board, showing your life in the 9 to 5 job. With paydays, small deals, big deals and doodads.
If you are lucky you can have children as well. Although you soon realise how much of a drain they are!! ( just like real life then!!)
You are dealt an occupation with an income and outgoings, professions range from janitor through nurse, airline pilot and engineer to doctor at the top. If you are dealt the doctor you scream as the amount you need to earn in passive income to get out of the rat race is 8 times that of the janitor!
Using the income statements provided, you enter your outgoings and income. The idea behind the first part of the game is to earn more passive income than your total expenses. As you go around the inner circle, on the throw of a dice, you are offered opportunities to buy assets. You are the one to decide whether they present a good deal or not. Stocks will not add to your passive income but they will increase the money, as long as you buy low and sell high. With enough money you start buying assets to increase your passive income, you can take loans but watch out for the interest rate.
According to Robert there is good debt and bad debt, good debt is where you use the money to make more money. Bad debt is where you are paying off doodads (items for yourself), this makes you no money. So taking out loans to buy property, if the income is more than the outgoings is good debt.
Once you have amassed enough capital in the passive income box to exceed the total expenses you may exit the rat race and start on the outer ring of the fast track.
Watch out for the downsize square, as you will lose your job temporarily and have to pay the amount of your total expenses – you may need to take out a loan to pay this!! ( bad debt! pay it off as quick as possible).
The doodads are unexpected, unnecessary or unavoidable expenses we all waste our money on. Again you may need to take a loan to buy these.
Your exiting income is multiplied by 100 to give you the starting capital to buy business investments.
You have proven you are able to create a passive income above your expenses, so all of these deals are left to run themselves.
When on the fast track if you can’t afford a business you can’t buy it – no loans here!!
Buying into business investments to increase you income by $50,000 will make you the winner. you have shown that you are a shrewd investor and have what it takes to get out of the rat race and survive!
The game is a good way to show how making a passive income exceed your outgoings will allow you to leave your 9 to 5 job and be able to concentrate on investing in other deals. Notice i have not said that you can relax for the rest of your life, as you will soon be demanding more from your investments than they can give. It is always good to keep learning and growing as you would get bored otherwise!
With two to six players on the board it can get interesting to keep an eye on the deals along with where you are financially. Use the paper income statements for the first couple of round, but progress onto the Cashflow app to ease the time taken filling in the statements.
Verdict
I would give the game 90/100
The game probably works better in America, where it originates as their laws on mortgages and owning business’ are different. It would be nice for Robert to make a version for the UK and possibly different parts of the world. People could then buy the games for a part of the world they are thinking of moving to and learn a little about the money laws there, or at home.
It does make you think how little most people ( myself included) think about making a passive income, this is one of Roberts main pushes. He would like a financial education class in every school and for it to be taken seriously. Maybe what he should do is free issue his game to every school in America allowing the students to play in their free time, with advisors travelling around America offering advice.
Pros
Shows where your money is going.
Able to practice strategies to increase your income quickly without going bankrupt.
Gets people talking about money, where it goes and what you can do.
Good fun to play.
Cons
Very American – where it was designed what do you expect!
Steep learning curve.
Have you played this game? – what did you think, please leave your comments below. Many thanks.
phil