Play to Learn Better Money Management Skills
Play has always been an integral part of our learning. It is one safe way to build up experience and hone skills before we get started in the ‘real’ world. Unsurprisingly then, there are games that help us build and hone experience in better money management. Think Monopoly and Game of Life.
Learning cashflow for better money management
Learning about cashflow management has been one of my key principles for managing and growing money. Part of what helped me was playing the CASHFLOW 101 game. It also helped to introduce the concept to my kids, as they role-play different jobs and lifestyle challenges.
Playing the CASHFLOW 101 game got me practicing calculating the pro-and-cons of each financial opportunity I encountered in the game. The more I played and practiced, I also got faster at identifying good opportunities to invest my money into.
Better money management lessons from CASHFLOW 101
Playing the game, whether with Mrs and the kids or alone (yes, I played 3 jobs once to compare results!), allowed me to learn many lessons. Here are 3 key takeaways I learnt to help me be better at managing and growing money!
- My income level does not determine your financial success, but how I use my money matters more;
- Honing my ability to calculate gains and losses profoundly impacts the quality of my financial decisions;
- Luck matters but an abundance mindset is more important – there are many financial opportunities, once we know where and what to look;
How you use your money matters more than your income
Our lifestyle choices are usually dependent on our income levels. The more you earn, the more you spend. This behaviour is reflected in the jobs and personas of the CASHFLOW 101 and is fixed – you cannot adjust your lifestyle.
This leaves you to practice making smarter financial decisions, as you learn what debts to cut back first and invest in better opportunities. Think of it as a rehearsal for real life, practicing for life situations you will eventually face and make your best decisions of them. It was great fun with my kids, while we learnt these life skills together!
It will show up very clearly as you play, which debt you pay off first or which opportunity to invest in will impact how fast your grow your money. I often get ahead faster with lower income jobs, all because of their simpler lifestyles. Goes to show how often you eat out and where, what car you drive, and etc will affect how fast your grow your money.
My calculation ability = my financial decision quality
Not all debt and opportunity are equal. Some better or worse than others, and the only way for you to know that is your ability to discern the differences. If you cannot learn to calculate it, you will always be dependent on others’ ability and motives. And they are not always in your best interest.
Playing CASHFLOW 101 provided me with a very safe (and reversible!) environment to practice and hone my calculation ability! I learnt from my mistakes, and got better and faster with each round of game. Naturally, my money grew faster as I got better with this and made better financial decisions!
At the same time, being in awe of how fast kids learnt! They are now faster than me in identifying which opportunities are more investment worthy hahaha!
Opportunities abound when you have an abundance mindset
Scarcity mindset is real. It happens to everyone and anyone in different situations. Time to complete a task. A rare opportunity that will not come by again.
Playing CASHFLOW 101 actually helps develop an abundance mindset – the opportunities are there, is just whether you see them. When you begin to see an abundance of opportunities, you will also feel more optimistic about your future. You will feel less constrained by your current circumstances as you work towards your future.
When you begin to see these new opportunities, remember to do your own calculations before you decide whether to put your money into them. 🙂
Learn better money management skills
Everyone plays and learns differently. It depends on what we already know or are already our existing behaviours. It also depends on our willingness to reflect on what is ‘wrong’ with our current behaviours and improve them.
I hope you will learn and improve from playing the CASHFLOW 101 game, so that you can be better at managing and growing your money. Play with your kids too, if you have any, and let them learn to be better at managing and growing money early! 🙂
MrAmass
