Play cashflow to get into the right money mindset
A few years ago, I attended a party in Zurich with my friend Jeannette, my very first singles’ party in fact… (no comment!), which is how I eventually came to play Cashflow 101 for the first time.
In attendance were many fine women and men in their thirties, including Zurich-based strength coach Bianca Kux.
Bianca explained that she organizes Cashflow games on a monthly basis. When I heard that the game is helping to get into the right money mindset, I knew I absolutely had to try!
And so I attended my very first Cashflow 101 game last week at Bianca’s apartment in Zurich.
It was a great experience on many levels.
Play cashflow 101: the rules of the game
The rules of the game are quite easy to grasp, though playing for the first time in German was quite a challenge!
Simply put, Cashflow 101 is a board game in which you are given a specific job and financial situation, with revenues and expenses, just like in real life.
The key to winning the game is to accumulate enough passive income, i.e., investments that generate interest payments and dividends, so that a player can cover all her expenses with that passive income and go on to enjoy her life.
By rolling the dice, you advance through your given ‘life’ and experience unexpected expenses, job loss, welcoming babies. And you also come across various investment opportunities.
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And just like in real life, your financial situation results from your background, your own decisions and a series of lucky or unlucky events.
The right money mindset in great company
What I also very much enjoyed was a chance to spend the evening with a dozen of highly educated and engaged women, many of which entrepreneurs.
All of them had a keen interest in improving their money mindset, learn how to better manage their money and start investing for the long run.
Even if many did not know exactly how to get started.
Key lessons for the right money mindset
While I enjoyed the game during that evening, it is only the next morning on my way to work that I started reflecting on it.
I have long been a fan of investments that generate dividends. But now I feel even more strongly that the key to achieving financial independence and security is to have sufficient passive income (i.e., dividends or interest payments) to support yourself and your loved ones.
At the very least, we need to grow our money so as to maintain our living standards after retirement. With aging populations across the Western world, who knows how much, if anything, will be left for us in the public pension system.
At the very least, we need to grow our money so as to maintain our living standards after retirement
But another critical lesson from the game is that unexpected challenges can strike you at a moment’s notice and radically put your financial situation upside down, possibly getting you into debt.
Such a stressful situation can arise even if you enjoy a high salary and share your life with a partner with an even higher income.
And I would know something about this… but let’s not get into that now.
The point is that you should get prepared for the worse, even when everything seems fine.
I also got to reflect on other aspects of the game which I really liked, including how to actively seek investments and being able to differentiate between good investments and bad ones. What to look for in an investment, how to assess potential growth and income as well as investment risk.
Play cashflow 101 to get started with investing
To be fair, playing Cashflow 101 once or twice will not transform you into the next Geraldine Weiss, one of the world’s most successful women investors. But it is a sure way to get started with the right investing mindset. All of this while having fun in great company.
That's why I definitely need to play Cashflow 101 again! I am quite driven and like to win. Actually, in my youth I was the world’s worst loser, to the extent that my then boyfriend and his friends would refuse to play board games with me.
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Luckily, I got better at managing my temper.
And I love the chance to spend an evening with such highly educated, successful and engaged individuals. Women with a strong willingness to change their money mindset, take charge of their finances, start investing, and build the financial freedom they deserve.
So see you soon to play Cashflow 101 at Bianca’s!
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