Comments on: Money Lessons Learned from Monopoly

By: London Rental Man

London Rental Man — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:08:14 +0000

Cool comparison with the monopoly game :-D

@DG Yeah the good old Railroad Tycoon that was a fun game :-P

By: Kathryn

Kathryn — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:30:49 +0000

Great post! My brother always won when we played monopoly. I was far to worried about running out of money to buy too much. He bought everything and creamed me. Serves me right! Lessons learned late in life.

By: Blogging Banks

Blogging Banks — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:44:07 +0000

So can you play monopoly for free on the internet? I have been searching for “free sites” but for some reason I could only find free trials..

By: Paw Doc

Paw Doc — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:40:15 +0000

For me it was poleconomy, something about a Canadian board game with the possibility to be Prime Minister, buy stocks and bonds, and move around beaver game pieces makes this my favorite boardgame growing up.

See more at:

http://www.canadaka.net/forums/games-f22/canadian-board-game-poleconomy-t9144.html

By: R Porter

R Porter — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:37:46 +0000

For sure Monopoly is a fun game. And yes there are some lessons to be learned from this game. Now if you want to become rich. Here is my take no games. Start to save 90 percent of your income. You will have to learn to make do with the basics. Forget stocks and bond, put your money in CD’s.
Once you reach say one hundred thousand. Start putting cash in Swiss banks.
This is your best way to get rich, think about , then take action

By: Mr. Charles' debt guide

Mr. Charles' debt guide — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:20:31 +0000

those are good lessons, don’t you think they can be used for helping you paying off debt?

By: Maiku

Maiku — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:08:24 +0000

I love Stock Ticker! When I was in grade 7 they had an entrepreneurial business education group come in and teach us the basics of stocks, production methods, etc. (in retrospect it was one of the best lessons in my elementary school career). In any case, I really wanted to invest in stocks on the VSE and kept bugging my parents to allow me to use my allowance to do so.
They instead bought me Stock Ticker for my birthday. After losing almost every game I stopped bugging them about investing (not sure if that’s a good thing or not :) ).

Another great game that I can’t seem to find anywhere is “Cartel”. You start in hometown, and then travel around the world (traveling costs money) to different countries to buy commodities. You can buy them in any continent but each continent has a commodity that is priced super low for buying and super high for selling. However, the places with a high price for selling also had spaces that caused you to lose your commodities (so buying diamonds in Africa and selling in Europe, while the most lucrative was also the most risky). So the lesson there is to buy low and sell high but beware because there is no such thing as quick cash.

By: Elbyron

Elbyron — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:09:31 +0000

I used to play Stock Ticker when I was young. There’s 6 stocks that go up and down or pay dividends based on dice rolls. While in real life there are cycles and indicators, these stocks are completely random. Still, I was only 9 years old and naive enough to think I could somehow predict the stocks based on their past performance or by picking my “favorites”. It’s a good game to teach kids (about 8 – 12 yrs) about the stock market, and can also be a good lesson in the value of diversification.

By: Ms Save Money

Ms Save Money — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:29:18 +0000

I love monopoly. Lots of great lessons to be learned from the game. And Park Place is a rip off.

By: Bromoney Banks

Bromoney Banks — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:33:56 +0000

One more lesson, never stay at Park Place, that place is a total rip-off! :)

By: Ray

Ray — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:41:06 +0000

I love monopoly! FT I thought when you were in TO we’d play…..

it’s funny because tomorrows post was exactly on this topic…..i’ll just move it down……..

By: Sampson

Sampson — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:14:19 +0000

@ Ben,

the problem I have with the game of Life is that there is nothing in their about poor life choices (read: grad school) – you have to learn that one the hard way, or by heeding Marge Simpson’s advice – too bad it was already too late for me ;)

By: DG

DG — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:18:54 +0000

This thread wouldn’t be complete without a link to the mother of all board gaming sites:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com (warning: this site turned me into a board game addict!)

Looks like CashFlow 101 is only available on eBay for >$100.

Dan

By: cannon_fodder

cannon_fodder — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:06:22 +0000

When my sister and I used to play Monopoly, I almost always won. That was because I was more ruthless, cheated and never took pity. I was the crotchety old banker in “It’s A Wonderful Life”. My sister always placed the nice guy and it cost her.

I quickly built up hotels on properties and would try to secure all the properties in a section to make it hard for her to pass by. I eschewed the railroads since their upside was so low.

The point of the game is to bankrupt the other players – there is no partnership building.

Needless to say while I enjoyed playing it, not many others in my family did!

The author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad recommends playing it. I bought it a couple of years ago hoping to help teach my daughters who are teenagers about money management (paycheques, rent, etc.) but it doesn’t do a good enough job.

Perhaps CashFlow 101 would. Hopefully someone can speak to experience with the game and where to get it.

By: Kwvin Beitel

Kwvin Beitel — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:38:12 +0000

My wife & I enjoy playing CashFlow 101… I find it more interesting watching others play the game as it usually forecasts their financial habits…

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:35:21 +0000

Well, there’s the game called Life, but it’s not the greatest for teaching financial lessons. The money just rolls in based only on the luck of the dice. Everyone finishes rich – it’s only a question of how rich you will be. Things just fall into place.

So I suppose the lesson to be learned from Life, is that life is not like Life when it comes to financial matters!

By: Novice

Novice — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:33:13 +0000

The best game that taught life lessons was RISK.

1) Attacking is a far better position to be in than defending.
2) Over-extending your reach is the fast way to lose everything.
3) Strategic alliances are key. Knowing when to break them is vital.
4) There can be only one winner.
5) Taking Australia first is much less important than taking South America first. (ok, that one might not apply to life)
6) If an opponent has just taken a whole continent, take one country of theirs back just before their turn. (In other words, discern your opponents objectives and react to weaknesses).
7) Consider a massive strategic retreat and a new direction if previous attempts prove unsuccessful — embrace change.
8) Make sure you earn a card each and every turn — even a small act of planning can pay big dividends.

By: FrugalTrader

FrugalTrader — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:24:11 +0000

Interesting, thanks for the board game suggestions. What other board games teach financial lessons? So far we have:

Monopoly
Payday
Railroad Tycoon

By: DG

DG — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:54:13 +0000

My wife always tells me that Payday taught her about money when she was a kid.

In Railroad Tycoon (the boardgame, not the computer game), you start with zero money and have to fund your operation by issuing stock on which you have to pay dividends every turn for the rest of the game. You cannot buy it back. I am always amused to see people’s real life debt aversions come into play during this game, usually to their detriment.

Dan.