KEY POINTS:
"Monopoly on steroids" is how financial board games are billed. What better than a fun game over the summer holidays that builds investing prowess.
Games such as Cashflow 101, from Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series, and New Zealand's own Hybrid Property Game aim to simulate real life investing scenarios and offer a safe environment to play with numbers and focus on goals, while experiencing the opportunities and pressures of different phases of the investment cycle.
New and experienced investors alike benefit from a long night of playing the property or sharemarket around a table. Groups of investors sometimes get together for afternoons or evenings of playing these games through the website PropertyTalk.com and also the Hybrid Group.
Roger and Susan Raymond, president and secretary of the Northland Property Investors Association, play Cashflow or Hybrid whenever they lose motivation. "Every time you play them something different happens and you have to revise the way you think about investing," says Susan Raymond.
Investor, seminar presenter and property investing author Ron Hoy Fong admits that he's gone bankrupt on paper several times while playing the Hybrid Property Game, which is designed to teach investors about the property cycle.
Specialist mortgage broker Mike England, who runs PropertyTalk's Christchurch events, rates investment games as educational and motivational.
Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow 101
Cashflow 101 is designed to develop both business and investment skills. This game is based around a Rat Race treadmill. Players start the game by putting their rat on the board, choosing a profession card and getting an annual salary and expenses to go with it and a balance sheet, in which you need to record assets and liabilities. Players throw the dice and tread the mill until they can escape by building up sufficient cash-flow positive assets to exceed their everyday living expenses by purchasing investment properties, mutual (managed) funds, and shares. Once out of the Rat Race, investors enter the Fast Track outer circle of the game where they must either accumulate more than $50,000 per month or buy a dream.
The game requires strategic thought, more than accounting skills. England rates Cashflow as entertaining. But the cons are that it can take a long time to play (as little as one hour, I'm told, but my experience is more like three) and the Rat Race circuit can be boring. Cashflow 101 costs $395 from Empowereducation.co.nz
Cashflow 202, a version for more experienced players who have the 101 version, costs $275. There is also a software version available.
Hybrid Real Estate
This game is based on the idea that at different times in the property cycle different strategies are needed to survive or grow your empire. Unlike Cashflow, the Hybrid game just deals with property investment.
It's about surviving the inevitable downturns. The aim is to be the first player to achieve his or her financial goal, which will be a preset level of equity and passive cash flow.
Each player is issued with a job card, cash equal to their starting pay, and a game token. The board is set out as a Real Estate Cycle Clock and each time a player lands on a Change Card, the clock moves. In each phase - the boom, slump and recovery - different opportunities arise.
More than one experienced investor, including the game's designer, property market analyst Kieran Trass, has gone broke by misjudging the cycle.
England says the Hybrid game is more educational than Cashflow, but more difficult as well. "You really need your calculator with you."
The downside of this game is that it can take an awful long time to play. It can be sped up by removing the Wild and Change cards that have notation "no change" to the property clock.
* $99.95 until end of January.
Usual price $149.95.
Others
The sharemarket is also well-served with investment games, although few are New Zealand based. They include:
* Investor - Sharemarket board game. $59.95 from Goodreturns.co.nz
* Anti-Monopoly - investors choose to be a monopolist or a competitor. It requires more strategy than Monopoly, not just luck. Not everything depends on the roll of a dice. $46.99 from IQToys.co.nz.
* Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus board game, because one of the largest financial mistakes anyone can make in their lives is getting divorced. $45 on Trade Me or Zillion.co.nz.
Virtual investing games such as Stock Guru on Sharechat.co.nz allow investors to line up against others to build the largest portfolio in the time allotted and win. It's possible to play fantasy spread betting, contracts for difference (CFDs) and foreign exchange trading on Bullbearings.co.uk. The website IndustryPlayer.com has a realistic online Business Simulation Game.
Financial board games for children: At school we learn much more about getting an education and becoming employees than entrepreneurs or investors. Board games help them learn how the stock and property markets work, what auctions are, how to negotiate and trade and how to plan ahead. They can also help develop a child's strategising and decision-making abilities.
The perennial favourite is Monopoly, which has been around for more than 70 years. Children learn to play to win, that strategy is important, and that luck can also play a part. $36.99 from Whitcoulls.co.nz
The Game of Life has been around since 1960 in its current incarnation. It requires players to choose "college" or "career" and follow a path through life, doing things such as buying a house, insurances, and stocks. Whoever has the most money in retirement wins. This game has moved with the times and manufacturer Hasbro has released a SpongeBob SquarePants, Simpsons and Pirates of the Caribbean 2 editions. The basic version costs $69.95 from IQToys.co.nz
Kiyosaki's Cashflow for Kids is a simplified version of the adult game for children aged around 6-10. $185 from Empowereducation.co.nz
The government website Sorted.org.nz offers a number of online kids' games such as Dollar Reef, Money Island and Cash Cloud. Or Google the words: money games for children.
