This is Canny G's Cashflow Blog in English version

The blog is talking about Cashflow, the FQ game that help you improve your sense of finance.

The original blog (Chnese version): http://cannyg.blogspot.com

Videoclip: the difference between 101 and 202

Thank Rudy, telling me about this videoclip on Youtube:

Cashflow: Words

" You can't do that!"

"That's too difficult!"

I was surprised about Someone telling me those words on a Cashflow game.

He is a clever guy, jumping out of Rat Race about 10 turns later than I did. He showed his ability and strong ambition to getting rich. He did every deal smart.

But I did better than him, just because I did something "can't do" and "difficult".

I believe that there is an important reason why people say that something is "can't do", "too difficult", "too risky". It's because:

"I never do this before."

It would be better to use some words else such as "how" or "why" instead of denying carelessly.

Cashflow: the Banker

Bankers are your most important partner. Except negotiations between players, anything which matters about money, like buying, selling, paying doodads, making loans, and declaring bankruptcy, has to be done through bankers.

Bankers in cashflow 101 play roles as a buyer, a seller, a bank, an employer, a (doodads) store owner, and government. We see our banker take our money, give us money, take our money again, and give us again - just like a cashier. But banker is not only a cashier.

A banker do his/her job like this example: I pay down pay to the banker for a deal, and then the banker give the down pay to the deal "seller", taking the object from the "seller", and then give the object to me so that I may write down the numbers about this deal onto my game card. When I would like to sell my objects as the market "comes", the banker take my object, pay me the money, and then transform the object to the "buyer".

And surely I have to go to the banker for a bank loan. On "paycheck" day, I take my salary saved in bank accounts by my boss through the banker, pay my monthly expenses to Wal Marts, Vons, and etc. through the banker. The banker, as well as the host of this game, announce the rules, like government make laws. We have to deal with different people in our daily life, and these roles are played by bankers in the simplified Cashflow game.

Players may borrow money from bankers by making a bank loan. Bankers often claim that they are fair and cheap, saying "we take you 10% per month ONLY."

Additionally, as I mentioned, bankers are government, who rules a country. So it's often useless to argue against your Cashflow banker. You may doubt the banker's rule, but he/she isn't responsible to accepting your doubt. If bankers change rules, you can do nothing but being flexible and changing your strategy.

Cashflow: don't Treat your Dream as Investment

One day I helped my friend hosting a cashflow game. After the game set I heard a guy talking to others:

"You know that? There's a tip of choosing a dream! To me, I would choose this one therefore I may get there by rolling dice one time only."

He pointed at a dream space, which is 5 spaces far from the starting place of Fast Track. Indeed, it's easy to get there by rolling dice one time.

I reply him calmly and cold:

"Good. But, why would you let the dice trap your dreams?"

Investments are judged by reality, numbers, and market. Dreams, however, are not investments. Dreams are the goals of players and the reason why players invest. In order to make dreams come true, players invest, add assets, increase passive income, get financial freedom, and then do their best to make their dreams come true. If you treat your dreams like investments, you will destroy your inspiration. You'll be the winner only on the game board forever without your inspiration.

One of the statement of Richdad series is to tell us not to be trapped by your current condition. And that's why it is said:

"Poor dad said: 'I can't afford it.'

Rich dad said: 'How can I afford it?'"

Decide your dream, and then think about the ways to "get" the dream.

Thinking that "which dream is easier to get?" will make you a poor dad on Fast Track.

Cashflow: Quadrants

The Cashflow 101 rule tells us that only incomes from B and I quadrant may help us get out of the rat race. But an experienced player has incomes from all of the 4 quadrant, E, S, B, and I quadrants.

The income from B and I quadrant, like rent, business revenue, and dividend, is for passive income.

The income from E quadrant, like wages, is the basic of financial health.

The income from S quadrant, like capital gain income and negotiation income, is the shortcut to Big Deals.

Players may get into trouble without anyone of the kinds of income. You may not win the game without passive incomes. You may not even pay for your lunch without your wage. You may hard to jump out of rat race without capital gains. It's not good to rely on wages and capital gains, but it's not good to ignore them, either.

It's always good for you to learn to make money by two or three ways.

Cashflow: Doodads

The 3 unwelcome condition in Cashflow should be downsized, baby and doodads.

But unwelcome doodads takes a lot of time in our daily life. Yes, time. doodads not only takes our money but also our time away.

Think about it. If you land on doodads, you would feel upset because of the lost one turn that should have brought you an opportunity or a market card rather than your losing $10 for coffee. In a game, we always hope to land on doodads as less as better. But we often "land on" doodads in real life. How many times do we shop, drink beers, or plan our vacation next month? Even though we don't pay much for these doodads, but we spend much time still.

Can we, however, take all doodads away from our life? No. The game shows almost no impassion, except few for investment and negotiation. The lost impassion with interaction between families and friends appears in doodads. We don't need to care about the impassion while playing game, but we have to do while living.

Even though "doodads" is necessary in life, we may "simplify" these doodads costs. We may choose to have some tea at home instead go to Starbucks. We may also choose to have a picnic in a park instead a family vacation costs $2,000.