Cashflow Game: Insights And Learnings Part 1

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Now that we've discussed the basics of playing the Cashflow games, we'll discuss my insights, learnings and overall take on the games.

Cashflow 101 was said to be a way for you to understand how you handle money, and for you to be able to strategize how to get over being stuck in the rat race. Cashflow 202 is a simulation that will help you fine-tune your investment strategies.

Cashflow 101 Lessons:

I learned a lot in Cashflow 101. Most of them were insights. I didn't get the benefit of coaching, as people from Create Abundance 2020 may have gotten. But here are a few things I learned about my attitudes and behavior towards money:

• I hoard opportunities without paying down my loans in the game, when I first played it. While it was due more to the fact that I didn't know how to pay down the loans, in real life, I have crashed and burned many times in my career because I hoarded opportunities and didn't have the time to manage them all. In the game, the loans I made from the bank killed my game character over and over.
• I may cringe at spending on "Doodads" or non-essentials in the game, but in real life, I had successfully turned off my healthy fear in spending. Maybe I should learn to feel pain whenever I spend on unessentials so I could stop being a spendthrift.

Here are principles I learned through the game:

• Don't forget to repay your loans. Many a time, my game characters were "killed" because I didn't know how to pay down loans. In real life, I've found myself in a pinch many times because I made a choice to list down but forget about the loans so as to not mind the stress about it. Yes, I had full intention of paying down my loans and debts, but not bravely keeping these in mind caused me to miss opportunities because they were still around.
• Do things one thing at a time. If you're currently paying down loans, use more of your budget in paying down loans before you go full speed ahead in investing. Meanwhile, keep investing cautiously, keeping your cash flow in mind, so as to keep growing your income gradually still. In due time, your bigger income will help you pay your loans faster.
• Don't hoard opportunities just because they look lucrative. If it means a negative cash flow for you, skip it. Better ones will come later, when you are more able.

More lessons, learnings and my opinion on the Cashflow games in the next post.