Financial Lessons Learned From The Game of Monopoly

Summary: Did you play Monopoly with your family when you were a kid? If you did, you probably learned some valuable financial lessons, even if you tipped the board when you lost. Personal finance isn’t a game, but there are lessons to be learned from the game of Monopoly.<br> You can listen to this 30-minute podcast for the Cliff Notes version rather than wasting 7 hours on a board game that will alienate your family and friends who don’t appreciate you flipping the board when you’re losing.<br> Lessons From Monopoly<br> <br> * Passive income is the key to wealth. You can buy and rent properties to generate passive income, rent out your houses on St James Place. They’re next to free parking! In real life, you can do the same. Buy property that you rent out. Stocks with dividends, bonds, your own monetized blog.<br> * An emergency fund is essential. If you have to sell houses in Monopoly or real life on short notice, you can lose money. An emergency fund works in Monopoly as it does in real life. Don’t make more than you spend.<br> * Improve what you have. If you build hotels on your property rather than houses, the payout is bigger. Renovate your home to sell or rent.<br> * Use jail to reflect, refresh and come back stronger. Assuming that most of our listeners are not spending much time in jail improvising shanks with which to smite their enemies, we’ll amend this to, “Use your vacation time to reflect, refresh and come back stronger.”<br> * Life isn’t fair; it’s what you make of it. Everyone starts out with $1500 and their butt on “Go,” but one guy gets to go first. Life is not fair for us all, except the bastard that got to go first.<br> * Life is about relationships. Building a network of contacts that can help you to get a job or help you get guests for your podcast!<br> * There is only one winner. But remember, in the financial game, you’re not playing against the Joneses. You’re only competing with yourself.<br> <br> Lessons to Unlearn<br> Not all of the lessons we learn from Monopoly are good ones!  Expensive is not always better. Money doesn’t solve all problems. Going to jail is not impressive. Not everyone plays by the rules. Bankruptcy is not the end of the world. Life isn’t about winning. Income tax is awesome. No, I made that up. That shit sucks!<br> Show Notes<br> <a href="http://www.dicemaestro.com/" rel="noopener">DiceMaestro.com</a>: A site dedicated to classic games.<br> <a href="http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/" rel="noopener">SmartPassiveIncome.com</a>: A guide to generating passive income online.<br> <a href="http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/8-personal-finance-lessons-i-learned-from-monopoly.html" rel="noopener">8 Personal Finance Lessons I Learned From Monopoly</a>: An article by a friend of the show, Jim Wang on his former website, Bargineering.com.<br>