Did you play monopoly at all? If you’ve ever played monopoly, you’ll realise how long that game can drag, especially if you have experienced people playing it.
It’s like real life— you’re in the money game as long as you know exactly how to manage your assets and keep your properties.
What can we learn from Monopoly? Here are five real-world applications you’ll definitely find useful as you explore your real-life finances.
- Don’t save all your money: Calm down. We know you want to be the last money man standing, but if you’re planning to build long-term wealth, just sitting on your Monopoly cash won’t be enough.
First of all, as people start buying property and demand rent from you or you end up in jail and have to pay for bail, you’ll have to drop some cash and with no recurring income, you’ll soon be on your way out of the game.
In the financial world, even interest-accumulating savings accounts won’t give you as much value as certain investment plans like stocks and bonds.
You want to make sure you make smart purchases and invest your cash into assets that will appreciate in value and give you a greater return on investment.
So don’t be afraid to buy those houses, hotels and train stations if you can afford them and still have some savings to keep going.
- Make sure you save something for later: Yes, we know we just said not to save too much. But you also don’t want to end up owning five houses and not having any money to live on.
Keep some cash at hand for paying these unexpected fees— when you pick a bad ‘Chance’ card or have to get out of jail.
Do you currently have an emergency fund? It’s not too late to start one.
The average recommendation is that you save enough money to cover about three months of living expenses. This is going to be the stash you pull from under the Monopoly board when life gets tough.
In real life, you might have sudden expenses like medical issues, car repairs, family billings, etc. You have to be prepared to make sure you’re not caught suddenly or have to resort to acquiring debt.
- Learn to negotiate like a pro: When playing monopoly, you know very well how sweet talk can get you first place.
After you own one or two properties in a certain area and you need to get the third for those extra advantages, you’ll need to influence your opponents to sell you their property, usually in return for something else.
In real life, you will always need to negotiate and strike deals for new products, salary offers, startup/business funding, when asking for a raise etc.
You need to be strategic and do your research to get the highest value from that deal. Find out what matters to the stakeholders and target that pain point to leverage your demands.
- Don’t put all your eggs in one basket: You probably won’t win Monopoly by owning just one property and building 4 houses there. You know you can’t also go around buying properties and not have any money left to invest in them.
You need to move strategically to create your own luck.
In real life, you need multiple sources of income— active and passive income, salary and business profits, investment returns and earnings from your properties.
You shouldn’t bet all your earnings on one business /investment too, or else you’ll lose everything if anything ever goes wrong.
Diversify your portfolio— whether it is crypto or assets, stocks or bonds. Find out which ones have the highest/ lowest risks or highest/lowest returns and make a final decision with the advice of an experienced financial expert.
- Be disciplined and patient: In Monopoly, you’re in it for the long run. Some people start buying and spending right at the beginning and so they get bankrupt quickly because they forget to come up with a sustainable strategy.
In life, building wealth is not a sprint. It takes more than making money from your job— you’ll need to look ahead, create financial goals, lend and borrow wisely, pay off loans, set up new income streams, save for retirement, etc.
You will need to continue putting in the work so you don’t become the angry contestant that flips the board and walks away frustrated.
For people who haven’t played Monopoly before, this is your cue to try it out as soon as possible. For our loyal Monopolists, we hope you’ve learnt some new strategies for the next game— do us proud.
But more importantly, use these lessons as a guide to make more intelligent money decisions and you’ll be smiling to the bank to cash out soon enough.
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