Cashflow 101 Gametime Report

I arrived late to yesterday's game at the library and took over for G, a librarian, who needed to go back to work. AK was a doctor. She struggled with continually picking up duplexes and large down payment houses in the Big Deal pile, which only added to her passive income a few hundred dollars at a time. Because she was a doctor, she had about $10 000 in expenses, which is a lot of passive income to build up.

I won the game by landing on my cheese/dream, fishing in Montana, after I had gotten another $20 000 positive cashflow on the fast track from a few businesses. I got out of the rat race with two high ROI (return on investment) businesses--a coin telephone business, and a pinball machine arcade. Do people achieve 96% ROIs in real life? However, getting out of the rat race took me more than an hour, even after coming late and taking over for G. So, I am back to the beginning of the cycle in aiming to get out of the rat race in under an hour three times in a row.

After the game, LL scrambled to get to the self-storage facility before it closed to store the game over night. I stuck around at the library and found another RichDad Advisors book. It is The ABCs of Getting Out of Debt: turn bad debt into good debt and bad credit into good credit. It is by Garrett Sutton. Robert Kiyosaki provides the forward. Robert must be making a fortune of passive income from his whole series of "advisors" books; every time I turn around, I notice a new title in the series!

Current Status

Initially, I though this blog would cover my experiences playing Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow 101 boardgame. I've played about 20 games since last August, and it might be too much to try and recount all of it. Let me try and bring readers up to speed with the relevant and important points.

I think I stumbled upon Rich Dad Poor Dad in 1999 at Borders. I ordered the game a year or two later and played with my Mom once or twice, but she wasn't that interested. The game sat unused for a number of years. I went away to Boston after 9/11 and got an Associate of Arts.

In mid-2006, LL posted on craigslist asking for Cashflow 101 players, and I responded right away. We met at the library a few days later and would continue to meet weekly. Because he was still trying to recruit other players, and I wasn't sure I could make all his desired gametimes, I offered to let him keep the game so that he could have on hand should there be a game I couldn't attend. Getting the game to LL took some back and forth. He never called me and it all had to be arranged through email. When I met him at the library and saw his layers of Walmart plastic bags, I put two and two together. I asked if he was homeless, which he confirmed. Since this time, LL has stored the game in his storage locker, which he visits morning and evening to get the appropriate items for daytime or nighttime homeless life.

I am frustrated with LLs procrastination, as well as my own. I see much of myself in him, which scares me. I started this blog in October, and he was talking about startin one way before that. In fact, LL is the one who gave me the idea in the first place. LL is still "studying" magazine articles on blogging and a book called Blogwild, for small business blogging.

Every so often, we will meet several times in one week for games, as we did last week. I especially went for this after LL read the letter from Robert included in the game saying that getting out of the rat race in under an hour three times in a row is a good benchmark to shoot for. This was something specific and measurable to shoot for. Specific and measurable is criteria frequently cited as very necessary for success in goal-setting and project management literature. After playing every week with no progress in the real world, I started to press LL about where we were going, and he did finally say that we should be playing less than once weekly by the end of 2007, and spending more time on application. When LL found Robert's letter with the getting out of the rat race 3x in a row in under an hour recommendation, it made it much less vague, and me more satisfied.

I have been able to get out of the rat race (GORR) in under an hour two times in a row. Then, I broke the cycle and had to start again. I was able to GORR an additional time in under an hour before the next game which took more than an hour. So I'm at the very beginning again.

Right now, I just want to avoid LL. I sense so many hypocrisies in him and it's driving me nuts. We had some arguments which I might try documenting later and were practically flaming each other on the email. I've been told by friends before and LL himself, that I'm way too sensitive about these things. It's true that LL thinks arguing is "fun" and he's always "joking" because he thinks I'm "hillarious."

Secondhand doodads and the fastest game of Cashflow 101 ever!

This afternoon I spent $17 on doodads at Savers and learned I could have saved 20% if had brought in some donations as I entered the store, so I could have saved $3.40 if I had been more mindful, plus I shouldn't have gotten these doodads anyway!

It turned out to be the fastest game I've ever played--less than one hour from start to finish. I got a positive cashflow house on my first small deal even including borrowing the down payment from the bank! I borrowed the down payment for the second house and made a $65 000 capital gain on the first one. This let me get a plex and a pinball arcade on my next two turns so I could get out of the rat race. I won by rolling a 6 on a cookware infomercial investment which got me an additional $50 000 positive cashflow in the fast track to win.

I can't believe I didn't have any kids and was downsized only once!

$60 closer to getting rid of BAD DEBT and getting out of the rat race

Today I spent time putting up Christmas decorations in the public areas of a hotel. It is a temporary gig, and I'm expected until Wednesday. Today, I put in seven hours, but our lunch hours (and they are an hour) are not covered. At $10 per hour, that is $60 before taxes.

I'm very excited because last year I did this, but my mind wasn't focused toward eliminating my BAD DEBT, but instead zeroed in on wanting to hang out with Boss 1 whom I had a crush on. I hadn't been playing Cashflow 101 regularly back then. In fact, when I was decorating lobbies last year, I hadn't played Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow 101 for several years. This year, the gig was easier because I had done it before, I was more comfortable with the weird world of Boss 2, my esteem for Boss 1 was reduced and I no longer suffered the intense crush, and most importantly, I had a clear purpose: raise funds to eliminate bad debt--what a difference this change in mindset makes!

Procrastination to Progress Barking Up the Wrong Alley

After playing Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow 101 Boardgame on Thursday, I finally got it in me to call the owner of the small parcel I was interested in for developing a small house. I had been procrastinating on this task for several months. The conversation was smooth and I realized I had nothing to fear but myself. The seller's response was mostly negative, but at least I found out what he was thinking. Playing on Thursday also motivated me to finally find the specific zoning rules for the zone applicable to the lot. I had the entire zoning ordinance on my computer, but had not yet found the specific rules of this zone. Well, it looks like this lot would be too small to get zoning approval! Even if the zoning was changed to less restrictive zone, developing the house would not be allowed in that zone either!

Well, it took five months of procrastination, and then one hour to make the phone call, get the answer, then find the specific zoning information. I got negative responses for both, but it felt great, because now I know the answer and can move onto something else! It is a task completed, and no longer hanging over me. Contunually playing Cashflow 101 is helping me gently tackle these various steps.

YT, my fellow Cashflow 101 player, noted I obtained information that I was "barking up the wrong alley," which I thought was a great way to look at it, although not completely true. I actually realised I was lying on the sidewalk in front of the alley, sniffing around, but mostly hoping something would pop out of the alley and take charge, or that the pound, humane society, or friendly dog-lover would come and rescue me from the misery of peering into the alley. Finally on Thursday, I went into the alley, and barked. This was a shift from waiting/hoping/yearning for something external to come along and "take care of it" to internally initiated action toward gaining a result. I went from looking at the alley, to finally barking up the alley. The negative response from the seller and the zoning is irrelevant; I needed that information so I can move onto finding other alleys and opportunities. Hopefully, it won't take me five months after finding the alley to bark up it.