It is amazing to see how so many people have no clue about money management that no matter how much money they make, they still retire broke. This of course can change if only they know how to improve their own financial literacy. Financial literacy is the ability to understand finance sufficiently to be able to make the appropriate decisions regarding their own personal finance.

The best time to sharpen one’s financial literacy is during an early age of childhood. The sooner you explaining to your children about money and money management, the better. If you are one of the many adults that never really received any education or training regarding money when they are young, it is never to late to start your own financial education.

One good and fun way to start, is by playing money management related games. Robert Kiyosaki, the author of the best-selling book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, created a board game called ‘Cashflow 101′. There are also 2 other games related to this one, which are ‘Cashlflow 202′ (for advance players) and ‘Cashflow Kids’ (for kids). The first of these series of games is now also available digitally, Cashflow 101 E-Game. You need to be a member of the ‘Rich Dad Community’ to be able to play this game online. Go to their website here http://www.richdad.com’.

The goal of Cashflow 101 is basically to get out of the rat race (the 9-5 job security) and tap into the fast track (financial freedom). In the E-Game version of this game, there will be 2 characters that will help you along the game. The first is Red Rat (RR), whose role is as your mentor, voiced by Robert Kiyosaki himself. The second character is Timid Turtle (TT) who plays the role of a newbie in financial literacy.

Throughout the game, RR will be answering TT’s newbie questions in a Rich Dad point of view. The questions are usually about bank loans, brokers and other finance related topics. The game also requires you to fill in your financial statements such as balance sheet and income statement. This will get you familiar with cashflow accounts and will help you distinguish which of everything you have are actually assets and which are liabilities.

The game starts with you being at the Rat Race. There will be several squares in this stage. The squares are called:
- Opportunities (receiving a choice of “Big Deal” or “Small Deal”)
- Paycheck (receiving monthly income)
- Downsize (losing and paying money)
- Baby (increased expenses)
- Doodad (one-time expenses on unnecessary luxury items either with and without loans)
- Market (a chance to sell property)
- Charity (giving 10% of your income will give you a chance to roll 2 dices)

When your passive income are greater than your expenses, you will be able to step into the next stage, the Fast-Track.

Once you are in the Fast-Track stage, your income is in hundred thousands. In most cases, the person who reaches this stage is usually the first to win the whole race.

This game sounds very easy to play but most people who tries to play this game looses many times in the first stage before eventually stepping into the Fast Track. There is definately lessons to learn in financial education. Playing this game will even tell you where you are at in terms of financial literacy and where your weakness is. Knowing your position will help you gain more knowledge in personal finance and thus sharpen your financial literacy. If you implement the knowledge you get from this game into your real world, it can give you the power to gain wealth.

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