Mastering the Game of Money

My hubby writes very long blog posts that he works on for days. Today he finally published a new one in which he colorfully described how I play a “diplomatic metagame” to make him lose at every board game we play with other people. It was quite a hilarious read for me because it reminded me of the glee I felt when people followed my advice to crush him. The only reason people listen to me is because I do point out some great strategies for them and I know my hubby is brilliant enough to handle himself. He didn’t make mention of an awesome strategy I employed when we played Boom Blox this weekend so I feel like I should write about it here. Basically, we were playing a game with a friend where each player had four blocks that acted like air hockey pucks. The goal of the game was to throw a virtual baseball and hit the blocks of your color into scoring zones. If you hit your opponents blocks on purpose they will gain 15 points and if your blocks slide out of bounds it disappears in a poof. So somehow I convinced our friend to team up with me to knock the hubby’s block out of bounds. We managed to knock 3 out of his 4 blocks out with our blocks. Finally, he had one block left that seemed to be out of the line of fire of all of our blocks. So I said, “hey I’m going to knock it out, get ready”. Then my hubby said, “yeah right I’d like to see you try!” So I aimed my Wiimote straight at his block and threw my virtual ball. His block went flying out of bounds and he gained 15 points, but he had no more turns left and lost. Our friend said, “wow, I didn’t expect that, but that was a smart move!” My hubby was quite annoyed of course as I rolled on the couch laughing.

Anyway, there are a few games where I can eviscerate him one on one, but he never plays those with me. So what does all of this have to do with money? Well, I think personal finance and managing your money is a very complex game. There are rules, goals, and strategies and everyone plays a variation of it. This is how I visualize it.

1. This game is cooperative - Another thing the hubby didn’t mention is that I could be a pretty good team player in cooperative games because my “vicious” energy to crush my opponents is now directed at the larger and more powerful system of the game. I think personal finance is the same thing. Everyday our own financial health is pit up against larger money systems which we cannot control on our own. For example, inflation and the stock market are things people want to “beat”, and we do it by creating and buying into mutual funds, or sharing information as to how to stretch our dollars. These are cooperative mechanics that are quite valuable. So when it comes to our money, I think the hubby and I are on the same side.

2. The game should be fun – I have written before that if the goal of earning money is to just get more money then life is no longer fun. There need to be breaks from extreme savings and money management to enjoy the money you earn. Otherwise, the game would become a total grind and having millions of dollars would still seem meaningless.

3. Strategy guides do help - When you get stuck in a game you can look up a solution online or see how others played it. The same is true in personal finance. You can read about how financial products work and how others used them.

4. A little bit of sacrifice could go a long way – As I mentioned in the beginning of this article. I knocked my hubby’s block out scoring him 15 points, but he was out of the game. That’s similar to knocking out debt. You may have to sacrifice a bit of luxury to completely pay off a lender, but after it’s done that adversary is completely out of your game.

5. There is luck involved – Every good game involves a bit of luck. I don’t think everyone starts off on equal footing so some people do have to work harder than others, but it’s never hopeless. A good player of any game could overcome bad luck.

6. The end game - I think the end game is to get to a point where you don’t worry about money anymore. For some people this could be death, but I think you don’t have to necessarily be dead to get to a point where you have no more financial burdens. It is possible to generate enough passive income through investments and other ventures.

Ultimately, games are created to simulate many aspects of real life, and the topic of financial management is many times more complex than a single board game.  I think the one thing that makes real life so hard is that the rules and missions aren’t so clearly stated and there is a constant metagame of figuring out what to do.  Once you settle on a single mission, there is always a chance of finishing it.   So, what do you think your end game is?

Share This

Related Posts