Yes. I came in 9th out of 120 participants in the Cashflow101 Competition organized by NTU Investment Interactive Club. The first prize walk away with $500, as he finish the game within 15 mins. I took 30 mins. I got the consolation prize, for my first attempt in a Cashflow competition. (My first time playing the board game too!)
This game is created by the famous millionaire celebrity Robert Kiyosaki, on his principles of wealth creation. He has written many books, the most popular being "Rich Dad Poor Dad"(read upteen times), and has co-author with Donald Trump on a book "Why we want you to be rich". And many other (similar) books.
This game teach you "How to get out of the Rat Race". You don't win the game by having the largest amount of money in your hand. You win the game by building enough passive income to cover your expenses, which means, you have jumped out of the rat race. Passive income is income that you receive even when you are not physically there.
Let's compare...
E.g. 1) You love baking and you decided to open a bakery shop. You do the baking in your kitchen, and you hire a cashier at the shop. Yes, you start your own business, you open your own shop, you love making cakes and cookies, you have your own employees, but what you are receiving
is not passive income. It's still active income. Your shop will not operate when you are not there, because there will not be anyone doing the baking. When your shop did not open, your income stream stops too.
E.g. 2) You love baking and you decided to open a bakery shop. However, instead of you doing the baking yourself, you hire 3 chefs to do the baking, 1 store manager to run the operation in the shop, and 2 assistants to help out with the cashier and cleaning of the shop. You wrote out the plan as how the business will be run. At the end of every month, you totalled up the shop's profits, distribute your workers' salary, pay other expenses, and you keep the rest.
This is passive income. When you are overseas, or at home with your family, your shop will still open, because the shop can run
without you! You have created a business system for your manager, chefs and assistants to follow. Your job may just be visiting the shop, helping out, doing supervisory checks...etc, but you are not bound to it.
Above is a short explanation of what passive income is.
Basically, passive income can be built using several methods. Here are a few...
i)
Investments:
Investing 10 million dollars with 5% interest every year, ie $500,000 per year of passive income from interest.
ii)
Businesses:
Starting businesses, buying business, owning businesses. You build a business that will run by itself, that will work with or without you. Just like the e.g. 2 of the bakery shop above. You can buy businesses which have been built by others too.
iii)
Writing books:
You receive royalties from books you sell. In Robert Kiyosaki's example, I think he has received a lot of royalties from books. His Rich Dad's series, the iconic purple and black cover books, can be seen in most bookshops in Singapore, and worldwide too, in different languages.
iv)
Music/ CDs:
Michael Jackson is dead, but his family is still receiving royalties from all the CDs sold in music shops. Same goes for Elvis Presly too. Money continue to flow in, without them being there. Many of our favourite singers, Jay Chou, Lady GaGa, they are also earning from royalties.
v)
Property Investment:
You buy a house, but not for you to live in. You buy it and rent it out to others. You collect monthly rentals. The good thing is, your monthly rentals will pay for the house itself, and at the end of the day, you still have your house. And when your house is fully paid, you receive all the money from the rentals! (my dad has been doing that for 10 years!)
vi)
Franchising your business:
You had a successful business plan, and instead of you using your own money to open up more shops, you allow others to franchise your business. This is an example of how MacDonalds, and other businesses expand. You teach these franchisees how your business is run. They will then run the business, employ their own employees, and You, as a franchisor, you collect royalties from them. But the Cash is the big problem here. If you want to open a MacDonald franchise, you need to have at least $250,000 before they are willing to talk to you. Yes. "Talk to you" only. Shop renovation, machines, employees...etc have not been discussed. As far as I know, at least 2 million dollars is needed.
vii)
Internet Marketing:
This is one of the cheapest way to start building a passive income stream. It's the same as building a traditional business, just that instead of the 'bricks', you have the 'clicks'. It's way a lot cheaper, and suitable for most people now. You can make money online with or without a website, through selling of information products, selling advertising spaces...etc. If you wish to build an effective website, I can proudly say
SBI is the choice. You can read more by clicking
here.
There are a lot of other ways to create passive income, but it's just too many to write all out here. If you can think of any, feel free to post it here to share with others :D
Actually I'm not very surprised that there are not many people who heard of 'passive income', 'cashflow', 'Rich Dad Poor Dad' book...etc. I've talked to a few people to join me in the competition, but none joined me, till I bump into Jiawen and Jonathan (both formerly from TPJC) at the competition itself.
Anyway, I had so much fun playing the game with them, and it's nice to know many others who enjoy the game too. It's really fun if you play without the clock ticking. It's kind of stress when you have to fight against time to jump of the rat race. I have to thank the facilitators for helping out too, if you see how fast they are handing out
money to participants and supervising the game at the same time :P
I recommend that anyone who want to be happier in life, Play the Cashflow game. I would highly recommend it. You may not want to read the Rich Dad Poor Dad book, or other money strategies book, but you will definitely want to play this game!
I'm going to find ways to get this game set (it cost $200-$300/set), set up a mini-Cashflow club, and teach the people around me how to get out of the rat race!
Any Cashflow lovers out there? Would you like to join me to set up this game? Or Would you like to learn how to play it?
I'm done with the planning of the cashflow club, and I will make it as interesting and meaningful for everyone who attended and played the game! Look out for more details here!
