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Understanding the difference between an asset and a liability is one of the most essential subjects in business education.

Our eleven graders trained their knowledge of financial planing by playing the game CASHFLOW® in their business studies class. The CASHFLOW® game was developed by Robert Kiyosaki, the author of the bestseller book ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad‘.

Our business teacher Ms Kristina chose this game, because it allows students to apply their knowledge from business studies in a fun environment and safely learn from their mistakes. This increases their financial IQ and will help them to make smart money decisions in the future.

This game is aimed to teach students how to spend money in a smart way and learn more about their own financial behavior in real life.

The mission of our school goes beyond academic development. SRIS aims to develop the soft-skills, needed to be successful in real life. Financial education is a core element of this approach.

The CASHFLOW Board Game by Rich Dad

At the age of nine, my rich dad started teaching me to be a rich man by playing the game Monopoly. So in 1994, my wife Kim and I decided, why don’t we put onto a game board what my rich dad taught me so people can have fun learning?

So this here is the CASHFLOW® game. There’s actually two game boards. The first thing here you notice, there’s two tracks. This is called a fast track and this is called the Rat Race. And most people are trapped in the Rat Race. So if you follow the advice of go to school and get a safe secure job and buy a house and have kids, you get stuck inside this Rat Race and you never get out.

So the object of the CASHFLOW game is to increase your financial IQ so that you can get out of the Rat Race to have more passive income so you don’t have to work anymore, so your money’s working hard for you. Then you get on the fast track.

To invest out here, number one, you have to be rich and number two, you should be financially educated. The reason so many pro athletes and movie stars lose their money is they have the money, but they don’t have the financial education, so they get taken by some of the biggest land sharks on planet Earth, who operate out here. So if you’re going to be out here, you need two things: money and education.

So that’s what this game board’s designed to do. And it’s to assist you to get out of the Rat Race and onto the Fast Track.

So this is the first game board of the CASHFLOW game and now we go onto a second game board, and this you may recognize, is a financial statement. This financial statement, now don’t get intimidated by it, but it’s a very important aspect of your financial education.

For example, my banker has never asked me for my report card. So in the real world, outside of school, this is your report card. Your financial statement tells the banker how smart you are or do you need remedial education.

So CASHFLOW the game, it takes the most boring subject on Earth, which is accounting, married with the most terrifying subject on Earth, which is investing, and we put it together in a game.

So now you’ve seen the second board game, which is the financial statement, and that part can be intimidating to some people. So the reason I love games and the reason I created the CASHFLOW game is whether you did well in school or not, the more you play this game, the smarter you get, and the problem with my poor dad is he thought making mistakes is bad.

Look, the only place it’s bad is in school. In the real world, the person who makes the most mistakes and learns from it, wins. I want you to make as many mistakes as you can. But I hear so many people say, Well, I played the game once.

I said, Well, how do you learn anything once? You don’t learn to be a great golfer playing once. You don’t learn to drive just driving once. True education is about making mistakes, trying new things and learning, so the object of the CASHFLOW game is have fun, make as many mistakes as you can. Take risks. It’s only play money. And have a good time. And that’s how you get financially smarter. And that’s what the game was designed to do. And that’s what makes the Rich Dad company different.

Best known as the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad—the #1 personal finance book of all time—Robert Kiyosaki has challenged and changed the way tens of millions of people around the world think about money. He is an entrepreneur, educator, and investor who believes that each of us has the power to makes changes in our lives, take control of our financial future, and live the rich life we deserve.

With perspectives on money and investing that often contradict conventional wisdom, Robert has earned an international reputation for straight talk, irreverence, and courage and has become a passionate and outspoken advocate for financial education.

Robert’s most recent books—Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and More Important Than Money—were published in the spring of this year to mark the 20th Anniversary of the 1997 release of Rich Dad Poor Dad. That book and its messages, viewed around the world as a classic in the personal finance arena, have stood the test of time. Why the Rich Are Getting Richer, released two decades after the international blockbuster bestseller Rich Dad Poor Dad, is positioned as Rich Dad Graduate School. Robert has also co-authored two books with Donald Trump, prior to his successful bid for the White House and election as President of the United States.

Rules of the Game

CASHFLOW game instructions: game set up

Rich Dad Poor Dad:

What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

The bestselling book Rich Dad Poor Dad tells Robert’s story of growing up with two dads — his real father and the father of his best friend, his rich dad — and the ways in which both men shaped his thoughts about money and investing. The book explodes the myth that you need to earn a high income to be rich and explains the difference between working for money and having your money work for you. It challenges the belief that your house is an asset and defines once and for all what is an asset and what is a liability.