How to Play

The Board Game
Manually

Adults and children are faced with daily decisions around saving, dealing with money, and investing. Unfortunately we are not taught these lessons at school. Even basic money skills are left to parents to teach their children yet most adults have very little knowledge themselves when it comes to accumulating wealth.

In addition to teaching you key investment principles, this board game attempts to simplify the wealth creation process to give everyone the education required to reach their investment goals. Whatever your goal, you must first work hard, save, and invest. It is that simple.

Why play this game?

Games are a powerful learning tool as they enable people to experience practical learning in a controlled, fun, and competitive environment. This board game creates a fun playing atmosphere to learn key investment fundamentals. This board game attempts to teach you;

• Investment concepts that you were never taught at school but wish you had been,
• The benefits and disadvantages of diversification,
• The magic of compound interest,
• Investment basics and the main asset classes available,
• How to maximise returns,
• How to manage investment risk,
• How to become independently wealthy.

About the Game

How to Play

Each player selects a player piece and places their piece on the Start square on the board.

Each player also requires their own Player Sheet. The Player Sheet acts as each player’s income and expense statement and balance sheet for the duration of the game. Each player completes their own player sheet.

Each player starts the game at Age 20 with a Salary of $40,000 and with the same amount of Normal Expenses of $35,000.

Each player rolls the dice and moves around the board in a clockwise direction. Depending on where the player lands, their income, expenses, and therefore savings may be influenced.

Once the player has moved to their new destination on the board the player completes their Player Sheet for that year only. Each player rolls the dice just once per year.

How to complete the Player Sheet

Age
Every roll of the dice each player ages by one year.

Salary
Each player has a starting salary of $40,000.

If the player lands on a Pay Rise, Promotion, or the Graduation square on the board their Salary is increased indefinitely by the amount specified on the specific square.

If a player lands on the square on the board titled You lose your job, the players Salary is reduced for $5,000 for that year only.

Other Income
If a player lands on a Bonus square on the board or receives an inheritance the amount is included in the Other Income space on the player sheet. This income is one off. That is, the amount only applies to that year only.

Total Income
Total Income = Salary plus Other Income

Annual Expenses
Each player begins the game with Annual Expenses of $35,000.

If a player lands on a square titled Baby Time, the players Annual Expenses increases by $5,000 for the rest of the game.

Other Expenses
If a player lands on a square on the board titled; Tax Time, Holiday Time, House Repairs, Car Problems, or Online Fraud, the amount specified on the specific square is inserted into the Other Expenses space on the player sheet.

Other Expenses are for one year only and therefore NOT carried forward.

Total Expenses
Total Expenses = Annual Expenses plus Other Expenses

Savings
To calculate the Savings each player subtracts their Total Expenses from their Total Income.

That is, in year one a player’s savings are calculated by;

Investment Value
Investment Value is zero for the first year.

From age 21 onwards this amount is carried forward from the New Total Investment Amount calculated from the previous year.

Total Funds Available for Investing
Each player adds their Savings for the year to their Investment Value which is the Total Investment Value as calculated in the previous year. This is the amount each player has for investment purposes.

Where can I invest my money?

There are five main types of asset classes available to invest in. Each asset class has different risk and return profiles. Within this game each player is limited to these five main asset classes. The table below highlights the characteristics of each asset class.

	Asset class	Characteristics	Income potential	Capital Growth Potential	Risk	Potential return
Defensive assets (focus on capital preservation)	Cash includes bank deposits, savings and cheque accounts	Suitable for investors who have a short term outlook, a low tolerance to risk, or if market volatility is high. Provides a stable and low risk income, usually equally in the form of regular interest payments. No recommended minimum timeframe.			Low	Low
	Fixed Interest includes government bonds, corporate bonds, and hybrid securities	Can be more volatile than cash, but are still relatively stable. Income return is usually in the form of regular interest payments for an agreed period of time. Minimum suggested time frame: 1–3 years			Low	Moderate
Growth Assets (focus on capital growth and income)	Property Includes direct residential, industrial and commercial property	Has a higher risk than fixed interest but less risk than shares. Less liquid than other asset classes resulting in a higher recommended minimum timeframe. Entry and exit costs significantly higher. Minimum suggested timeframe: 7+ years			High	High
	Domestic Shares	Domestic shares involves owning part of a company. As a part owner share holders share in the profits and future growth. Returns are derived from capital growth and income through what is called dividends. Shares are the most volatile asset class but over long periods of time, on average, has achieved high returns. Minimum suggested timeframe: 5–7 years			High	High
	International Shares	Like Domestic Shares, International Shares derive their returns from capital growth and dividends. Like domestic shares this asset class is volatile but over long periods of time, on average, has achieved high returns. In addition to the risks associated with domestic shares, currency fluctuations can also affect performance of International Shares. Minimum suggested timeframe: 5–7 years			High	High

Allocation
When making investment decisions each player has the option to diversify across various asset classes or to adopt a concentrated portfolio. The player must adjust their balance sheet in accordance to their desired portfolio allocation.

As an example, a player may elect to diversify their savings across each asset class evenly.

That is, the player elects to invest $1,000 in cash, $1,000 in fixed income, $1,000 in property, $1,000 in domestic shares, and $1,000 international shares.

Once the player has made their investment decisions their turn has concluded and the game moves to the next player.

Once every player has rolled the dice, moved to their new space on the board, calculated their savings for the year, and invested their wealth a performance card is turned over.

Performance Cards
The performance cards show the return of each asset class for that year. These performance figures are based on actual historical performance. While past performance does not guarantee future performance, by using past performance players can learn how asset classes have actually performed historically.

The returns are the actual performance of each asset class from 1981–2015. The returns for each asset class are derived from the following sources:
Cash – RBA 90 Day Bank Bill Rate
Fixed Income – UBS Australian Composite Bond - All maturities
Domestic Shares – ASX All Ordinaries Accumulation Index
International Shares – MSCI AC World Total Return Index
Property – S&P/ASX 200 Property Trust Accumulation Index

Performance
Once the performance card is turned over each player calculates the profit (or loss) for each asset class. To calculate the returns each player must first write down the returns achieved for each asset class. See above as an example.

Returns
Investment returns refers to the percentage change in value of the investment over a given period of time.

For simplicity reasons, this board game combines both income and capital growth over the duration of the year to calculate a total return figure. This is the amount used when calculating the returns achieved each year.

To calculate the return for each asset class the following formula applies:

New Market Value
To calculate the new portfolio value add the dollar return to the initial investment amount.

Example: To calculate the new value of the share portfolio the calculation is:

For international shares, in this example the calculation is slightly different because the performance was a loss. To calculate the New Market Value you simply subtract the loss from the Allocation. That is, to calculate the new value when the performance is negative you can use the following calculation:

New Total Investment Value
Once the new Market Value has been calculated for each asset class each player must add all of the New Market Value for each asset class together to give each player their New Total Investment Value.

Once each player has calculated the New Total Investment Value the round has concluded.

For year two the exact same process is repeated. That is, once again each player earns a Salary.

This is the same salary as the previous year after taking into consideration adjustments based on where each player lands on the board i.e. If a player lands on the pay rise space they adjust their salary in accordance with their pay rise. Each player rolls the dice and moves along the board. Each players Total Income, Total expenses, and therefore Savings is again influenced by where they land on the board. Each player completes their Player sheet, calculates their Total Funds Available for Investment, and makes their desired investment allocation. Once each player has rolled the dice and made their investment allocation a Performance Card is turned over. Each player calculates their return, the New Market Value and their New Total Investment Value.

This process is completed for 40 years up until the age of 60.

The player with the most wealth at age 60 wins the game.

The real winner of the game is the person who applies the lessons learnt by playing this game to their real life. If applied the lessons can make a huge difference to your net wealth!

Investment Opportunity cards
If a player lands on an investment opportunity space on the board they select a card from the investment opportunity stack.

These cards offer the player the right to take advantage of a unique speculative investment such as a property development, speculative share, art, friends business, etc. If the player takes up the opportunity they adjust their investment allocation accordingly. Any speculative investment made cannot be invested in any other asset class for that year as it has been invested within the speculative investment.

Depending on the speculative investment opportunity the risk/return potential vary.

After reading the card and the investment risk / return potential the player can decide to invest or to pass on the opportunity. If the player elects to pass the card is returned to the bottom of the deck and the game continues. If the player elects to make a speculate investment they write down their investment amount under the speculative investment section on their balance sheet making an announcement of the dollar amount of their speculative investment. The player then rolls the dice. Depending on what the player rolls the returns vary. The player can lose all of their investment or make a return. This is depicted by the type of investment which is displayed on each speculative investment card. After they roll the dice, the investment return is calculated and their balance sheet adjusted. The card is returned to the bottom of the deck and the game moves to the next player.

Example: Biotech opportunity. The player loses all of their money if they roll a 1 or 2. If they roll a 3 or 4 they make no money, but lose nothing. If the player rolls a 5 the player makes 50%. If they roll a 6 the player makes 100% profit.

To download the instruction manual for Diversification, click here.