Getting out of the Rat Race

A few years ago, Justin and I invested in a game called Cashflow. If you haven't ever played this game, you really should. They have a fun, kid friendly version but we chose to teach our kids with the adult version. The reason I thought it would be fun to teach this game to the boys is because of a Merit Badge that Austin was working on. It's a personal management Merit Badge and he was asked to keep track of his saving/spending habits for 1 month.

Just a bit of info first. We don't pay our kids any allowance. They have their chores to do each week or day and their payment is a bed to sleep on and food to eat. They also get all of their clothes bought for them. I was approached by his leaders and asked why we just can't pay him. I wondered if that would really help Austin learn how to handle his money. We just hand him money for a chore he's never gotten paid for and expect him to use his money wisely? I didn't completely agree. I do know that playing Cashflow gives you a good wake up call as to how your money really does work.

So, for Family Night last week, we pulled it out. The boys were sooooo excited!!! You get to pick a profession. Austin picked a Dr and was excited to see his income each month was $9,000. That was after he paid his expenses. The point of the game though is to have your PASSIVE income more than your monthly expenses to get out of the RAT RACE. Once you get out of the RAT RACE, you get on the FAST TRACK and the money starts rolling in! Justin was a teacher and I was a secretary. Braydon was a mechanic. Justin got out of the RAT RACE pretty fast! I got out soon after him and the boys were very dissapointed to still be in the RAT RACE when it was time for bed! They want to play it again so they can figure it out. I like it because you actually have a check register paper and have to keep track of all of the money you earn or spend. We spent time discussing why you'd want to buy this or that and why some things weren't a good idea to do.

Braydon is excited at the first of the game. Towards the end, he got a little depressed being in the RAT RACE for so long. (We all kind of feel that way after a long day of work, right?)

It took us a little bit to get the game started since we had to explain to the boys how a check register worked. Austin thought it was pretty neat to have a paycheck of $9,000 but then when we showed him all of the debt he had, he wasn't as excited. Anyone wanting to play this game, let us know. It does take some time to play but we're getting faster. Justin only spent 45 minutes in the RAT RACE. Our first time playing this game, it took 5 hours to even get out of the RAT RACE. It was a night full of learning and was fun to just play together as a family!