The rules, a dictionary of money words and every formula you work out by hand. Glancing at a formula in the middle of a sum isn’t cheating — it’s part of the game.
How a game works, in order, from dealing out professions to winning.
Every player has a profession with a salary, taxes, a mortgage and loans. The goal is to stop depending on that salary: to buy enough assets that they bring in more money than living costs take out.
Once you manage that, you leave the Wheel of Life for the Dream Road. There you have to buy your dream or grow your income by 50 000 — whoever does it first wins.
You lay out the new and changed lines yourself: you drag each one into the right part of the form — income, expenses, assets or liabilities. The game never picks the section for you. Anything sold or paid off you likewise remove yourself, with the bin beside the line.
A property, a business, a royalty or a deposit you have bought is one line for the whole purchase: drag it across and both of its numbers appear on the form at once. For securities — shares, options, a short position — the numbers go separately: the quantity on its own, the price per unit on its own. Drag the first across and the line appears with one number and a dash in place of the other; drag the second and the dash turns into a number.
While you are laying things out, nothing is checked: move them about as much as you need. Once they are laid out, press “Recalculate” by each total that has changed: the number updates at once. That same button cannot undo the sum — it disappears; if you change your mind, put the line back in the list or press “Reset”. When everything is laid out and every total recalculated, “Confirm” appears — and that is what checks the form. Whatever is in the right place stays; whatever is wrong goes back to the list of new lines with a hint, and the total above it returns to its previous number. The “Reset” button sends every line back to the list at once.
The total is added up by the “Recalculate” button — but only when the section is laid out correctly. There are three buttons: total income, total expenses and cash flow. Passive income is recalculated together with total income; it has no button of its own. The three Dream Road lines work themselves out.
Only the totals that shifted during the turn are asked for. Nothing shifted, and no report is needed. The bank keeps your cash: there is nothing to recalculate there. Put a line in the wrong place and the game doesn’t punish you, it prompts you, and with each attempt in more detail: first simply “not here”, then the rules of every section, then the right one by name. An error costs you neither your turn nor any money.
Everyone sees a deal card, but the decision belongs to whoever drew it — and it is made at once, before the report is filled in. Look not at the price but at how much the asset brings in each month for the money you put in.
Any player who owns exactly that asset can sell it on a market card. The order runs clockwise from whoever’s turn it is, not by who clicks fastest.
If the sale price doesn’t cover the property’s mortgage, the bank won’t allow the deal until you make up the difference in cash.
On any of your turns an asset can be sold to the bank: it will clear the debt on the property and hand you back half of the down payment. It is always a bad deal, but it saves you when you urgently need cash.
Selling assets to other players and buying together are not allowed.
It happens on the payday square, when your cash flow is negative and you haven’t the cash to pay it. And when a compulsory payment — redundancy, or a gift for a child who has left — can be covered neither by cash nor by a loan.
The condition: passive income of at least twice your total expenses. Equal already lets you out. It is only checked at the start of your own turn.
The winner is the first to buy their dream or to raise their Dream Road income to the cash target by buying businesses. The game ends there — there is no second place for winning, and the rest are ranked by their results.
The game also ends when only one player is left at the table.
Money words in plain language — and where each one turns up in the game.
Something valuable that you own: property, a business, shares, a deposit. The most useful assets bring money in every month — and that is what passive income is made of.
A two-flat house with a flow of 200 a month is an asset: it sits on the balance sheet and gives you a line in income. Shares on this game’s exchange are an asset too, but they bring in no income.
A debt you have to repay: a mortgage, loans, a credit card, a bank loan. Almost every liability has a monthly payment.
A car loan of 4 000 sits in the liabilities on the balance sheet, and its payment of 80 sits in the expense lines. Pay the loan off in full and both lines go.
Money that comes in without your working: rent, income from a business, interest, dividends. A salary doesn’t count — that is paid for your time.
The house brings in 200 and the launderette 150 — passive income of 350. That is exactly what gets compared with expenses when deciding whether it is time for the Dream Road.
What is left over at the end of the month: total income minus total expenses. It can be negative too — and then you get poorer every month.
Total income 1 950, total expenses 970 — a flow of 980. That is exactly what you receive on every payday square.
The part of the price a buyer pays with their own money. The rest is usually borrowed against the purchase.
The house costs 60 000: a deposit of 10 000 in cash, and 50 000 on a mortgage. A deal’s yield is worked out on the deposit — on what you put in yourself.
Part of a company’s profit that it pays to its shareholders — for every share held.
The six shares on this game’s exchange pay no dividends, so they never appear in income at all — only in assets. You earn on them through the difference in price.
What share of the money you put in an asset returns over a year. It helps compare deals with different prices.
A deposit of 5 000 and a flow of 200 a month: 2 400 over the year, which is 48 % of what you put in. A deal costing 2 000 with a flow of 100 gives 60 % — cheaper and better.
Money placed with a bank for a term named in advance at a rate named in advance. You cannot take it out early without losing something.
Interest on deposits goes into the report on the “Interest” line. There are no deposits in this game’s decks, so the line is always zero for now — but on a real form it exists.
The right to buy shares at a price named in advance — the strike — before the term is up. It is a bet on a rise. You pay a premium for the right, and it is not returned.
A call on 100 shares, strike 50, premium 4 a share. The price rose to 60 — exercising it puts 1 000 in your hand, and over the option’s whole life that comes to 600.
The right to sell shares at the strike before the term is up. It is a bet on a fall.
A put on 100 shares, strike 30, premium 3. The price fell to 22 — 800 in hand, and 500 over the option’s whole life. If the price doesn’t fall, only the premium burns away.
Selling borrowed shares now — and buying them back later. If the price falls, you are ahead. If it rises, you are behind, and the loss has no limit at all.
Short 100 shares at 40: 4 000 goes into an envelope, but it isn’t your money. Bought back at 25 — you earned 1 500.
A long loan secured on property. Fail to pay and the bank takes the property.
The mortgage on your own home stands as a line in expenses. On a house you have bought, the mortgage lives on the balance sheet, and its payment is already taken off the property’s flow.
The position you are in when there is nothing left to pay your debts with. Property is sold to settle up with the creditors.
On the payday square the flow is −300 and you have 100 in cash — bankruptcy begins: the assets go to the bank, and you miss three turns.
Every calculation that is done by hand. Each formula comes with a worked example.
FormulaPassive income = interest + dividends + property flows + business flows
A salary doesn’t count here.
No interest and no dividends, the house brings in 200, the business 150.
FormulaTotal income = passive income + salary
Passive income 350, salary 1 600.
FormulaTotal expenses = the sum of every expense line
Including the costs of children and the payment on a bank loan. The mortgage on a property you have bought doesn’t count here: its payment is already taken off that property’s flow.
Taxes 280, mortgage 200, car loan 80, credit card 60, retail debt 50, other 300.
FormulaCash flow = total income − total expenses
Total income 1 950, total expenses 970.
FormulaReturn on a deal = (cash flow × 12) ÷ down payment
To get a percentage, multiply the result by 100.
A flow of 200 a month, a deposit of 5 000.
FormulaLoan payment = loan amount ÷ 1 000 × 100
Loans are taken in thousands only, and repaid 1 000 at a time.
A loan of 3 000.
FormulaCredit card payment = 3 % of the debt
Spending on the card turns into a standing expense straight away.
A cost of 1 500 was paid by credit card.
FormulaCharity = 10 % of total income
Total income 1 950.
FormulaThe cost of redundancy = the sum of total expenses
It is paid once, and after that three turns are missed.
Total expenses 970 — on redundancy, 970 goes to the bank.
FormulaSelling property = sale price − the mortgage on the property
If the result is below zero, the player makes up the difference — otherwise the bank won’t allow the deal.
You sell a house for 65 000 with a mortgage of 50 000. In the second case the buyer offers 40 000 against a mortgage of 45 000.
FormulaSelling shares = quantity × sale price
100 shares at 25.
FormulaThe bank buying an asset out = outstanding liability + down payment ÷ 2
The bank clears the debt on the property out of this sum, and half the deposit is left in your hand.
A mortgage of 50 000, and the deposit was 10 000.
FormulaThe write-off in bankruptcy = remaining debt ÷ 2, and its payment ÷ 2
Only the car loan, the credit cards and the retail debt. A home mortgage and a student loan are not written off.
A car loan of 4 000 with a payment of 80.
FormulaThe bar for leaving for the Dream Road = passive income ≥ 2 × total expenses
Total expenses 970. Passive income 2 000 — the exit is open.
FormulaIncome on leaving = passive income × 100
Passive income at the moment of leaving 2 000.
FormulaThe cash target for victory = income on leaving + 50 000
Income on leaving 200 000.
FormulaDream Road income = income on leaving + each business’s flow × (1 + its number of franchises)
Income on leaving 200 000, one business with a flow of 14 000 and one franchise.
FormulaA business’s resale price = (number of past purchases + 1) × down payment × (1 + number of franchises)
The buyer has to buy the business together with all of its franchises.
A business with a deposit of 300 000 has been bought once, with no franchises.
FormulaA dream’s price after someone else buys it = base price × 2, once
The dream costs 100 000, and another player has bought it.
FormulaThe result of a short = (sale price − buy-back price) × number of shares
You sold 100 shares at 40. In the first case you bought back at 25, in the second at 55.
FormulaThe result of an option = (option price per share − premium per share) × number of shares
A living option has a price of its own, and it is recalculated every turn: the gap between the price and the strike, plus the time value, which melts away along with the term. An option can always be sold while it is alive — you are handed that price multiplied by the quantity. The premium has already been paid and does not come back. There is only one way to lose everything: let the term run out.
A call on 100 shares, premium 4 a share. The option’s price reached 10 a share — 1 000 in hand, a result of 600. And if the option is worth only 1, that is 100 in hand and a result of −300: not all the money came back, but some did.
FormulaA share split = quantity × 2, price ÷ 2
An odd price is rounded: 100 shares at 25 become 200 shares at 13.
100 shares at 30.
FormulaA reverse split = quantity ÷ 2, price × 2
200 shares at 8.