I've had this game for almost 10 years now (bought it when it came out). I've played it hundreds of times. I have both the physical game and the online version. I also read 5 or so of Kiyosaki's books and was a devout follower of his financial advice for several years.
What I like about this game is that it helps you to think "outside the box" in terms of investing and leveraging your energy. As a direct result of playing this game so much, I created an online business that is mostly passive and nets me $1,500 per month (I only need a few more deals and I'm out of the rat race!). From that perspective, it is well worth the $300 I paid for it years ago.
What I don't like about this game is that many of it's "opportunities" are get-rich-quick ideas that are so risky that anyone who can appropriately evaluate risk would run fast in the other direction! As a result of this "get-rich-quick" philosophy (that I bought into when I first began playing the game) I lost a year of my life and thousands of dollars to a bad business deal.
I also don't like that he's such a huge advocate for getting into debt (he would call it "leveraging your money"). This game highly rewards you for borrowing lots of money and offers an unrealistically low amount of penalties for taking those risks.
Basically, if you use ALL the same strategies in life as you do to win this game, you'll end up broke, in debt and possibly bankrupt. However, if you take the good and leave the bad, there are quite a few financial gems you can glean from this game.
I still play the game occasionally, but I now have a different real-life philosophy of debt (the borrow is servant to the lender). By the way, I highly recommend Dave Ramsey's financial material. He offers a much more sound "fail proof" system for building wealth.
I would only recommend this game to a friend if they had a solid foundation of how to handle money responsibly and I knew they wouldn't be lead astray by the faulty reward system promoted in this game.
This is a response to Wild Rose's review below (which is about the electronic version, by the way) because I'm shocked by it.No, this game is not going to teach you the intricate details of investing that you'd find in formal training (and it does not teach to buy stocks first and then real estate they are merely different investing opportunities).However, it does highlight investment opportunities that most people never think of! It's a "game changer" (pardon the pun) in how you think and how you approach investing and what you can invest in.Most people are tied to the thinking that 401K's are their sole method to invest.Whoever's reading this comment, ask yourself, "What am I currently invested in?"I'd put money that 85-90% would only think of paper assets such as stocks and mutual funds.How's that investment strategy treating you right now?This game shows that there is so much more out there.Saying this game is not educational is flat-out ignorant.Is it expensive?Yes!Is it worth it?Depends on what you get out of it.
Buy Rich Dad Cashflow 101 board game (with CD's) Now
If you are thinking this is a game like Monopoly, where you sit down with the family and clown around for a little while, it is far too expensive for that. You will be disappointed. Also, so far as games go there is a lot of number crunching (mostly easy math but quite a bit of it) so a considerable portion of your time is re-calculating your expenses and income. If you view it like a fun little game you will think it is a total rip off. It is actually a financial simulation and in my opinion really helps you understand money better.
It follows real life pretty well (not great.) It needs a few tweaks considering the date it was designed for and the fact that we might not know how to perceive if an opportunity is really as good as it appears. Opportunities and jobs these days are much more difficult to come by, but it is still very practical considering most people's comprehension of money.
Replay value is pretty good. I found myself waking up in the middle of the night saying "if I did this, then it would change that," and then I would want to play again to see if I could get it to work.
All in all I think it is a pretty good product and much more practical than just another book or seminar on finances because it is very hands on. It lets you understand what is going on considerably better than nodding your head as you skim chapters with fancy titles.
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This game is very educational.It allows someone to understand the Real Estate World and how to create a passive income.I do wish that it were broken down so that a new person to Real Estate would understand that there are closing costs, an actual mortgage that is set up along with the deal, and some way of paying off each property as it is acquired so as to earn more passive income.
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CASHFLOW 101 WAS DEVELOPED BY RICHARD KIYOSAKI OF RICH DAD POOR DAD FAME. HIS GOAL IS TO TEACH ADULTS HOW TO GET OUT OF THE RAT RACE WE KEEP CIRCLING AROUND IN AND THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX TO MAKE WISE FINANCIAL DECISIONS THAT WOULD LEAD US TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM. I RECOMMEND THIS TO EVERYONE 17 AND OVER UNFORTUNATELY WE ARE NOT TAUGHT THIS STUFF IN SCHOOL, BUT THE MOST SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE LEARNED IT.I ONLY GAVE IT 4 STARS FOR "FUN" BECAUSE IT IS A LOT OF WORK TO START OUT...BECAUSE WE DON'T YET KNOW THE PRINCIPLES OF HOW TO GET OUT OF THE RAT RACE, YOU PLAY THE GAME IN THE SAME OLD CIRCLE AND GETTING NO WHERE, LIVING PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK, FEW OPPORTUNITIES. WE FOUND OUR FIRST GAME DAUNTING AND YOU HAVE TO KEEP TRACK OF EVERY PENNY.IT'S WORK MORE THAN IT IS FUN, BUT THAT'S THE POINT. IT TAKES WORK TO LEARN HOW TO CHANGE YOUR FINANCIAL THINKING AND THUS YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE.WHEN OUR FIRST GAME WAS OVER, ALL SIX OF US SAID....WELL, I DON'T THINK THAT WAS "FUN", MORE LIKE A MENTAL WORKOUT...BUT AT LEAST I KNOW WHAT CHOICES I MADE THAT WERE WRONG AND WHAT I WOULD DO NEXT TIME.WE HAVE JUST PLANNED OUR SECOND (GAME)TRAINING.
This game arrived in a timely fashion. It is OK, my son was thrilled at first to try it out, but after setting up and turning on, the players just go round in circles and it seems you have to really work at bending the plastic "frill" on the bottom of each player so that they actually go forward and not backwards or in circles. So, after 1 day of use, it is now sitting in a corner collecting dust. There was also a little ding on the "field" upon arrival. I did not address it b/c this was a Christmas gift and could not afford to lose time.
