With Christmas coming around the corner, family is on my mind!
In my family, we love to play all kinds of games. As a kid, we love Pinochle and Jenga and Match game and Chutes & Ladders and ‘The Dice Game’ and Yahtzee.
In reflecting on some of my favorite games (that aren’t listed above), they really shaped & influenced my perception of money.
Are you looking for an amazing Christmas present that will be both fun & educational? Look no further!
In this podcast, you will discover:
- The 3 games that my listeners recommended
- My favorite all-time financial game that involves drilling for oil
- My recommended game that boils down Monopoly to only 15 to 20 minutes
- The top 4 lessons learned from Monopoly (Hint: One of them involves a mortgage)
- How to read your opponent’s personality before you even start playing Monopoly
- The 2 games that I haven’t played yet and want to check out
Resources Mentioned In This Podcast
My Grandma’s Asparagus Soup Recipe
Board Game Geek Overview of Wildcatter
Everything I Know from Business I Learned From Monopoly by Alan Axelrod
Board Game Geek Overview of Puerto Rico
Transcript
Dave: This is Dave Denniston, welcome back to the Freedom Formula For Physicians Podcast. Well I am so excited to have you here. I just want to thank each and everyone one of you, for tuning into the Podcast today. I want to thank those of you who are leaving your calmness. Those of you who are responding. I am so excited to share with you, we are now over 9000 downloads. That’s right, we are at over 9000 downloads. As a matter of fact, we have had downloads in over 60 different countries. The big 4 being: Canada, Australia, The U.K. and of course the U.S.
And while this is your first episode or if you have been listening? For the last nearly 2 years. Let me just say, “Thank you” thank you from the bottom of my heart, thank you for tuning in. And taking the time to grow and learn and have some fun with me.
And so, my friends, with growing this Podcast I am wanting to make sure to get some great resources in your hands. And so, I have this “Year End Check List” that we put together. And I want to make sure you grab a hold of this. There’s basically, most everything I could think of, in a very quick format. I promise it’ll just take 5-10 minutes to go through this check list. You’re going to want to download it, by texting, “The Checklist” to 44222. So make sure you grab a copy. I’m going to be taking this down on January 1st. So, you want to get it now, by texting “The Checklist” to 44222. And we’re in the season now. It is December, Christmas is around the corner. You may not know this about me but, I am an only child. So, it was just me, with my parents growing up. And the holidays, Christmas, meant so much to me. Because we got to spend time with our extended family. We spend a lot of time with my dad’s side of the family, in Washington State, in the Seattle area. We would have traditions around the Christmas table. Traditions like having lamb, like having Swedish Meatballs, like having Grandma’s
Asparagus soup. And, the most hated of all, Lutefisk. Yes, that slimy, disgusting, fish, that is soaked in lye, and slides down your gullet. With absolutely no taste, you have to load it up with salt and pepper, and I was forced to eat it. But, all that being said, I actually, my favorite Christmas tradition is Asparagus soup. I’m going to link that recipe on the show notes, so you can check it out. Now, beyond food, which I love, love, love, one of the major Christmas things we did in our family, was to play games. And as a matter of fact, we played lots, and lots of games as a family. I sent this Email out to my listeners back at the beginning of November. And I had said to them, “Thank you so much for being an amazing listener.” I would like your help as I’m planning my December Podcast. I talked about, how in my family we loved to play all kinds of games. We played Penuckle, Jenga, and, “The Match Game” and “Chutes & Ladders” and “The Dice Game” and Yatzee growing up. And reflecting on my favorite games, I asked my listeners for what favorite game taught you lessons, and what lessons were those.
So, we had a number of different responses. My favorite 3, the first shout out to EuroGirl, EuroGirl had said, “Act your Wage” a Dave Ramsey game, was here favorite that she plays with her family. It’s a, she said that, in this game your lifestyle has to match your paycheck. Great lesson to learn, right? Now, she had said, kids play it all the time with their friends. The first person who pays off all their debts wins. Obviously great lesson there, thank you EuroGirl, for sending that off to me.
The next Email that I got was from Scott. Scott had said, I played a game called, “The Bargin Hunter” as a middle school. You had to go around the board buying things for your apartment. You could use cash that you earned from a job, or use the credit card. He said,
“I loved the credit card.” In “Bargin Hunter.” That old school kind to sit in the machine. That you had to run the card manually onto a receipt. And he says, it brings back great memories for him. He said the winner was the one who saved the most money, after buying everything for their apartment. And so, he said, he learned to be frugal, he learned to seek out the lowest possible prices for items. And he learned to be weary of credit cards because you have to eventually pay it back with interest. So thank Scott for sending that in.
And then the other one I wanted to highlight here, was from John. John of course, said, “Monopoly.” This is the game that he played with family and close friends, every single week. And he said, for him, he learned to take a chance. He really misses the times of playing Monopoly. For him, it was about dealing with others, it was about friendships, it was about kids. And it was a wonderful memory for him. So, we’ll talk more about Monopoly later. But, from me there are the three top financial games of all time. And I’d like to talk about each of them here for a little bit. So, as you’re looking to shop, as you’re looking to teach financial lessons. You’re still going to have some fun. I highly, highly, highly, recommend 3 games. The first game is called, “The Wild Catter.” Wild Catter is my favorite game of all time. And yes, it is like, Monopoly, but it’s Monopoly on steroids. The purpose of this game “Wild Catter” comes from this term, of drilling for oil. And so, Wild Catter, are some of went around trying to drill for oil, trying all kinds of different stuff. And, when you drill for oil, you get an oil rig, or a dry hole. And so, you have this concept that it, if you don’t hit that. That you lose, that you have to pay money. And what happens in Wild Catter. It’s just like Monopoly. Where you have different colors all through-out the board. The “Chance” and “Community Chest” cards, they are called, “Wild Cat” and “Blow Out.” And so, generally, the blow-out cards are bad. Generally, the
“Wild Catter Cards” are good. What’s fun about this game. One of my big frustrations with Monopoly is? Of course, you had to collect all three cards of a color, or two cards of a color. Depending on what color property in order to get a Monopoly. Well, here in this game? You can start building houses, if you will? Immediately with just one properties. So, to me that stimulates a lot more real life, right? You don’t have to buy a whole block of houses to make money off of real estate. You can buy just one. So, what happens here, when you buy a property. There are odds on these cards. And the odds are different property to property. Properties that are the same color, are going to have similar odds, for example. Initially when your exploring it’s more difficult. On some of them, you have a die that you roll. On all of them, you have a dye that you roll, when you’re trying to make money. And so, the first time is, much more difficult when you’re “Wild Catting.” You either have to get a “One” or a “Two” for example. And so, if you roll, 3, 4, 5, or 6, you get a dry hole, which costs you money. If you get a one or a two, now you get a producing well. And after you get that first producing well, it becomes easier. You then need a “4” or a “3” or a “2” or a “1” for example to hit on the well. And so, I love that randomness, I love the weighing of the odds.
That in real life, the first time you take a risk, it’s hard. You’re more likely to lose money than gain money. But, once you’ve done it? You can make money again, and again, and again, with better odds. Somethings, once you hit, you’re going to hit it every single time. And there’s actually properties that do that, where it goes up to a “5” for example. Where you have a very low probability. I’m saying, once you hit, the first time. And also what’s really cool, about this is? You have a choice. With which kind of expensive investment or lease expensive investment do you want to make. So, they have different colored tokens that are oil rigs. One is, Gold, one is, Silver. The gold obviously has more expensive, but, it produces more. And on these cards, it gives you all the probability, as it shows you the cost, of all of these things. So, you really have to make smart decisions with your money. So, to me, it shows you the opportunity cost. It tells you about the risk that you take. And if you’re careful, and take a risk? And weigh those two things together? You can win this game. Now, the other thing I love about this game? That is different from Monopoly. With Monopoly, you go around the board, you go past “GO” you collect money, right? In this game “Wild Catter” you have to invest. You don’t just pass “GO” and collect money, just for being in the game. You have to invest, in order to collect money when you pass “GO.” And not that you collect. It’s based on how well, you’ve done in your investments. So, if you’ve done extremely well, and you’ve been like a combination of luck and skill, you make a ton of money, millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mean-while, if you’ve made bad investments. And have had bad luck, then you don’t collect anything. And you could be out of the game really quickly if you’re not smart, about budgeting it out. And having money to make investments. So, I love that about
“Wild Catter.” The other thing, I think, is most important about all of this, just the lesson, and the idea of risk. It takes risk to make money. Right, if you just sit on your hands. Eventually, people are going around you are going to invest. And you’re going to have to pay them, as the cost goes higher and higher, and high, and higher. So, check out, “Wild Catter.” It’s an awesome game. I’m going to have a show link note. The show notes to www.boardgamegeek.com, that talks a little bit about it. And you can add to the collection, and check it out. Of course it’s often available on EBay.com and Amazon.com, and places like that.
The next game that I love, is called, “Modern Art.” And there’s actually a write-up done on this, that I am going to read to you here. I had Actually personally, first discovered this game, playing with my cousins. And what is so cool, about this game, is? Each player has a handful of cards, that represent paintings by different artist. And you can think of an artist being much like a suit kinda thing, kinda like a normal deck of cards anyway. Players go around the table, and they auction off paintings. The highest bidder, collects the painting. And at the end of the round, the paintings are sold. The most popular artist have some of the most valuable paintings. Followed by the next most popular and so on. So, this game gives players money with which to bid on the next round. So, it’s worth-while to note that if artist maintain their popularity. That they will always have some value to their paintings. And the winner of this game, is the player with the most money at the end of 4 rounds. So, it’s really cool, about modern art. Is in essence, it teaches us concept of a free market. And, what you learn from this game, is that relative values change over time. As the game goes on, some artists stagnate, while others sky rocket in value. And if you just keep betting on the same thing over, and over again. You’re going to lose out to people who diversify their investments. Another lesson here, you’re going to win by finding bargains. And riding their escalation. And so, the real key here is? It isn’t just modern artists, like the stock market, and it’s looking at the game situation in front of you, determining which artist is going to make the biggest value jump? And then buying their paintings.
So, the best one that picks it, will be right. And the other, thing that’s on this article is the www.simpledollar.com that talks about modern art here, that I’m going to link for you, is www.bubblesalwaysburst.com, they write here that whenever people start bidding like crazy for one artist. A good player will hold-off on investing. And will look to somewhere else to invest their money. And of course there’s a lot more to this game. But, I think teaching the bubbles. Teaching about how things get bid-up. Teaching about diversification, is a really cool thing about this game. And it gets chips. So, it has a little bit of a poker to it. So, “Modern Art, really fun game.
The third game, that I’d like to bring to your attention is, the Monopoly card game. So, not the board game, but the card game. What’s so fun about this, game is, it’s just like Monopoly. The difference is, that you end up, having to finish your game. And all that 15-20 minutes. And so, it can be really short, it doesn’t have to last hours and hours and hours, and hours long, like,
“Wild Catter.” Or the original Monopoly, game can. So, I highly recommend the monopoly card game. It’s really fun, it goes, you get 3 monopolies, there’s actually another version. That was based off of collecting a certain amount of money. Unfortunately there are all out of print. From what I see online, you can pick it up for like $5, $6, $7, $8, $9, $10.00, on Amazon, even though it’s out of production. And we had first found it at Target a long time ago. And speaking of Monopoly? I wanted to bring out this book I had read called,
“Everything I Know About Business, I Learned From Monopoly.” This is by
Allen Axelrod. (ISBN – 10: 0762416947) and there was, some really interesting things, that Allen said in here that I wanted to draw out to you. He had said, here in this book. That
Parker Brothers began to distribute the board game Monopoly nation-wide in 1935, and it became an instant hit. Something about this, you guys. This was the depression, when Monopoly came out. What a time for this game, right? And for many people, he writes in here, business, the marketplace, capitalism itself were not working the way they were supposed to. Companies were going belly-up, people were out of work, people were losing their farms, and their homes. So, in this time, when this game modeled capitalism. And created a world which where people received salaries, properties were bought and sold, taxes levied. Some players got richer, some players poorer. And then actually all players go bankrupt at the end, except one. Can you imagine, how much people related to that at the time. What’s really fun about this book. And it really gave me some insights into Monopoly. That I just really didn’t think about before. And one of the things he talked about here, was, the opportunity equation. And what he said was, in an uninterrupted stream of opportunity aimed only at you. It would be like a steady diet of chocolate mousse, too much of a sweet thing. He said, it would also take the dynamic quality out of the game. He talks about your decision not to buy “Connecticut Avenue,” It means that someone else has the opportunity to buy it. And not just if they happen to land on it, 3, or 6, or 7, moves in the future. But, immediately at auction. And I know I use this a lot when I play Monopoly with friends and family. And, what I think is that’s so interesting? That opportunity cost in Monopoly. The idea that if you don’t take advantage of something now, it may not be around later. Here are the 5 lessons, I’m sorry, the 4 lessons that Allen Axelrod, listed in this book, from Monopoly. He said, first in Monopoly, as in life, reaching foolishly beyond your means. Will very likely result in misery. Second lesson, stretching and intelligently, but aggressively, to the edge of your means, is often necessary to win at Monopoly. In life this stakes are much higher course, the consequences of each risk, both much greater, alas usually more permanent. Never-the-less, aggressive but intelligent risk is part of living, working, and doing business deals.
He said, third, in Monopoly, third lesson here, the failure to take risks, almost certainly guarantees you’re going to lose. But, what about in life? There are probably plenty of people, no one knows how many? Who are reasonably in even unreasonably content to living fully wrapped within their means. No matter how modest, those means maybe. These people shun risks. Are they losers, are they winners, are they something else? So, it’s this whole idea of taking risks, the failure to take risks. What does that look like in life, as well as in the game? Fourth lesson, Parents often say, they like Monopoly, because it teaches kids something about the value of money, handle it responsibly, living within your means. Yes, the game does provide kids that kind of flight simulator. But, the far more compelling lessons of the game. Are those that expose as an illusion, the sense of safe haven that comes with avoiding risk. He says the shrink from risk in Monopoly is to really opt out of the game itself. Not this kind of opt-out that saves you from losing. On the contrary, consistently avoiding risk, you almost certainly lose in the end. And so, my friends, we have to take risk, we have to step out, and take these leaps of faith. Now here are some fun lessons, some fun things that I didn’t think about, in the game. On page 59, here in the book, it talks about the mortgage as a tool of opportunities. He said, some players look upon mortgaging as strictly, an emergency measure, something to be avoided, unless you are truly up against the wall. This is a necessary panic alert waste offer of a conservative policy. Business both public and private runs on borrowed money. Borrowing creates necessary cash flow, giving you flexibility to do what you need to do, when you need to do it, or when the time is right. So, he’s saying here, basically. You don’t want to just look at mortgaging properties in Monopoly as an emergency measure. You want to do it early in the game to help you put houses on. One of the things he talks about in this book is? Crowding out the housing supply. There’s only so many houses in the game. So, you don’t necessarily just want to grab a hotel. You’re actually better off putting 3 or 4 houses on your properties, in order to crowd out the supply of the market, and control your opponent. So, if they do get a Monopoly that they can’t do any houses, if you already have put them up. And you’re better off mortgaging to do some of those kinds of things, to create the cash to do so.
One of the other things that he brought about, that I had forgotten, on page 76, it talks about income taxes and a short history. And what he said, was that, the income taxes did not start until 1913. So, here we are, 250 years about, in our country. And the income tax has only lasted 100 of those, isn’t that something? It took an amendment, 16th Amendment to add, income taxes. And the reason for that, working class, and middle class Americans complained it was fundamentally unfair for the rich and poor to pay the same tax. So, they called instead, to tax our income, isn’t that something? I did not remember that. But, once I had read it, it was like, oh yeah, I did hear about that. So, income taxes haven’t always existed and of course our own social security taxes, during the great depression and World War II.
Now, one of the other interesting things in the game, that I thought was the carma of kind of picking the pieces. And one of the things that it talked about here in the game, was that you can read other players in the game most often by the pieces that they pick. Like, for example, if someone picks the dog, the scotty dog, they’re in it for fun. They aren’t necessarily in it necessarily to win. They are in it just to participate. Whereas, some of the other tokens, like the race car, or the cannon, is someone who’s much more aggressive. And is out to win. Where as someone who picks the old shoe. Is someone who’s down on themselves. And they don’t think that they can win. So, I thought that was, interesting, the other thing, that was fascinating. That I never thought about it necessarily, context. Was the probabilities of going around the board?
So, he said, that, according to a Monopoly companion guide, that the orange properties, in Monopoly have a frequency of 52.4% with a pay-off of 25. So, the best Monopoly to have are the oranges. Because they have the best pay-off, and the most frequency. Followed very closely by the red properties, with a frequency of 53%, pay-off of 19. So, some really fun things in this book. As you play Monopoly next. As you look to play Monopoly card game, maybe as you look to do “Wild Catter” or “Modern Art” definitely enjoy your family, and enjoy the season. I do want to have a shout out to a couple of other games that I was reading about, that I haven’t checked out. If you have check out these games, let me know what you think about them. The game that was most highly recommended, was, “Puerto Rico.” So apparently, it’s the ultimate financial board game. If you’ve played it, let me know what you think about it. And followed by, “Aquiring” Which apparently is like scrabble, but, somehow you do corporations. And it’s about merging and acquiring stuff. So, I would love to know if any of you have tried those games. But, my friends, the purpose of this Podcast, the purpose of what we’re talking about, here today, is, let’s learn these financial lessons. Let’s make sure, that we are teaching our kids financial lessons to help them out. So, I hope in your Christmas gifts. That you can pass on a gift of fun. And you can pass on a gift of games. Make sure, I mentioned earlier make sure to grab the check list. Make sure, send in by a text “The Checklist” to 44222, to grab your year end ultimate check list.
And my friends, let me leave you with this. I know you have an abundance of God given talents and skills. That within you, you haven’t even begun to reach for yet. I believe that you are an amazing doctor. I believe that you are a physician, who can reclaim the life of medicine.
Further-more, you have the ability to be financially free. You have the ability to slash your debt, slash your taxes, and be financially free. And sometimes my friends, we all need a coach, in a critical situation. And to help us uncover, and see things that aren’t in front of us. To see, before us, behind the tree. My hope for you is, today, that you’ve gained some fun, and you’ve gained some knowledge, something that you can implement. Something that you can take action on. And so, just know, I believe in your future. I just want to thank you so much for. Taking time out to listen to me today. For letting me be your coach. For letting me speak into your life, it’s just such an honor that I have. I just thank you for tuning in, your time is sacred. And I am just so delighted that you’ve chosen this episode, this episode here today, to listen to today. On your incredibly compressed schedule. So, however I fit into your routine. Whether you’re jogging, and listening to me in your ear buds. Or whether you’re in your car in your commute, or listening to me in the clinic. I just want you to know, that I appreciate you. I appreciate that you’ve chosen time to fit in time with me today. And have some fun talking about these board games.
For the Freedom Formula For Physicians Podcast, this is Dave Denniston. Remember my friends, slash your debt, slash your taxes, live a liberated lifestyle.
Hello my friends this is Dave Denniston, just want to thank you guys for listening to this episode. And if you want more ideas on financial freedom? I know, the last thing you want to be added to some list and spammed. I promise you, you’re not going to get that, when you join my list. And as a matter of fact, you can receive right now, a year end check list. By texting,
“The Check List” to 44222, again, that’s “The Check List” to 44222. And in the check list you should receive all kinds of great Emails, updates I sent free stuff to my subscribers. Time to get chances to hit and pick-up free books and all kinds of fun stuff. So, make sure to text
“The Check List” to 44222. So, very happy holidays, to you and your family. May the end of this year and the beginning of next, be some of the best times ever.
