Last night I drove to the other side of the Bay to participate in a Real Estate Club’s (National Wealth Network) CashFlow game night. The only people I knew there were the organizers so I ended up sitting at a table with a bunch of folks I didn’t know.
Just in case you are not familar with Rich Dad’s CashFlow game read through this quick review.
I was the first person out of the rat race in the room (there were about 15 or 20 games going on at the same time). My table allowed me to pick my profession, so I picked “Janitor” for the ultra low expenses. A couple of lucky turns of the cards and presto I was out of the rat race with $1010 of passive income. If only my income needs were that low.
My strategy was actually pretty conversative I didn’t borrow a lot, and I only took the negative cash flow risk when I had some property I could sell (however taking that risk did accelerated my exit from the rat race). In contrast, Chad (not his real name) at the game next door, borrowed $300K up front and went for every big deal he could. He wasn’t too far behind me in getting out of the rat race and he had a lot more passive income and a bigger portfolio.
I did learn one thing new about the game. What I learned was that my strategy was fine for getting out of the rat race .. but it hampered me on the the Fast Track. I’ve played Cashflow before, but it was several years ago with perhaps less sophisticated players. At that time, we didn’t spend much time on the Fast Track because getting out the rat race was such an achievement. But having a bigger passive income before entering the Fast Track would have allowed me to play a bigger game on the Fast Track.
However truthfully, what was more interesting for me (than playing the game) was chatting with my table mates Everyone at the table but me was an active real estate investor .. mostly working short sales. Here in California, the homeowners that are getting in trouble don’t have any equity so a short sale is really the only viable strategy.
More on short sales and my table mates on the next post.
Real Estate Cash Dreams and Bust 