Investment Tips From The Famous Monopoly
- 4m0•
- 23 Feb 2023
Sometimes, the things that we did in our childhood make sense now! Such is the case with the game of Monopoly also known as Business or Nava Vyapaar. This game is based on how well you strategize your money. Doesn’t it matter in our daily life too? The richest person wins the game of monopoly. Now, that you are all grown up, you need to ask yourself, how much wealth have you created? Monopoly has some important investment tips to offer. So, let’s look at what this 66-year-old board game teaches us about planning our investments and our financial lives!
1. Diversification
If you remember, in the game of monopoly, you acquire wealth by buying hotels, houses, and charging other players a rent on your property. So, the more property you acquire, the more money you earn. However, if you end up buying only one property, other players in the game can buy that out from you, leaving you to lose the game!
What does this tell us? It is always important to have a diversified investment portfolio. When choosing stocks and bonds for your portfolio, don’t put all your eggs in one basket; make sure you diversify your holdings.
In the game, you can choose if you want several properties or just a few with high rent, so that you can earn regular income. Similarly, you can plan your investment portfolio in such a manner that you have a mix of long-term and short-term assets that help you in your long-term wealth creation and generation of regular income.
Diversification ensures a good balance between risk and reward. Even if one asset fails to perform in a particular market, others in the portfolio will balance the returns. So, when you buy different assets, you are essentially building a balanced portfolio by spreading your assets across various financial avenues.
2. Passive Income
In Monopoly, it's a great feeling to own a hotel, right? Owning a hotel in the game is a winning strategy because you can then charge the highest rent. This shows how important passive earning can be in our lives. With the cost of living is growing day-by-day, many people find it difficult to maintain their financial requirements with just one source of income. Why not use this lesson from monopoly to add to your income source?
Various options are available to you that will help you to generate passive income. This is necessary particularly for senior citizens. Real estate can be one of the options, but, today there are other avenues such as Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP) of mutual funds, where you can withdraw a certain amount at a regular interval from your lump sum investment. You can also generate income through a highly diversified index fund or an exchange-traded fund.
3. Manage Your Assets Well
The winner in Monopoly is usually the one who successfully manages all the assets. Monopoly is all about managing different types of assets such as properties and cash. If you are not able to maintain enough cash reserve for various expenses such as rent and taxes, you will end up in debt or loss.
Likewise, in real life, you need to learn to maintain all your earnings and investments well. To win in finance, you need to manage all your assets well and make sure they are growing. You also need to know when you re-balance your investments.
4. Be Patient And Play The Long Game
If you have played the game, you might know how this works! To emerge a winner, you need to be patient in the game. Doesn't this apply to your investing journey too? To gain the desired returns, you need to be calm and patient!
While it's easy to get excited at the beginning of an investment goal, it's harder to stay the course. Many investors get impatient when they see short-term pitfalls, and they end up pulling out of their investments; this results in more losses. So, when you hold assets like equities/stocks, you should give them time to perform. So, don’t lose patience if the returns are negative and give your investments time to grow.
Always, remember, there's a light at the end of the tunnel — you'll achieve your goals.
5. Emergency Fund
In the game of monopoly, spending all your money will put you in the loser’s seat. While playing, you never know what a chance card is going to throw your way; you would be required to pay your taxes, invest to improve your hotels, school fees, etc. In such case, If you don’t have enough cash in hand, you’ll have to sell your asset or mortgage.
Here, is the most important lesson that Monopoly teaches us; it is to maintain emergency funds. You never know what emergency comes your way, but, you need to be prepared for it. You don’t need to keep large amounts of money at home or in your wallet. But, keep some savings aside for an emergency.
Many people don’t plan their finances well, and during an emergency, they end-up selling moveable assets such as their house and gold. To avoid this situation, allocate some portion of the money for emergency savings and be prepared for any uncertainties.
Conclusion
Board games are definitely fun, and lessons such as those taught by Monopoly are certainly not to be ignored. The investment lessons offered by a 20-by-20 inch board game will help you in a large way in your real lives. So, handle your finances effectively, learn how to manage risk and returns, keep your portfolio active and stable, and you’ll definitely be a winner in the investment game!
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