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MONOPOLY, MONEY, AND YOU

For many, the nearly century-old game of Monopoly is a rite of passage. It introduces the young or first-time player with the thrill that comes with managing a windfall (or losing it). The bills may be pastel-colored, but there are serious financial ideas at play, from mortgages to budgets to bankrupting your neighbor.

The game “puts you through the financial wringer without any real-world loss.” Its roller-coaster ride offers a visceral experience that can be instantly applied to real life scenarios – sometimes verbatim, but always in principle. After picking up the basics of the game, fashioned after financial maneuvers made by moguls and MBAs, it makes us better players with our own money.

MONOPOLY, MONEY, AND YOU: How to Profit from the Games’ Secret of Success is an entertaining, instructive look at the mechanics, lessons, and the details that go into the aspects of the game. It offers true-life lessons behind every move on the board, the thinking that goes into a winning strategy, and how a “game” can help you become a better investor.

Before you can master the board, you need to understand both mechanics and rules. Here are the strategies that will propel your initial financial base of $1500 to success and a diverse portfolio as you advance around the board. As in life, the further you advance, the more your money gets converted. There are tactics for negotiations, handling life’s little curve balls (see the “Chance” and “Community Chest” cards, pgs. 161-164), and play-by-play strategies for rounding the board without losing your shirt.

In the style of Grand Master chess games, there are strategies from of Monopoly Championship winners, who offer their secrets of snaring the gold right down to the token you choose to represent you on the board.

Author Philip Orbanes has spent a lifetime creating and studying games. He started a game company in high school, which he sold before entering Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University). He was hired as Director of Creative Development and was promoted to Senior VP of Research and Development at Parker Brothers, responsible for bringing the venerable game company into the digital age.