If you Pass Go!

Monopoly is one of my favourite board games. For the sake of readers who are not familiar with the game, Monopoly is a board game where each player receives a fixed sum of Monopoly money from the bank at the start of the game to invest in real estate on the board. One person plays the banker, while up to 4 other players roll dice to move around the square board, landing on real estate of differing values and earning potential which they can buy and develop. When a player lands on real estate belonging to an opponent, they pay rent to the opponent. Rent could range from a few bucks to a lot depending on whether the real estate is undeveloped, or developed by building houses or hotels on it.

The goal of the game is to acquire and develop assets that compel opponents to pay you rent till they go bust.

As a kid, I loved being the banker. I loved counting the crisp Monopoly currency and arranging them into neat stacks. As a player, I loved sitting on my last 500 bucks so my opponents wouldn’t know how rich I was. Growing up to become an architect in Real Estate, Monopoly has become even more attractive as a game, and a medium of self-evaluation. I can now calculate rental yields, and take more professionally informed decisions on which of the properties to hold, which to barter and which isn’t worth my smackaroonies.