I love Monopoly. It’s a great game. It’s strategic, it’s fun and you can play it with your friends.

I’ve been playing Monopoly since I was 10. I remember I pulled out the game board and played Monopoly with my friend till 4am in the morning. It’s those moments you’ll always remember, playing the good old fashion board game while having those great conversations.

These days, I play Monopoly on my iPad every week. With the latest technologies available, you can play Monopoly on your phone, your iPad, on your computer and even on the Internet.

It’s an awesome game.

However, Monopoly is not just a game that you can play with your friends or against the opponent. Monopoly actually teaches you how to create wealth in real life.

There’s so many lessons to be learnt in Monopoly and it teaches you great Monopoly strategies you can use in real life.

This reminds me of the story of Robert Kiyosaki, his Rich Dad said:

“If you want to become rich, play Monopoly, the rules of creating wealth is all on this board game.”

Monopoly Strategy

Basic Monopoly Strategy

In order to win at Monopoly, all you need to do is bankrupt the all the opponents and own their properties.

In order to achieve this, you simply build hotels or 4 green houses. That’s it, as soon as someone lands on your properties, you get all their cash and you get more powerful in the game.

You win.

However, there’s a lot more to the game than building hotels. There’s several other Monopoly strategies that can help you win at the game and also in life as well.

Winning Monopoly Strategy

What’s great about the iPad version of Monopoly is that it keeps statistics of how many times you’ve won the game, how much cash you made, how many times you lost etc.

Looking at the statistics I have so far, I’ve played a total of 159 games and I won a total of 149 games, all on maximum difficulty. That’s a 94% chance of winning.

After winning so many times, I’ve discovered the following winning Monopoly strategies that you can also apply in real life. Monopoly really teaches you great lessons that we can all learn and use.

Here they are:

Save your cash.

When you first start out in the game, you’re given $1,000. This is a lot of money to invest in properties, however what people mostly do is that they spend it all by either trading with others at such a higher price. For example a property worth $120 and you buy it for $400 is too high. You want to save as much cash as possible by negotiating well. The lesson here is that in life, you should save your cash.

Invest your cash.

This one is a no brainer but always invest your cash into either completing your land sets to build hotels or buying other properties that you can trade. I find that if you focus on investing into hotels early in the game, you’ll win. In life, invest your cash into income producing assets.

Never give up.

This one never ceases to amaze me. There were times when all hell broke lose and I just couldn’t land on any properties. It seemed like the game was rigged and I was destined to lose. The computer kept landing on all the properties and I kept landing in jail. They built hotels fast and I nearly lost all my cash. They own nearly 70% of the entire board and I only have a few properties. However, if you’re in that situation where the odds of winning is extremely low, just keep going forward. Even if you know you’re going to lose, just keep playing until you lose. Giving up is a habit and you never know when your luck turns around. I’ve done this on several occasions where I was hanging by a thread but for some strange reason, I somehow clawed my way back, I traded properties, raised cash, built houses, generated more cash and built hotels. I won the game, despite my 100% attitude that I was going to lose the game. In life, never, never, never, never give up.

Cash Flow is very powerful.

You know those Railway roads? That’s cash flow. On each row, there is a railway road and if you own them, you’ll earn a lot of cash. Every time someone lands on a row, they have a chance of landing on your railroad. It’s equivalent to passing go and earning $200. Those railway roads are cash flow. If you own them, they will give you cash that you can invest into hotels. In life, you want to own cash flow assets that you can invest into more assets making you richer.

Increase your probability of success.

After playing the game several times, I realized that if you own an entire row, you’re virtually guaranteed to win the game over having hotels on the most expensive properties (Mayfair) on the board. If you strive your best to own as much land as possible along side each other, the opponent will have a higher chance of landing on it. Hence the lesson here is you want to increase your probability of success in life. Create more income streams, create more online businesses, create more avenues of income which will give you financial stability.

Having a high priced property doesn’t mean you’ll win.

Yes, owning hotels on high properties will speed you towards success, however the high priced properties in the game doesn’t get landed on as much as the lower priced properties. In Monopoly, I find that most of the time, the opponent will “go to jail” hence moving the opponent to the other side of the board where there’s cheap properties ahead of it. Since this happens, most of the time, the opponent will miss the opportunity to land on the higher priced properties. The lesson here in life is that any property with hotels on it, despite it’s value, is still very powerful.

Act very fast.

Early in the game, you want to buy up as many properties as possible. You want to also be the first person to build hotels. You want to be the first person to own the railway roads (if possible) you want to be the first person to complete a series of land. This game is fast and whoever builds the hotel first or a series of houses, it’s a matter of time when someone lands on it and the person gets more cash making them more powerful. You need to act fast in this game, negotiate, trade fast, get those properties and complete your sets fast. The life lesson here is that you need to act fast and be proactive in life so that you can get what you want.

Negotiate fast.

When you’re playing the game, you’ll most likely not land on all the properties that you want. Several other players will have the properties you need in order to build hotels. What you need to do is as soon as you see an opportunity to complete your set, you need to negotiate fast and grab that opportunity before someone else does. I find the best way to negotiate is to find win/win deals. If the opponent has 2 properties and needs one more to complete the set, this puts you in power and you can do a really good trade with them.The life lesson here is you need to act fast and negotiate well in order to get ahead in life. If you’re looking for a property in real life and find a good deal, you need to negotiate a good deal fast before another property investor comes along and snaps your opportunity.

Have a buffer of cash.

Always have a buffer of cash. Let’s say you’ve done well and you’ve got hotels and houses on your properties. Nothing can hurt you now right? Wrong. If you land on the community chest and get one of those cards that make you pay tax on all the hotels and houses you own, if you don’t have a buffer of cash left over, then you’re going to have to sell your houses and mortgage your properties just to pay the tax. Ouch. Moral of the story is, always have a backup cash for emergencies. In life, do you have an emergency fund for at least 3 months? If you were fired from your job, how long could you survive without a job? Have a buffer of cash so it gives you enough time to find another job and get you back on wheels.

Disappointments equal opportunity.

Just because you’re losing, it doesn’t mean that you have no way of winning. Let’s say you’re losing and and you’ve mortgaged all your properties and bout to throw in the towel. Don’t give up. What I normally do is start selling all my unneeded properties and raising as much cash as possible. Once I raise as much cash as I can, I build as many houses as I can on a row of properties I own and focus full force on those properties. As soon as someone lands on those properties, you’ll earn so much cash and you’ll build more hotels. Disappointments equal opportunity. One day, life with hit you with a ton of bricks, you’ll lose your job, your business will tank, you’ll lose something you love dearly. No matter what happens, in every disappointment, there will be an opportunity of equal or greater value.

Focus.

If you buy several properties and just leave them there, you’re never going to get anywhere in the game. Let’s say you own 60% of the board. Great, you own lots of properties but if you don’t focus on one set of properties with hotels, you’re not going to make much progress. The longer you wait, the faster your opponent will build hotels. Sometimes, it’s wise to have a smaller number of properties that are focused with houses and hotels. By having heaps of properties, all your cash is tied up to those properties. The best strategy is to mortgage those properties and focus on a single set of properties with houses and hotels. This will turn the tables. In life, we tend to spread ourselves too thin. Especially entrepreneurs who work on many projects. It’s been proven time and time again that people who focus on one thing, one project, one business, they succeed in the long term. Think of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Fed Ex. They all focused. That’s what you need to do, focus!

The Final Thing We Can Learn From Monopoly Strategy

Have fun. Don’t take life so seriously. After all, life is a game. You win, you lose. Enjoy life and enjoy the ride.

Good Journey.

Khoa Bui

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About the Author Khoa Bui is a best selling author, international speaker, corporate trainer and entrepreneur. He has been featured on Entrepreneur Magazine, Channel 31, Global News Network and more. He has a passion for writing, traveling the world and building online businesses. Find out more about Khoa here.