money lessons – Rich Money Habits

Top 10 Things The Angry Birds Can Teach You About Money

If you’re like my wife who once got addicted to playing Plantz Vs Zombies, you would have heard the popular game “Angry Birds” by now. “Angry Birds” is a popular puzzle video game where the player uses a slingshot to launch the birds to try to destroy the pigs hiding under protective structures such as wood, ice and stone.

After a watching my wife get excited playing the game, I decided to try it myself. Lo and behold, I got addicted to playing the game as well. Now, my wife is waiting for me to put down the game so she can play. She’ll have to wait her turn this time around. 🙂

While playing, I realized there are some things about the game that are also applicable to managing your own money.

Here the Top 10 Things the Angry Birds Can Teach You About Money

1. It’s OK to miss

In the game, you launch the bird by getting ready…aiming at your target as much as you can…and then releasing the slingshot so the bird can fly! You missed your target? Try again!

In real life, it’s also OK to try again. You may lose money. You may feel discouraged. You may think your money problems are eating you alive because of a bad financial decision. It’s not the end of the world. You can try again. And again, until you succeed.

2. Some birds are better than others

In the game, there are three other types of birds that can destroy the hardest wooden structures when you “tap” on them. The blue bird splits into three small birds. The black bird explodes like a bomb. The white bird drops explosive eggs. Each one is suited for different instances. But all of them helps you destroy the structures easier.

In life, there are a lot of ways to earn money. The most common of course is having a job. You can sell your crap (according to Baker of ManVsDebt.com). You can invest in real-estate. You can invest in the stock market. Or you can just simply find other ways to solve other people’s problems, and they will be more than willing to pay you so you can take their problem away from them.

3. Birds don’t fly with the pigs

In the game, I always wondered why the birds are angry at the pigs. While reading more about the game, I realized they are actually trying to retrieve their eggs taken away by the evil green pigs.

Pigs can destroy your eggs. At least figuratively. Pigs are people who scam people of their hard earned money without giving value in return. Pigs are deceitful individuals who have nothing better to do other than send you a spammy text message asking for a prepaid load. The lesson? —- If you want to get ahead, don’t fly with the pigs.

4. Protect your pigs with a strong shelter

Ok, let’s try taking the perspective of the pig for a moment. If you know the game, the pigs are pitiful creatures. Because of their round shape, they just roll over the structures until some wood drop on them and they die. In the game, there are three types of shelter — wood, stone and ice. The hardest to destroy is stone. So it’s definitely a good idea to house your pigs made of stones.

When it comes to your money. Be very sure where you are placing your bets on. As some people say, put all your eggs into one basket and watch that basket. The key phrase is “watch that basket”. You have to protect it with all your might. Otherwise, you lose all the money you’ve got.

5. Life gets harder and harder…so you can get better and better

Since angry birds is a puzzle game, it gets harder and harder as you level up. For instance, the higher you go, the more strong stone structures you have to destroy, and the more weird looking pig houses there are.

In real-life you should try to learn something new every day. You can start by learning to save your money. Then you can learn to invest the money you saved and make it grow. Afterwards, you can then go on to other more challenging things.

Keep the hunger alive. Keep on learning. Keep on taking those challenges so you can get better.

6. The more you launch…the better you get

In the game, the first time you launch the bird, you fail miserably. The next time, you can adjust your aim so it goes a little bit nearer your target. And you can go and adjust your aim on and on until you hit your target.

In real life, nothing beats taking action. You’ve not really learned something until you’ve done it yourself. You can read all the books you want about investing in real-estate, but if you’ve never purchased an investment property in your life, you lack the necessary experience to truly learn investing not only mentally but emotionally as well.

Sometimes, people are held back by their own fear. Fear of failure. Fear of being wrong. Fear of being different from everyone else. Unfortunately, the more time you spend worrying about your fear, the stronger it gets. The ironic thing is once you take a little bit of action, the fear actually goes away.

7. Don’t try to break a stone…learn to quit

At certain stages of the game, you have to deal with stone structures. They are strong. They are indestructible no matter how hard the birds hit the stone. You can put everything you’ve got but as long as you’re hitting the same spot on that very hard stone, you will never be able to bring it down.

In life, it’s OK to quit. You don’t have to go through life being miserable. If you think that what you’re trying to do is not working, you can quit. If it won’t take you to where you want to be, then by all means, quit. You can be true to your dreams even if you quit often. The interesting thing is, the most successful people quit a lot of things so they can focus on the things that really matter to them.

8. Aim for the weakest spot

The trick to playing the game of “Angry Birds” is aiming at the weakest spot of the structures. The structures may be made of the hardest stone there is, but if one spot is made of wood, you can aim your bird through that one tiny spot of weakness and you can bring the whole house down.

This is especially true for business. If you want to be successful, you have to stand out. You have to be different. You need to offer your customers a new better way to solve their problems. If you do, it would be like hitting all your competitors in their weakest spot.

9. There are a lot of ways to get to your destination

In the game, you can aim the birds high so it arcs upwards and aim straight down to the structures. Or you can aim them horizontally so you hit the structures by the side. No matter what aiming you want to do, you can turn down the structures as long as you keep on aiming at its weakest spot.

There’s no such thing as one way ticket to success. Henry Sy became successful because of SM malls. Manny Pacquiao is rich because of boxing. Warrent Buffet became one of the richest man in the world by getting really good at investing. No matter where you are right now, you can be still be rich by finding your own way to succe
ss.

10. Have fun…no one gets out of life alive

The game is addictive because it’s fun. It’s challenging. It makes your mind think of different ways to achieve your goal of bringing the structures down so you can destroy the pigs.

Life should be the same. It should inspire you to keep on dreaming. It should give you challenges to overcome so you can tap into your inner genius and become the rich person that you truly are.

And it should certainly be fun.

Keep having fun. Keep learning new things. Keep believing in your dreams.

Cheers!

Plants vs Zombies Money Secrets Revealed

Do you want to know the money secrets of the rich? Discover these secrets from one of the hottest game these days – Plants Vs Zombies. This article reveals the money lessons out of this unusually popular game. If you haven’t played this game, here’s your chance to find out why you should.

These days, my wife is staying out late in the night…not because of work, but from playing plants vs zombies computer game. I was looking over her shoulder one time and noticed how concentrated she was playing the game. Curious why she gets overly excited over a simple-looking game, I was intrigued. While listening to her unravel the mysteries and strategies of the game, I realized there are 5 money secrets that can be learned from this hugely popular game.

Secret #1 – There’s a season for everything

There’s a season for everything. Just like in the bible, there’s a season of planting and there’s also a season of harvesting. At the start of the Plants vs Zombies computer game, you have to plant sunflowers. And when they bear fruit in the form of sunlight (weird huh?) you get points. The more you plant, the more you can harvest later on. It’s as simple as that.

Unfortunately, in the real world, we often forget to plant. We become impatient. We want the fruits (a.k.a. sunlight) right away. You want that new car, even if you don’t have any savings and you’ve just started a new job. You say, no worries. I can secure a loan anyway. What’s your “sunlight”? New house? New mobile phone? New LCD TV?

In the midst of this obsession for chasing these things, we should also keep in mind the most important thing – where’s your plant? Are you planting seeds that will turn into money machines that will bear fruit and give you money later on?

Secret #2 – The secret to success is preparation

One time, my wife was complaining to me how she’s so frustrated at a specific stage in the plants vs zombies game. Apparently, it’s already her nth time repeating that level and she could not get around the zombies. These creatures always overwhelm her, no matter what she does.

After some time, I was startled to hear her jubilantly scream “YES! I finally defeated the zombies”. Without me even asking, she proceeded to tell me how when she gets overwhelmed, she just restarts the game on the same level AND THEN on the next try, she PREPARES way ahead of time. She plants the necessary flowers and weapons, even before the hoard of zombies come. So that once they finally come, her plants are more than ready to defend her house by throwing more fruits at the zombies, more fruits than ever thrown at any stage in the game. Now, it’s the zombies’ turn to get overwhelmed.

While we cannot just restart our real life (that would be like filing for bankruptcy), it’s very important to learn how to PREPARE. This is the reason insurance and emergency funds are important. You need to prepare for these things even before you need them. This is even more evident for life insurance, since the younger you are, the cheaper your premiums will be. Unfortunately, when you’re young, you are not concerned with life insurance reasoning that you still have a lot of time ahead of you. You say, that can wait. But while you’re waiting, the zombies are planning their attack. Be prepared.

Secret #3 – Use leverage

To win the game, you can use different kinds of plants. Some plants throw only one ball. Others throw two at a time. Others don’t throw anything but block the zombies way, delaying time. Sunflowers, on the other hand, can’t do anything to protect themselves, but they give the most important thing of all – points. Points to buy the seed for your other plants.

In real life, some people are working their way using only plants with one ball at a time. That would be like having a job. Your job can give you money, and scare away some of your zombies (a.k.a. financial problems – like not having any money). If you have a job, congratulations. At least you have planted your way to one money machine.

But while having a job helps, it can only throw a ball one at a time. It’s a slow process. The richest men in the world, however, own big businesses. Their plants throw millions or billions of balls at a time. Take Bill Gates, the billionaire who built one of the biggest software company in the world today – Microsoft. Or closer to home, you can look up to Henry Sy, the owner of the most successful malls in the Philippines. They have planted a different kind of money machine – BIG businesses.

Secret #4 – Don’t panic

At every level, you start off really slow. You plant one sunflower. Plant another one. Then your third comes along. You only need to concentrate on what you can do at the moment. That is plant more sunflowers to make more money! Then use more throwing plants to fend off the incoming zombies.

But once the zombies come in, their faces make you scared. In real life, zombies do not look like scary creatures. Often times, they are just unexpected events or people you meet, who forces you to see a better way to live. So there’s no reason to panic especially if you prepared to the best of your abilities.

When everything fails, know that it’s ok to restart on the same level. In real life, this is equivalent to the many lessons you learn about money when you ACT. When you start your first business, you may find that not a lot of people really need or want the thing you’re offering. Your business fails. So when you restart on the same level, like opening up a new business, it would do you good to do market research first to ensure a lot of people would love to buy what you have to offer.

The most important thing is to just have the bias for action. Take action. Even if you fail. Learn the lesson and try again. If you fail, restart the game, take a more intelligent action. Act again and again until you succeed and scream your hearts out to say “Yes! I’ve defeated the zombies!”

Secret #5 – Enjoy playing

If you don’t enjoy playing plants vs zombies, do something else. Play Farmville instead. Or Restaurant City! Play Cashflow 101. Get up. Get running. Do something.

In life, if you’re not enjoying what you do, it will all seem like an uphill battle and a huge waste of time. Are you trapped in a job that you don’t even like? Are you working 9am – 5pm on something that your heart is not passionate about? Maybe it’s time to do something else. Find your passion. Life is too precious to waste your time doing something you don’t love.

If you’re young, the world is yours. There’s no better time to be alive. A lot of opportunities abound for the passionate mind. Bless the world with your talents. Help other people with your gifts. The more people you help, the more the universe will give you what your heart truly desires.

Now, go play!

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