Continuing my catch up – here’s how the Money Game fund looked at the end of April:
| Monthly Deposits | Beginning | Gain | Ending | % Growth |
| July, 2016 | 0 | $509.86 | $509.86 | N/A |
| August, 2016 | $509.86 | $1,214.77 | $1,724.63 | 238.26% |
| September, 2016 | $1,724.63 | $1,422.87 | $3,147.50 | 82.50% |
| October, 2016 | $3,147.50 | $1,493.36 | $4,640.86 | 47.45% |
| November, 2016 | $4,640.86 | $1,119.90 | $5,760.76 | 24.13% |
| December, 2016 | $5,760.76 | $1,502.69 | $7,263.45 | 26.08% |
| January, 2017 | $7,263.45 | $473.73 | $7,737.18 | 6.52% |
| February, 2017 | $7,737.18 | $979.77 | $8,716.95 | 12.66% |
| March, 2017 | $8,716.95 | $3,795.91 | $12,512.86 | 43.55% |
| April, 2017 | $12,512.86 | $896.85 | $13,409.71 | 7.17% |
On one hand, I was disappointed with April. I still haven’t found a way to make the MG earn its keep. On the other hand, it grew more than 5% which is what I hope to manage each month.
April also saw the completion of Level 161.
The Money Game 
The only thing I’ve come up with for making my money work for me (as opposed to me working more by buying & selling things) is investments of some sort. I can’t contribute enough now to make a Betterment account worth it, but my MG funds are in my rewards checking account so they earn money there. I am still debating investing in real estate later on.
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I’m beginning to feel like I need to realize that the process of grabbing money I see is working and not to try to force anything else right now. I think if I just keep seeing it as a fun game, ideas will surface more easily.
I have bought and sold individual stocks at a profit but I’ve never had money pile up as quickly as it has when I just track it in the Money Game. The stress of worrying about an event hitting my stock position wasn’t worth the little bit I ended up netting.
For me, anything I can save is huge. There’s no extra taxes to pay either. Looking back, I should have choose an hour being home to buy groceries and cook for the freezer over an hour of OT or on call pay.
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Yes, so long as I’m seeing month to month increases that are better than a typical stock market annual return it seems counter productive to change process. Also, capturing savings is more rewarding to me as a process &result than making a sale–I’d rather write up & sell a little article about how to get the sort of deal I found than sell that item for a profit. If I don’t enjoy what I’m doing to increase the MG funds, it wouldn’t be a game anymore.
I think the game aspect of this is why I am sticking with it. It’s about finding what works for me to get to the next level, not following someone else’s path.
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Yes! And correct me if I’m wrong, but to me, that’s at least 1% a month (which would be slightly more than 12% for the year right?)
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Yes, 10-12% annually is what I recall is considered good returns, and I’ve seen people be happy with 7-8% in slower times. Some people recommend trying to find 12-15% returns to beat out the typical index bond return with room for inflation, but that comes with higher risk. As my fund grows, I would think 1% a month would be a good return, especially if it continues to have little to no risk. At some point even that will be difficult without another income stream, but I think I would reach the point of investing in real estate well before then.
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