The big idea!

Life is a massively multiplayer real-time strategy game.  And, in this game, called life, the ultimate goal is to do and/or get what we want.  However, as in all real-time strategy games, we need resources in order to achieve our goals; so, here is the list of available resources:

Our individual resources:

• Time -- In all real-time strategy games, time is always of the essence.
• Knowledge (Experience) -- This is how we know what to do.  (Through study, trial-and-error, etc.)
• Labor (Skills) -- This is how we get things done.  (By working, doing a job, etc.)
• And, Money -- This is the resource of exchange.  This is what we use to get (purchase) what we want, or use to invest in various ventures, in order to generate more money.

And, because this is a multiplayer game, we also have these extra resources available to us:

• Other people's Time -- When we work together, the time required to complete a task can be greatly reduced.
• Other people's Knowledge -- We use this by getting advice or help from experienced people.
• Other people's Labor -- We use this by having people work for us.  (Family, friends, employees, etc.)
• And, other people's Money -- We can get this by supplying the Knowledge and/or Labor for a joint venture, or by getting donations from friends and family.

In real life, we start out with nothing, and get what we want and/or need from our parents.  As we grow up, we realize that it takes money to do and to get what we want in life; and, for the most part, we all eventually, learn a skill, get a job, begin to acquire money, and start to get and do what we want with our own, personally-earned income.  This is good.  But, up until this point, many of us have only used, at most, four of the eight available resources; and, when we start to desire things that we can't afford, or when we begin to miss the freedoms of childhood, then we begin to realize what our true goal in life is -- financial freedom: the ability to afford to do or get want we want; and, have the time to do or enjoy it, too.  And, in order to achieve this new found goal, many people begin to try various get-rich-quick schemes, or they just continue to work, hoping and waiting to finally retire, at age 55, 65, or older!

Now, to avoid this scenario in our massively multiplayer real-time strategy game, we must manage our resources well, while we get some of what we want, until we are finally able to afford to get and do everything that we want.  Consider these real-time strategy game analogies:

• Starting resources and/or lone worker-class character -- This is equivalent to our own individual starting resources; and/or, to us all working at jobs to earn money.
• The fog of war -- This is the hidden; the unknown.
• Investigating our surroundings -- We must break through the unknown, (it's as easy to do as to take a few steps in a new direction -- i.e., by playing a new game, reading a new book, etc.,) in order to learn about all of the opportunities that are available to us.
• Choosing a starting location -- We must decide to pursue a particular investment opportunity: Business; real estate; or, other investments.  And then we must learn about the various strategies for investing in that particular investment opportunity.
• Making alliances -- Do we really want to play this massively multiplayer game, called life, as solo-players?  We could ally with other players who are at our current level of experience, which should accelerate our success rate, and/or, we could ally with advanced players, which would skyrocket our knowledge base immediately.  (This is equivalent to using the "other people's" resources, above.)
• Setting up our center of operations -- We must plan, prepare and test our planned use of our strategy.
• Collecting resources -- This is equivalent to actually investing.  All of the knowledge in the world will not help us to achieve our goals if we don't take action.
• Monitoring unit feedback -- We must monitor our investments.  Depending upon our chosen strategy, we may need to check on the performance of our investments rather infrequently; i.e., weekly, monthly, or quarterly; or, we may need to check very frequently; i.e., continually, hourly, or daily.  We must also be sure to take proper action in response to our investment's feedback.  For example; when we play a real-time strategy game, we don't let a worker just stand around doing nothing; or, leave him/her in harms way when the enemy is on the attack, right?  In the same way, we must make sure that our investments are working, and that they are showing good results, or else, we must exit those investments.
• Creating multiple streams for income generation -- We should diversify and continually increase our investments over time.  This is very important!  When we play real-time strategy games, we know that we can not win unless we employ many farmers, citizens, or worker androids, right?  And, while some of them may end up being destroyed by enemy attackers, many will live on to provide us with a great return on our investment in them.  Also, we should be receiving a very good rate-of-return here; at least 25%.  (A savings account has its purposes, but, at 1 to 4%, it will not help us here!)  This is why I have proposed the idea of investing in businesses, real estate or paper assets.  We all must come to realize that this is where the best investment returns are made. -- Webmaster Uncle Al

• Building and protecting our base -- We must protect our investments by using sound risk-to-reward management and by continuing to grow our investment knowledge and skills.  However, we must also allow ourselves to have fun by not spending all of our time, money and effort on investing, at the expense of our mental health and happiness.  So, we should be rewarding ourselves for our successes by getting or doing what we can afford to get or do, without hindering our ability to continue our investment program.  (This is equivalent to building some walls and defensive towers, and creating some low level fighters.)
• Fighting battles -- This is equivalent to our real-world struggle to stay consistent with our game plan for financial freedom by balancing our spending between our wants and our needs; our financial now and our financial future.
• Gaining the ability to see the whole world map -- We must learn about the big picture of our investing strategy and we must expand our mental horizons.
• Expanding to new horizons -- We must seek new opportunities in our chosen investment field and then actually expand our investing.
• Up-grading to the maximum -- This is when we have finally arrived at a point where we can afford to have everything that we want without bankrupting ourselves!
• Duplicating our results, as desired -- We would do this by choosing a new investment category to learn; then, we could start the whole learning process all over again.
• Winning the game -- This is equivalent to reaching our ultimate goal -- financial freedom!

So, in real life, investments are equivalent to the worker-classes within the various real-time strategy games; and, attaining financial freedom is equivalent to attaining victory.  Investing is just as necessary to achieving financial freedom as those workers are to achieving victory in our game-playing.  Buying and doing what we want may not be perfectly equivalent to building our armies; but, we must accomplish these things without bankrupting ourselves in order to reach our goals.

And, finally, if we do not learn to invest, and then do it wisely, and if we do not make allies in this massively multiplayer game, then we will be playing this game, called life, as a single-player; without allies; using only one lone worker-class character to build and to collect resources; waiting and waiting; saving up and saving up; trying to get and do the things that we want, while trying to find the time to do or enjoy it, too.

Join the Play2wealth Community, today! -- Webmaster Uncle Al