Monopoly is a term derived from the Greek words: mono (alone or single) and polein (to sell). This term as described by economists is when an individual or enterprise has the sole right to supply a particular good or service in a given environment. Like NITEL, from 1958, was the sole distributor of telecommunication services in Nigeria before the arrival of the Global Satellite System Communication (GSM) in 2009.

The term monopoly was coined into a board game by Elizabeth Magie when she invented the game called The Landlord’s Game, which gained patent in 1904. The whole idea was to explain the ill effects of the economic caused by land monopolism and the use of land value tax. However, in 1933, a modernized version of this game was created by Charles Darrow and was named Monopoly.

If you are familiar with Monopoly, you will realize it is a board game, which consists of 40 spaces containing 28 properties (22 colored streets, four railway stations and two utilities), three Chance spaces, three Community Chest spaces, a Luxury Tax space, an Income Tax space and the four corner squares: GO, (in) Jail/Just Visiting, Free Parking and Go to Jail. It contains a deck of 32 Chance and Community Chest Cards and a pair of six-sided dice and etcetera (see a Monopoly to have full detail).

When it comes to playing this board game, each player begins the game with a token on the Go Square, move around the game board, buying or trading properties, developing houses and hotels and collecting rent from opponents. The ultimate goal is to drive the opponents into bankruptcy and out of business. 

A lot of people hilariously play the game of Monopoly for hours laughing and screaming at each other, hoping a winner will emerge at the end of the game. And when they are done with the game, the philosophy and practical application of the game are left behind on the board and they embrace the real world without the slightest idea that the game is a typical version of the real world. 

Yes, the game Monopoly is a typical version of how you should make and spend your money in the real world. You must understand that you may start your journey to financial freedom with the little (token) that you have by finding a good job, starting your own business or leveraging on multilevel network marketing. It is a case of risk; you will either become successful or not, which is like throwing the pair of dice on the board game. Your master plan to financial freedom, like in the board game, is not to earn money and spend it unwisely. But earn money and rightly invest on valuables (financial vehicles, most especially rental properties) that should become sources of passive income for you. The ideology of the board game, Monopoly, is to teach you a unique strategy on how you can wisely let your money do all the hard work on your behalf.

Like the cliché from financial or investment consultants “You should not work hard for money, but let your money work hard for you.” So the secret of the game is to teach you how to effectively put your hard earned money to work. And the best way to do that according to the game is to start by acquiring small rental properties.

Now in the real world, you can start your journey to financial freedom by acquiring a small house in a less developed neighborhood and then turn it into a rental property, making sure the passive income from this your first investment is going into an investment account. Your next goal should be to acquire another smaller property and another and another until your smaller properties can give you enough passive income to acquire a bigger property in a well developed neighborhood.

I will conclude with the story of one of my mentors who started his own journey by setting up a business on a small property in an under developed community in Ikorodu, a city in Lagos. He would later acquire three smaller properties, sold them to acquire a bigger property in the prime area of Palm Groove, a decent area of Lagos. After seven years, he moved to Awolowo road at Ikoyi and today, he had acquired his dream home in Banana Island and owned several rental properties in prime areas around Lagos. He simply took the practical lesson from the board game, Monopoly, and applied it in the real world. So, when next you are playing the Monopoly, don’t play it to emerge as a winner. Rather play with the intention of learning the hidden strategy on how you can attain financial freedom in the real world.