BPI has come up with a fun way to learn about investing with the BPI Race On Investments (ROI) Board Game. By making it fun and simple, the BPI ROI Board Game aims to educate the people how important and easy it is to start an investment with BPI.
Investing is not usually being taught in school. Thus, I only knew about investing after college and started making regular investments a few years ago. Like most Filipinos, I have my fears about investing. Later, I realized that my fear is mostly due to my ignorance about investing.
BPI ROI Board Game Background
The BPI ROI Board Game was developed by the Bank of Philippine Islands as a way to educate the people about making investments. It simulates real life situations that can affect the investments. It also shows the risks and rewards the investors will experience when they invest.
BPI does conduct seminars and talks about investing. But the BPI ROI Board Game is a new way of learning. It is fun, interactive and rewarding.
BPI ROI Board Game How To Play
I had a chance to play the BPI ROI Game in one of the game sessions. It is designed to be played by 4-6 players plus a race master and track marshal to oversee the game.
At first, the game looks complicated. It has several materials. There are the (1) cars to represent the investments, (2) cash for buying the cars, (3) a map where the game is played, and (4) the cards that affects the flow of the game.
The BPI ROI Game doesn’t use a dice like most board games so it seems weird at first.
During the start of the game, each player starts with a default amount of cash. The cash will be used to buy the cars. There are two types of cars: the bond fund car and the equity fund car.
A player can buy as many cars as they want. The more cars a player has, the better the possibility of reaching the goals fast.
During normal game play, the cars can only move 1 step in the map at the end of each round. To accelerate the movement of the cars, the game cards come into play. The game cards can either make the cars move several steps forward or several steps backwards. And this is the fun part.
The goal is for the cars to reach the goals in the map. The goals represents the common investment goals of people: Lifestyle, Education and Retirement. There are thus 3 goals for the bond fund cars and 3 goals for the equity fund car. The first player to reach all 6 goals will be declared the winner.
BPI ROI Board Game Experience
At first, the game seems complicated. It doesn’t follow the usual roll and move board games that I grew up with. There are also too many terms being introduced and the mechanics of the game can be quite long.
But after 1 round of the game, the mechanics was clear and its game face on! It’s actually very simple and fast paced.
The goal of BPI is for the players to learn about investing by playing the game. And I surely learned a lot about investing by just playing.
First, invest as much as you can. If you have cash in the game, buy the cars. The more cars, the faster you can reach your goals. Just like in real life, the more investments you set aside from your monthly income, the faster you can reach your financial goals.
Second, bond funds and equity funds are affected by several factors. In many cases, you cannot control them. But just stick to the goal and eventually you will get there. Don’t let one bad investment stop you from reaching your dreams.
Lastly, keep on learning. During the first rounds, most of us were hesitant to buy the cars. We would rather hold on to the cash. But as the game progress, we learned more on how the investment works. We started to become more aggressive, we started reaching the life goals, and it became more rewarding.
BPI ROI Board Game Summary
Remarie Suzete A. Ayson says, “This board game demonstrates the importance and ease of investing. Many people may find investing to be a daunting task, but the interactive tools such as a board game can show them that they can invest and make smart decisions for themselves.”
It surely was a fun learning experience. Adults will enjoy and learn from it. I also think that teenagers will benefit from the game too. It will be a great way for them to learn about investments at an early age.
Unfortunately, the BPI ROI board game is not being sold in the market. Instead, BPI is planning for more game sessions where interested individuals can learn and experience making an investment. There are no announcements about any future game sessions yet. But you can visit their website at bpiexpressonline.com to learn more about investing with BPI.
