About Own Your Month

What the game is

Own Your Month is a money game you play in your browser. One turn is one month of your life: your pay arrives, bills come in, offers tempt you, and you decide what to do with your money. Prices are in Czech crowns (Kč) and based on Czech data. You play alone or against up to 5 computer players. The game is in English for now.

It is for teenagers and young adults. There are two modes:

• First Money: 24 months, for about 13 to 18. School, pocket money and a small job; no big loans.
• Starter Life: 60 months, for about 18 to 30. First full-time job; credit, investing, property and a business are all open.

Your goal

You win when passive income covers your monthly expenses. Passive income is money your assets pay you without you working for it, such as interest, dividends or rent. The Freedom meter shows passive income divided by expenses. At 100 % your money pays for your life.

• Stable: Freedom meter at least 50 %, and cash plus emergency fund cover at least 6 months of costs. Miss this at two month-ends in a row and you lose it.
• Free: Freedom meter at 100 % or more for 3 months in a row. Free is permanent; you can finish or keep playing.

Before Stable your level is "Building up". At the end, players are ranked by level, then by Freedom meter, then by net worth.

How a month works

1. Pay arrives in your cash.
2. Life event: one Life card happens to you.
3. Your cards: one or two Offers, three Starter Opportunities and, once unlocked, Major Opportunities.
4. You decide: accept or decline cards, invest or save, repay debt, sell an investment or cancel a subscription.
5. End month: unanswered Offers are declined; untaken Opportunities are discarded, apart from a few that stay.
6. The month resolves: expenses and loan payments are paid, the economy moves, your assets pay out, then your cash and levels are checked. Market News arrives in March, June, September and December.

Every December, prices and rents rise with inflation and a raise may follow in January.

Your money: the statement

Your statement lists Income, Expenses, Assets and Debts, with what you still owe on each debt. Above it are your cash, net worth, income, expenses, cash flow and runway, your Freedom meter and your level. Four numbers matter most:

• Monthly cash flow: income minus expenses. Watch this one most.
• Freedom meter: passive income ÷ expenses.
• Runway: how many months your cash and emergency fund would cover your costs. Under 1 month you have almost no cushion, and every character starts there.
• Net worth: what you own minus what you owe. It does not pay your bills.

Active or passive? Salary, side hustles and pocket money stop when you stop working: they are active. Interest, dividends, P2P interest, rent and a business that runs without you are passive. Crypto, hype coins, a car and the home you live in never count. A rented-out flat counts only after its mortgage payment, so a flat that costs more than it earns lowers your Freedom meter.

Regular investing never lowers your Freedom meter.

Cards and decks

Every card shows how your statement changes before you accept.

• Starter Opportunities: small moves, such as a savings account, an emergency fund, an ETF plan or a side hustle. Some open investing (ETF, stocks, P2P loans, crypto). One per month.
• Major Opportunities: bigger moves, such as a rental flat with a mortgage, your own home or a small business. They unlock after 3 months of positive cash flow in a row. One per month. Only in Starter Life.
• Offers: one or two tempting purchases or credit deals a month. Many are traps, some are real bargains, so declining everything is not the best plan.
• Life: one event a month you do not choose. Some give you options.
• Market News: once a quarter, news that changes the economy for everyone: rates, share prices, inflation or jobs.

Traps. An Offer shows its friendly side first. Show details on the card reveals the rest: insurance, tariffs, fees, lock-ins. If you accept, you get the hidden part too. Watch out for:

• pay-later plans that stack up (three or more bring fees),
• free trials that turn into paid subscriptions,
• "0 Kč today" phones on instalments and cars on credit,
• hype coins that shoot up, then crash,
• lifestyle creep: after a raise, a large part slips into spending,
• the quick loan, offered in Starter Life when your cash is nearly gone: borrow 5,000 Kč, repay 9,000 Kč.

What you can do each month

• Accept or decline cards, and pick an option when a Life event gives you a choice.
• Invest or save: savings and the emergency fund are always open; the ETF opens once you take its Starter Opportunity. Stocks, P2P loans and crypto come through their own Starter Opportunities.
• Repay a debt early.
• Sell an investment. Some sell at once; P2P loans, flats and businesses take months.
• Cancel a subscription.
• Finish the game once you are Free.

Risks and the end of the game

Risks. Share prices fall in bad years. Crypto and hype coins can lose most of their value. P2P loans can default and businesses can fail. A flat can stand empty, need repairs, or cost more when its fixed mortgage rate ends. You can lose your job; unemployment benefit helps for a few months while you search. Too many side-hustle hours can mean burnout. Each April you may owe tax on last year's investment gains.

Running out of cash. If your cash goes below zero, the game covers the gap in this order: emergency fund, savings, overdraft, credit card, then a forced sale of investments at this month's price.

Debt counselling. If that is not enough, your expensive debts become one repayment plan. Subscriptions are cancelled, you live on a tight budget for a year, and some credit and Major Opportunities are locked for 12 months. Nobody is knocked out.

The end. After 24 months (First Money) or 60 months (Starter Life), or earlier if you are Free and choose to finish.

Difficulty. Easy, Medium, Hard or Real prices. Prices, rents and taxes are the same in all four; the tuned ones only adjust luck, such as how often good deals come and how hard shocks hit.

Characters

Each character has a job, a city, pay and bills based on Czech data.

• First Money: Student with a café job (17, Plzeň), Electrician apprentice (16, Ostrava).
• Starter Life: Junior developer (24, Prague), Warehouse shift lead (27, Ústí nad Labem), Physiotherapist (26, Brno).

Learning as you play

The game teaches through what happens to your own numbers, not through lectures.

• Before you decide: every card shows how your cash and your monthly cash flow change, and Show details shows the hidden costs.
• After each month: a summary of what happened, including the fine print of what you accepted.
• Stats: charts of your money month by month.
• At the end: your result, a ranking of all players and a chart of your net worth over time.

Privacy and how to play

• The game runs in your browser, with no account and no sign-in.
• The game has no analytics, no ads and no cookies. Your game stays on your device and is not sent to us or anyone else.
• This demo does not save: it keeps the game only while the page is open. Closing or reloading the tab ends the game.
• This first version is solo play against computer players: no online games with other people, no leaderboards, no prizes. Nobody else checks your results.

Please note

Own Your Month is an educational game, not financial advice. Prices, wages, rates and taxes are simplified snapshots of the Czech economy in 2026. Some are not yet verified, and any of them can differ from reality. New data arrives with updates, but a started game keeps its prices. Before real money decisions, check current terms and ask someone qualified if needed.