How a month plays out
In Own Your Month, every turn is one month of your life. You start with a job, a home and bills, and very little money set aside. Then you play month after month and try to build income that keeps coming in even when you are not working.
A month in four steps
- Pay arrives. Your pay, pocket money or side income lands in your cash.
- Life happens. One life event a month: a cracked phone screen, a friend's birthday, a yearly bonus. Some give you a choice.
- You decide. You get offers, small opportunities and later bigger ones. Take them or turn them down, invest or save, sell, pay off debt or cancel a subscription.
- End the month. Bills and loan payments go out, prices and markets move, your assets pay out. Then you see the result and the next month begins.
Once a quarter, market news hits everyone at the same time: interest rates rise, shares crash or jobs get scarce. Every December prices and rents go up with inflation.
Your numbers, always on screen
Your statement is the main screen: income, expenses, what you own and what you owe. Four numbers matter most:
- Monthly cash flow: income minus expenses. Below zero, you are getting poorer every month.
- Freedom meter: how much of your expenses your passive income covers.
- Runway: how many months your cash and emergency fund would last. Every character starts with less than one.
- Net worth: what you own minus what you owe. It does not pay your bills.
Not everything you own counts as passive income. A salary stops when you stop working. A car costs money every month. Crypto pays nothing until you sell it. A flat you rent out counts only after its mortgage payment.
Levels and the goal
- Building up: where everyone starts.
- Stable: Freedom meter at 50 % or more and at least six months of runway.
- Free: Freedom meter at 100 % or more for three months in a row. Your money pays for your life.
At the end, players are ranked by level, then by Freedom meter, then by net worth. Net worth only breaks ties: being rich on paper is not the goal.
Traps you will meet
Many offers look friendly at first. Show details shows the rest before you decide: fees, insurance, lock-ins.
- Pay-later plans that pile up.
- Free trials that quietly become subscriptions.
- "0 Kč today" phones on instalments and cars on credit.
- Hype coins that shoot up, then crash.
- Lifestyle creep: after a raise, the extra money slips into spending.
- The quick loan in Starter Life, offered just when your cash is nearly gone.
Not every offer is a trap. Some are real bargains, so turning everything down is not the best plan either.
The Estate
All players share the Estate, a small city map. Each player owns a district with twelve lots, and every decision shows up there: an emergency fund becomes a water tower, an ETF plan a park, a side job a market stall, a rented-out flat a block of flats. Debts pile up in your yard. The ten street lamps along your street are your Freedom meter, and the seasons change as the months go by.
Nothing on the map is for sale and nothing moves along the streets. The Estate is a picture of your choices. You make the choices with your cards and your statement.
At the end of the game, every district holds an open house, and you see how everyone else did.
Two ways to play
- First Money: 24 months, for about 13 to 18. School, pocket money and a small job. No mortgages or big loans.
- Starter Life: 60 months, for about 18 to 30. A first full-time job and the decisions that come with it: renting or buying, credit, ETFs, property, a business.
You also pick a difficulty. Real prices keeps the game as close to the data as it gets. Easy, Medium and Hard keep the same prices, rents and taxes and only change the luck: how often good deals come and how hard shocks hit.
When the game ends
The game ends after 24 or 60 months, or earlier if you are Free and choose to finish. Nobody is ever knocked out. If you run out of money, the game first uses your savings and credit, and then puts you on a repayment plan with a tight budget for a year, so you keep playing and see how you got there.
Please note
Prices, wages and rates are simplified snapshots of the Czech economy. The demo's content is a draft, and some values are still being checked. Own Your Month is an educational game, not financial advice.