My Big Year: How to Play Welcome to My Big Year! You will take on the role of Luna, a 22-year-old recent college graduate, who is trying to juggle her first job, get into grad school, and manage her personal and financial life. You ll begin right after the New Year, just before Luna starts her new job as a paralegal in Buffalo, New York. Each week you ll make a few decisions about how Luna spends her time and money. Some decisions make her happy and some make her a bit grumpier, some cost a lot of money and some are free. To win, you must successfully navigate through a full year without her going broke or becoming too unhappy. And, if you can help her achieve her three big goals, you ll rack up a lot of bonus points. Feel free to play in different ways What happens if you go all out for happiness? What happens if you try to save every penny? What happens if you don t ever use your credit card? (or if you keep it maxed out?) Are there successful strategies for Luna that are something you can learn from? (Or that you don t think would work for you?) HOW TO PLAY 1
Home Screen This is where you and Luna will spend the most time. At the top left is your main navigation. The icons from left to right are: Home Financial Career Credit Expenses HOW TO PLAY 2
The dollar figures listed at the top of the screen, from left to right, are: 1. Cash. How much money you have in the bank and in your wallet. When you pay cash in the game, imagine it as money, check, debit card or direct transfer from your bank account. If an expense costs more than the cash in your bank account, you will not be able to make that purchase using cash. 2. Available Credit. You start the year with a $4,000 credit limit. You can charge up to this amount. If an expense would take you past your limit, you will not be able to use your credit card for that purchase. Interest on your expenses can move your credit limit negative (meaning you would owe more than $4,000). 3. Net Worth. This is your Cash minus your Credit Card Debt. For example, if Luna has $200 in cash but has $200 in credit card debt that she has to pay back to the credit card company, her net worth is $0 ($200 cash - $200 credit card debt). 4. Cash Flow. This is your current monthly income minus your current recurring monthly expenses. Your current monthly income can be found in the Career screen and your current recurring monthly expenses can be found in the Expenses screen. Your cash flow tells you how much extra money you have to spend during the current month beyond your recurring monthly expenses. At the bottom of the screen are: 1. Luna s portrait and status. Luna s picture and status messages will change to reflect her mood. Luna has 5 moods, from Depressed to Awesome. You start the game somewhere in the middle. 2. Luna s goals. The 3 icons below Luna s portrait represent her goals (get accepted to Georgetown Law, pay down her existing student loans $2,000 more than the minimum, and take a 2-week vacation to Costa Rica). Clicking on a goal icon will show more information about that goal steps to achieve it and progress. 3. The Messenger. This Twitter-like feed posts messages from Luna, all the people she knows and meets, and some of the companies she does business with. Each Message has a hashtaglike headline that lets you know what it s about. If you get a lot of messages in a week, you can scroll through them. You don t have to read all of the messages to be successful in the game, but they often give useful information. 4. The Calendar. This shows Luna s progress through the month. The icons (which always stay the same) indicate that you will get paid at the start of the 2nd week of each month and that Luna s expenses (all of her recurring monthly expenses and her credit card bill) are due before you finish the 4th week. In the middle of the screen are the three decisions that Luna must make each week (called cards ). Most involve the decision of whether to buy something and, if so, whether to use cash or credit. Some opportunities are free and may just be taken. Almost every card may also be passed by clicking on the garbage can icon. HOW TO PLAY 3
Choosing (or buying) and passing a card will often affect Luna s happiness, as indicated by the smiley and frowny faces in the example above. Five happy faces is the biggest happiness boost in the game and five frowny faces is the biggest happiness deduction. Most decisions will have one or two smiley or frowny icons. Sometimes it may be a good strategy to let Luna get a bit down in the dumps if it s helping to achieve a long-term goal. And sometimes it s OK to cut loose and have fun (and maybe blow off something that you think she should probably do). Choose It or Lose It Some cards many work-related are labeled Choose It or Lose It. If Luna chooses to purchase or take any other card first, the Choose/Lose card disappears. However, if Luna does select the Choose/ Lose card, she will randomly lose one of the remaining cards. In the example above, Luna is being asked to work overtime on the Jason Steele case at her law firm (and she ll earn some extra money too!). However, if she does this, she ll lose one of the other two cards. Since both of them involve studying for the LSAT, she can probably afford to lose one of them. Sometimes, however, the choice will be a bit tougher! HOW TO PLAY 4
When a card is lost, Luna s happiness will be affected in the same way as if she had passed the card. Career Screen The Career screen shows Luna s salary ($2,500/month after taxes) as well as her remaining vacation and sick days. You ll also need to choose her health plan -- bronze, silver or gold. The better the plan, the higher percentage of costs it covers if Luna gets sick or hurt. Luna s employer will cover most of the monthly insurance cost the premium but Luna is responsible for the amount indicated and this will be directly taken from her paycheck. NOTE: Health insurance in the real world is a bit more complicated, but the percentage of coverage does reflect the approximate value of the various levels. If you do not choose a plan before February, you will automatically be assigned to Silver. HOW TO PLAY 5
Expenses Screen This screen shows all of your recurring expenses including must-haves like rent, utilities, food and optional expenses like the gym or phone service. (Luna probably doesn t consider her phone optional, but you can turn off service if you need to.) This is also where you set Luna s student loan payment. She must pay $500/month, but one of her goals is to pay an extra $2,000. You can do this by paying either an extra $175/month (which will reach her goal in 12 months) or an extra $350/month (which will reach it in 6 months). All expenses are automatically paid at the end of the fourth week of every month, either by a direct deduction from your bank account (your cash) or as a charge to your credit card. To start the game, all expenses are set to be paid by cash. Click on the credit card icon to switch to credit. The total amounts of cash and credit spent on expenses are displayed at the bottom of the screen. All of the changes to Luna s happiness (smiley and frowny faces) associated with monthly expenses take effect when you pay for those expenses at the end of every month. NOTE: Your rent can only be paid by cash (landlords do not take credit cards). Make sure that you have enough cash at the end of each month to pay your rent! If you re short, you can take on a roommate, but you ll still need at least $500 at the end of the month. If you can t pay your rent, you will lose the game. HOW TO PLAY 6
If you finish the last week of a month and cannot meet all of your expenses, you will get a warning (see below). In this example, Luna has $2,000 in cash expenses and only $1,598 in cash. She needs to either reduce her expenses by $402 or charge that much to her credit card instead. HOW TO PLAY 7
Since Luna already has a lot of charges on her credit card, she decides to cut expenses by getting a roommate, saving $500 (but getting 4 frowny faces for it each month). HOW TO PLAY 8
If you can t pay the minimal expenses (all expenses set to their lowest values), the game will be over. NOTE: Some purchase decisions can add or remove expenses from the expense page. You will be alerted if this happens. HOW TO PLAY 9
Financial Screen This screen displays your Income & Expense statement. It starts by showing the current month, but, as in this example, you can look at the Year-to-Date view. Most income will come from your job, but there are opportunities to earn a little extra money along the way, which are shown under Other. Your monthly expenses are shown in My Expenses, and your purchase costs are shown in My Purchases. Any interest or fees that you pay for your credit card are also listed. HOW TO PLAY 10
Credit Screen Starting in February, Luna will receive a credit card bill in the first week of each month. She has until the end of the month to pay at least the Minimum Payment using the payment options on the Credit Screen. If she pays off the full statement balance she will not pay any interest. You cannot pay more than your current cash balance. Luna can choose to pay the minimum, the full balance, or a specific amount. To pay a specific amount, select the 3rd option, Pay, and then enter a number into the field. After you select an option, click the cash button to make the payment. TIP: You may want to wait until the 2nd week, when Luna gets paid, before making a credit card payment. If you forget to pay Luna s credit card bill entirely, you will get a message like this: HOW TO PLAY 11
Quick Tips You don t have to achieve every goal to win the game. The first time you play, focus on one or two goals. The fastest way to lose is to forget to save enough cash to pay the rent. Friends are important to your happiness. Do things with them! If your happiness is down, don t forget you can upgrade some of your monthly expenses. Changes to your monthly expenses (both the cost and happiness) take effect when you pay for them at the end of the month. Luna s credit card can be a very important tool, particularly early in the game. Sometimes it may be worth paying some interest in order to make progress on a goal. However, always make sure to pay at least the minimum balance. Experiment! Some card purchases and monthly expense levels have effects that only become apparent after purchase A score above 25,000 is very good (score is only shown at the end of the game)! A score above 30,000 is exceptional -- if you reach this level, pat yourself on the back. HOW TO PLAY 12