Game of Life ... How do you play?

I play this little game called Yoville. In it are little avatar's, who have little houses, furniture you can buy, coins you can earn or buy and little games you can play.

I started playing a few months ago and now I'm officially addicted. It's a silly little game where you can go visit your little avatar friends' houses and buy clothing and furniture for coins and each action you take, there is a coin reward.

Now, in order to buy clothing or furniture at the little stores, you have to save your coins. Or wait for a little sale which shows up every day with little items on the side that you can purchase while you're playing.

If you think a game can't tell you much about yourself, you would be 100% wrong. I've noticed a lot about my personal spending habits. I can save up to a certain amount of coins and then it seems up to a certain point, I get this fush of "I need to buy some stuff". Now, I thought this would fade after I furnished the little virtual apartment I had and all it's rooms. It didn't fade and I noticed that when I would get a certain number of coins, thinking about buying the house was "nice" but I seemed to want to buy other things like clothing instead or some additional decorations for the apartment I currently own.

Now, one of reasons for this is that I don't think I can take my furniture with me so I would have to start all over. Who likes that when we're comfortable where we are?

The other reason seems to be that once I get to a certain amount of coins, I think I have enough to go and buy the things that I have put off buying.

It's kind of like when we get a tax refund. Say we have like $3,000.00 and that's when we pay off all the little debts of the year or buy furniture that we wanted vs. saving all year after paying things off and then buying it whenever we want. You following me here? I hope so because the more I play the game, the more I see how my lifes experiences color how I save, spend or earn my money.

It's almost like getting a paycheck every week or bi-weekly and then all the things you may have put off getting during the week you didn't get paid are all rushed to be paid or bought so that you have enough or so that you have your reward for budgeting through out the previous weeks.

Instead of, say, creating a budget for yourself where you need or want for nothing, you blow through your paycheck or don't have a savings account. Instead, people use credit. Credit creates that bail out program you have for yourself when your tax return comes in... this is an old habit that has been instilled in most people, almost all their life.

Apparently, me too. My personal goals as the last couple of years have been difficult, is to determine what my personal spending habits are, how I save money or do not save money and put some away.

Playing this silly little game has brought out what my spending habits really are. Which I think is very interesting. I pay attention for the most part but I can see where I go wrong in real life by how I go and buy certain items I may not "need" but want. I mean, how many clothes does an avatar really need anyway? :)

So what is my point? Playing a game can reveal what your habits are. It can reveal not only how you are with your coins but how you are as a person around other people too. The reasons you do the things you do and if you pay attention to your overall attitude towards your REAL life, you can start to see where you may want to make changes.

I think this is a really cool tool to be able to play a game, have a little fun, maybe appease that little person inside you who may be saving for something and you want a quick fix of a reward by bying something and in that case, go play the little game, buy a little something without touching your real life funds.

It may seem silly but I have to say, the more I play, the more I realize how I may sabotage my own daily expenses. It's not on purpose, we don't see these things all that clearly all the time. However it is a really good starting point to see where you may want to make some changes.

Another thing is that they have more high end things you can buy for your apartment if you spend YOUR real money via credit card. When you start to see these high end items that you need yo-dollars for, you may feel that little pull of "I don't make enough to afford that"... and you may even feel enticed to buy yo-dollars.

But, why? Sure you can put anything in life on a credit card, which to me is the same thing as the yo-dollars. Yet at the same time I think enjoying where you are right now, learning how to save for those high end items and not have debt, is so much more important that literally buying into what everyone else has or what kind of living room or clothing someone else has.

The real world is so full of things that we want. Sometimes we get in our own way in how we go about getting those things. Think about it for a while...

I have to go.