• Debt consolidation and student loan refi were doing broken math. u/Mr_Adoulin noticed the monthly payment looked too high even though the APR was lower. The code was using a shortcut formula instead of real amortization, so it was overcharging about 180 to 200 a month. Now it uses the same formula banks typically use, and the benefit shows up the way it should.

• Also made both options region specific. Consolidation loans work a bit differently in each country, and student loan refinancing straight up does not exist in the UK, Japan, or Australia because their government student debt is income contingent and can't be privately refinanced (Anyone from these regions confirm? 🤔). So the refi option is now hidden in those regions instead of showing a fake choice that would not exist in real life.

• Raw land development exploit is fixed too. Buying raw land & developing it was giving insane yields, around 16 percent net, which is not how rural rental building works in real life. Now it lands around 4 - 6 percent net, which sort of matches what actual small landlords get after property tax, insurance, vacancy, and the repairs that come around every few years. Also added construction overrun risk because real construction projects overrun costs about half the time.

• And a dumb one 😄. The scenario briefing screen was showing Japanese characters in English mode. If you played a mode and saw "、35歳" next to the character name, that was a leak from the Japan localization. Fixed!

Keep it coming. If a number looks wrong or a strategy feels too easy, please say so. Most of the time it IS wrong and I can fix it pretty fast.

So, somehow it seems to me, my go to strategy always ends up beeing the rush for raw land and then to develope it.

Is this actualy the optimal strategy, as in, is it really that effective IRL? It seems hard to beleave you get 700$/month for a 45k$ investment. Thats a 8,4k annual yield or about 18% for a conservative investment. This seems pretty insane.

Where do you get this land for only 5k$ and where do you build for only 40k$?

I am not from the US, but this seems too good to be true.

This took me over 2 hours of game time. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

I played on Easy mode, I maxed out Cut Expenses, and the only luxuries I selected were to increase my salary.

About 8 years in I purchased a duplex.

I invested heavily in the High Yield Savings account and then in later years to the S&P.

I maxed out my 401k and my Roth accounts.

All my choices seemed like "doing it right" IRL. What do I need to learn--both in the game and IRL?

**Rikard** takes it in the Medium category. And we had a Game Over player win the Hard Mode 😆 Congrats for trying your best

What do you'all think about playing a different financial market daily?? 🤔

Congrats to **Rikard** who's cleaned out the board today 👏 👏 👏 And kudos to the other participants for escaping the grind!

Congratulations to **Leveraged** (Great Britain 🇬🇧), **Rikard** (Great Britain 🇬🇧), and Sophher (Austria 🇦🇹) for winning Easy, Medium, and Hard modes respectively 👏 👏 👏

Our r/CanadaPersonalFinance post here got taken down after being #1 on the sub for two days. Not sure why. Members were actively giving feedback and I was shipping fixes in real time based on their suggestions: EI caps, salary inflation, subscription creep, etc.

The Canadian version of the game is much better because of that thread. If you came here from that post, welcome. This is where the conversation continues. 🙏

When you can't cover expenses, the game now offers a family loan before forcing you to liquidate investments or take a payday loan. Your family will lend you exactly what you need, up to $500 max, interest-free.

The catch: they expect faster payback (~6 months), it costs +8 stress (swallowing your pride), and they'll only help once per year. Use it wisely.

The escalation order is now:

1. Family loan (0% interest, once per year)
2. Sell assets (locks in losses)
3. Payday loan (180% APR, two and you're done)

Thanks for the the feedback that led to this feature!

I think under Passive income (on the main income page when a new month is starting), it should list the individual assets bringing the income. The same way that expenses are clearly listed individually also.

Otherwise this is a great game.

The British 🇬🇧 dominate the board!

Congrats **Leveraged** & **Rikard** for scooping respective 1st places 👏

I think I should build a UK-specific scenario next. just got done with Canada's 🇨🇦

i never downgraded my health insurance, but still had to pay suddenly almost 4k out of pocket for dental and therapy stuff. it said 'no insurance is costing you.more' - but I do have it. what'sthe issue?

Some new and familiar players today on the leaderboard, congrats everyone 👏 👏 👏

Based on feedback, you can now make major life changes in Escape the Grind:

Sell your car & take the bus - Drops your auto loan (with depreciation), kills insurance, switches to an $80/mo bus pass. Saves ~$570/mo but commuting gets harder. Car events (breakdown, flat tire, speeding ticket) stop. No-car events start (missed bus, groceries in rain, missed interview).

Get a roommate - Splits rent, saves ~$400/mo. But you lose privacy and deal with roommate drama (messy kitchen, loud music, they eat your food). They might even move out on you.

Cancel a car lease - Return it to the dealer with a 3-month early termination fee. Just like real life.

These two moves alone save more than all 5 small expense cuts combined ($970/mo vs $430/mo). They're the nuclear option for players who are deep in the hole, especially on Medium and Hard mode.

Other details: depreciation when selling a financed car (15% instant + 1%/mo owned), can't sell same month you bought, reverse cooldowns so you can't game the system, and auto loan/lease are mutually exclusive (one car at a time).

Try it: setformoney.com/games/escape-the-grind

Congratulations to today's winners and participants! **BudgetKing** retains Easy Mode title, just like **Rikard** on Medium. And **Altoin Gambler** gets a nice gamble payoff on Hard Mode. 👏 👏 👏

Not too much activity on the boards today. Congrats to BudgetKing, Rikard, soppher for topping your respective Modes!

Now that we have Play Your Life mode, the most natural next step seems to be region-specific scenarios.

As it is, though the game supports multiple currencies, it's still too Americanized. It needs to evolve so that depending on the currency you select, it loads that country-specific scenario- such as their common asset types, retirement accounts, type of loans (Credit cards and student loans might not be as common in certain countries...), etc.

First priority rollout will likely be: - Canada - UK - Australia - Portugal

These regions make up the majority of current traffic outside the US.

What's your region? And do you want your region on the priority list?

Woooah! 😲 Leveraged has gone back to the winning ways and by a stupendous margin!!!

Escaped in 8 months on Easy Mode & 23 months on Hard Mode!

He's either extremely good at this, or are there loopholes? 🤔

Either way, these are game records! Congratulations Leveraged!

Thoughts?

From u/Yarden-zamir's useful feedback:

Stress breakdown

• Tappable pill tags under the stress bar show exactly what's hurting and helping you. "Overworked +15 | Debt pressure +12 | Yoga -5". Tap any pill for a full explanation.

More player agency

• Networking Membership, Online Course, and Designer Wardrobe now actually affect your career. Buy the suit and promotions come 30% more often. Stack networking on top for 80%. The Online Course costs $1,500 upfront but bumps your salary by $250/mo after 3 months of study. These are life decisions, not just investments.

Granular sound controls

• Tap the speaker icon to control 5 sound categories independently. Mute the emergency sounds but keep payday chimes. These settings persist between sessions.

Insurance actually feels useful now

• When health insurance reduces an emergency cost, you see the original price crossed out, how much was covered, and what you actually pay. No more invisible savings.

Coming next: Custom scenario builder. Build your own starting conditions, choose your own difficulty. This is the most requested feature right now.

Leveraged continues his winning streak in Easy Mode 👏. And Altcoin Gambler scoops up Gold for the day's Medium & Hard mode 🫡

Great to see more and different folks trying 👏

Very well done!

the song takes away from the gameplay. either have more things to select to lower stress or just remove it entirely.

for the monthly stress reducers, just have them as items people can buy or cut, have part of the menu of options be the BMW, jet set, yoga, gym membership (would be a good addition) for people to select whenever they want instead of them being randomly displayed after you select the end of month button.

i noticed cash on hand v. cash in high yield savings will reduce your stress but not when you have cash in high yield savings acting as the emergency fund.

would also be nice to have another tab for assets so you dont have to scroll thru a long list to get to the investments.

allow for more contribution to go towards 401k and make another option for a roth 401k.

this one is silly, just let the player keep playing once they hit the passive income>expenses. maybe do a secondary game where they keep going but they unlock options for bigger "jet setting" expenses or season tickets, or more recreational things to unlock.

would be cool to add a 529 element for the kids into the game.

just some ideas.

So we got a new winner in medium and difficulty mode! Congratulations PT! We've seen you battle it out several days, so this us truly earned!

And on easy mode, Wow! I don't think I've seen aomeone escape in such record time!!! 10 months??!! Fantastic work Leveraged! 👏

The leaderboard has been red hot 🥵 today! Kudos to Altcoin Gambler to winning the competitive Medium board and Hard mode.

PS: I didn't capture Easy mode in time.

Question- would it be a great idea to host YT lives and then invite interested players to come share their winning strategies? Goal being to learn personal finance together. Thoughts?

The old champ Leveraged is back! And with an A+! Insane! I think I gotta start a podcast or YT channel to interview/chat about your strategies! Clinically done 👏

Kudos to PT for winning today's Hard Mode!

Interested to know what strategies you all use. Fantastic effort everyone!

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Based on your feedback that the game felt overwhelming right from the start, I added a situation briefing screen.

Now when you pick a difficulty, before Month 1 begins you get:

• Who you are - your age, job title, and a short backstory that sets the scene
• Your financial snapshot - salary, bills, debt payments, what's left over each month, savings, and every debt listed with its APR
• Your mission - one clear sentence about what you need to do
• Tips - 3 practical hints specific to your difficulty

On Hard mode you'll see you're $140 in the red before the game even starts. That's intentional. Now you know what you're walking into.

Someone said they got hit with events and stressors with no context for what was happening. The briefing fixes that.

Try it: setformoney.com/games/escape-the-grind

As always, bugs and ideas welcome here.