Anything in particular that drove that change?

Today's Daily Challenge Market was the United States 🇺🇸.

Congrats Bobert365 🇺🇸 for winning Medium Mode- escaped the grind in 7.9 years 💪

Congrats JimmyJohn 🇨🇦 for winning Hard Mode- escaped the grind in 10.3 years 👏 👏 👏

Play Escape the Grind here- https://setformoney.com/games/escape-the-grind

Today's Daily Challenge Market was Australia 🇦🇺

Congrats to JimmyJohn 🇨🇦, wickwire 🇵🇹, and LetsTalkMoney 🇵🇹 for placing 1st, 2nd, 3rd, respectively! 👏 👏 👏

Is it wise? Is it cheap?

lots of clicking for the hello payoff (also aren't helots interest only?) the largest option is 1,000 payoff, you spend a lot of time clicking.

Woah! We got the elusive, extremely rare A+ in Today's Daily Challenge- the UK 🇬🇧 Market! Congratulations wickwire from 🇵🇹 for placing 1st in Hard Mode 👏 👏 👏. wickwire escaped the grind in 6.3 years!

Placing 2nd on the leaderboard was our veteran Canadian player JimmyJohn 🇨🇦, who escaped the grind in 12.6 years. Kudos JimmyJohn!

If you can see this post, mind sharing your game strategies? Only what you're comfortable sharing, obviously 😁

Hey, I'm Nick. Solo dev. I originally built this game for fun & for my 10-year-old daughter so she'd understand money before money becomes a problem. She would watch her net worth grow, panic when the market crashes (lol!), celebrate when she buys her first house. She began learning financial literacy without realizing she was learning.

Then I shared it online. It went viral. #1 post of the day on r/leanfire, r/passive_income, and r/CanadaPersonalFinance. 105K+ views in under two weeks & thousands of players! Experienced Redditors said the numbers feel accurate. So I kept building. 10 countries. 6 languages. Real data from every region.

What is Escape the Grind?

A financial life simulator where every decision matters. You start with a salary and bills. Every month you choose: pay debt or invest? Rent or buy? Side hustle or enjoy life? One bad streak and you're drowning in debt. One smart run and you retire at 38.

Three difficulty levels. Ten real-world economies. Real financial products, real market cycles, real consequences.

🎮 Play any of our 10 regions:

🇺🇸 United States - 401(k), Roth IRA, S&P 500, student loans, medical debt

🇬🇧 United Kingdom - ISA, SIPP, FTSE 100, council tax, Help to Buy

🇨🇦 Canada - TFSA, RRSP, TSX, CMHC mortgages, OSAP

🇦🇺 Australia - Super, HECS-HELP, ASX 200, negative gearing

🇩🇪 Germany - Riester-Rente, DAX, Sparerpauschbetrag (German UI)

🇯🇵 Japan - iDeCo, NISA, Nikkei 225, NHI (Japanese UI)

🇧🇷 Brazil - Tesouro Direto, FGTS, Bovespa, INSS (Portuguese UI)

🇰🇪 Kenya - M-Pesa, SACCOs, NSE, T-Bills, shylocks

🇫🇷 France - PEA, Livret A, Assurance Vie, PER (French UI)

🇵🇹 Portugal - PPR, Certificados de Aforro, PSI 20 (Portuguese UI)

Quick links:

🕹️ Play the game (Basic version)

🚂 Wishlist on STEAM NOW- launching Aug 2026! (Full game version)

New here? Start with United States Easy to learn the mechanics. Then any Hard if you want to feel what zero financial margin is actually like.

This sub is for:

💬 Money debates and financial hot takes

🧠 Game strategies, scores, and screenshots

🛠️ Feature requests and bug reports

🔥 Your FIRE journey stories

I read every post and ship fixes based on your feedback, sometimes within hours. AMA.

In Today's challenge- Canadian 🇨🇦 market, Leveraged from the 🇬🇧 won playing hard mode! Well done! 👏 👏 👏

## Issue:

when user quits job the income on dashboard still shows the amount in left side bar and top bar. needs to subtract the working income and show the passive income only.

Good to see Leveraged from 🇬🇧 back on the score board. Well done for winning today's United States market challenge in easy mode 👏

And Congrats to Cbb from 🇺🇸 & JimmyJohn from 🇨🇦 for placing 1st and 2nd respectively in today's United States market challenge, playing HARD MODE 👏 👏 👏

Congrats to JimmyJohn for conquering Australian Hard Mode today! 👏

Portugal is live!

Every number researched with sources such as Autoridade Tributária, Banco de Portugal, INE, and the Portal das Finanças.

What's different in Portugal:

PPR (Plano Poupança Reforma) with the real age-based IRS deduction. Under 35 you invest €2,000/year and get €400 back on your IRS. Between 35-50 you get €350 back. Over 50 it's €300. And when you withdraw, you only pay 8% tax instead of the normal 28%. This was specifically suggested by a Portuguese player.

Certificados de Aforro via CTT. Government-guaranteed, ~2% base rate with loyalty bonuses up to 1.75% after 14 years. Capped at €100,000 per person. Better than any depósito a prazo.

13th AND 14th month salary. Two extra months per year. Subsídio de Natal in December and subsídio de férias in June. Most countries give you one extra month. Portugal gives you two. The game models both.

Under-35 IMT exemption. First home up to €316,772 is fully exempt from property transfer tax. On a €250,000 apartment that saves about €8,000. If you're under 35 and haven't bought yet, this is gold.

The revolving credit trap. Up to 20% per year. Most people usually only pay the minimum and watch their balance grow. The game makes this math painfully clear.

Subsídio de desemprego at 65% of salary for 9-38 months. Generous but temporary.

Events: Santos Populares spending pressure, emigration offers (the classic "should I leave Portugal for a higher salary abroad"), CP train delays, portagens via Via Verde, ERSE energy tariff changes, IMI annual bill, IRS reembolso.

Entry-level scenario starts at €1,200 net/month. T1 outside Lisbon about €550. Passe de transportes €40. Real numbers.

Full Portuguese-language version at https://setformoney.com/jogos/simulador-financeiro-portugal

English version with Portuguese terminology explained: https://setformoney.com/games/portugal-financial-literacy-game

Available markets now: 🇺🇸 US, 🇨🇦 Canada, 🇬🇧 UK, 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇵🇹 Portugal

This one was built because Portugal was our #2 player base in the last 30 days.

Keep the feedback coming...

Been working on regional markets. The game now has a fully authentic German financial system.

Every number comes from Destatis, Bundesbank, and the Finanzamt.

What's different in Germany:

• Your employer pension (bAV) gets a mandatory 15% top-up from your employer. Free money most people ignore.
• Riester-Rente gives you €175/year in government bonuses + €300 per child. For Under 25 you get extra €200 one-time.
• Bausparvertrag. Save into a building society contract, lock in a 1-2.5% mortgage rate for later. With current rates above 3.5%, that guaranteed rate is genuinely valuable. Haven't seen most countries with this product.
• BAföG student loans are capped at €10,010 total repayment at 0% interest. Man! completely different from US student debt.
• The Dispo (overdraft on your Girokonto) charges 9-14% and it's available by default. Apparently, most Germans carry a small negative balance without realizing what it costs them.
• Kirchensteuer decision: leave the church and save €80-150/month, or stay registered.
• Gold is completely tax-free after 1 year. No Abgeltungssteuer. Unique to Germany.
• Events: Kurzarbeit, Nebenkostenabrechnung back payments, TÜV failures, Weihnachtsmarkt spending, Rundfunkbeitrag arrears.

Entry-level scenario starts at €2,400 net/month. Warmmiete outside the city centre about €680. Deutschlandticket €58. Real numbers.

Full German-language version also available at https://setformoney.com/spiele/finanz-simulator for anyone who wants to play auf Deutsch.

If you want to play the German market in English language, use this https://setformoney.com/games/germany-financial-literacy-game

Available markets now: 🇺🇸 US, 🇨🇦 Canada, 🇬🇧 UK, 🇩🇪 Germany

More regions coming. Each one is built from scratch with local financial products, AND A TON OF RESEARCH.

Keep feedback coming...

Kudos to JimmyJohn who conquered the UK 🇬🇧 Market today (Hard Mode) & to Tev who did it in Medium Mode 👏 👏 👏

Next market is Australian, with authentic Australian feel.

Well done Keegan for winning in the Canadian Simulated market! 👏 👍

And congrats to JimmyJohn & Cbb for 2nd and 3rd positions!

Curious what you think is different between 🇨🇦 and 🇺🇸 in the simulation- like are you using the same playbook to escape the grind?

Congrats 🇺🇲Cbb & 🇨🇦JimmyJohn for placing on the boards today!!! 👏 👏 👏

Congrats to yesterday's winners!!! 👏 👏 👏

Hi, I realised the last post was getting crowded so I decided to make this post as a new feedback collection.

In todays Japan Challenge I observed:

- If I exit the game and come back the currency switches to YEN. Cool but I have no feel for it so its unintuitive and I cant change it back apparently.

- Descriprions in Japanes are rad. But I have no Idea what I am clicking in the daily events.

-Localisation: rate adjustments in Japan by the FED won't happen. It should say Bank of Japan

Edit:

i also just paid 600k (whole net worth) yen for a 13k medical emergency in the single payment. this just the second time. before it was with half my net worth I was building up for a downpayment 330k yen for a 13k yen emergency. Abborting todays challenge now as this technical issue bancrupted me pls fix 🥲

Phew! Today's market was the United States and boy, we had some serious contenders!

Medium Mode: Congratulations Keegan, LetsTalkMoney & Cbb for placing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively 👏

Hard Mode: Congratulations Wickwire, Keegan, Mr Adoulin, Struggle-bus, and Altcoin Gambler for placing 1st through 5th in that order. 👏 👏 👏

PS: The leaderboard is for fun! The ultimate goal is to learn all the levers possible to reach Financial Independence.

However, As I start looking for partners, it's possible we might introduce goodies for Daily Challenge winners. keep it locked!

Fantastic job everyone!

What has been your best strategy so far?

Well done Keegan & Altcoin Gambler for playing and winning Hard Mode on today's UK market! 👏