Back in 1998, while watching CNBC during the great bull run of the 90's led by the Internet, the inventor of the game wondered how he could become more knowledgeable about the stock market and the world of finance. He listened to the many commentators, guests, analysts, financial managers and company executives talk about the market, the effects on business and the economy. The language was complex and trying to put all the pieces together was challenging to say the least.

The inventor ventured to find a way to understand the market as best as possible and one method that had always proven successful for him in learning was to teach the material or subject he wanted to know more about. Previous comments from students, colleagues, friends, and family shared one common theme; "inventor had a very successful method in making the subject matter easy to understand thru simplicity and analogies." Teaching courses to High School kids was one option, writing a book was another and then he thought to make it fun! And bingo, the idea of a game board was born.

Five years of product development went into effect with inventor working alone on nearly the entire project. In June of 2001 the game was played for the very first time by a good friend of inventor's, his friend's daughter and her boyfriend. Thirty minutes into the game the friend says, "Hey this game really works, it's great." Focus groups were then set up testing the game with young kids, college kids, adults, friends and family and all players loved the game, the concept and originality.

The journey was exciting and challenging but most rewarding because his young son would often be at his side helping make copies, paper shredding, paper punching, gluing, pasting, coloring and anything else needed. His little infant daughter would share in some of the work too, grabbing things daddy was working on, tossing them around, coloring on them or tearing them, making sure daddy always had work to do.

Ultimately the goal is for the game to be helpful for the financially intimidated and everyone wanting to better understand the stock market, as well as providing for mass economic education of society. Portfolio^® The Asset Allocation Game also offers skilled and knowledgeable players a challenge too. The emphasis is always on having FUN while engaging in an interactive experience amongst family and friends and the game board concept offers this.

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