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Savings: A Year in Review
Original article written by Autumn Blackmill posted 5 months 1 week agoIt’s now been a full year since Savings came out. Being one of the players asking for such a feature, I knew I had to try it out. I wasn’t so thrilled about the cost in game points, nor that you have to pick a date in the future to get said money back, but I was going to test it out anyways.
Long story short: I love it. Having a Savings account really saved my bacon this year. As someone who tends to spend what they see, it was really handy to throw money into the void. But not only that, I was throwing it into the void and somehow locking it too. Not being able to withdraw the money whenever I felt like it was one of the things I hated most when the feature came out, but in reality it was the most useful for me. I couldn’t sit here and draw “just another 20k” out of an account for another needless purchase, which I can almost guarantee you is what I would have done.
Instead that money had to stay put, unless I put up the 10k game points to release it. I don’t know about you guys, but I have much better things to be doing with 10k points. Mares to be hypo’s, pets to be bought, GP Stud fees, saving up for a cute headshot on that fast looking yearling over there… But spending it on releasing money was not something I was about to do. It was a brilliant move, in my opinion. The game forces you to save, which is what I needed.
Where I think it can be better is in the method of release. For my initial test, I just set it to release on the last Friday of racing for the year (so right before break). It’s a great way to save up stud money, or mare lease money, to then spend when you don’t having racing income. But I would love to see a different option. I’ve always wanted to build a farm, but the $2 million is pretty steep. Each season I tell myself I’ll save a bit here and there to put towards a farm, but let’s be real, stud fees drain most of our funds. So instead I would love to see a different option, one where we put in the amount of money we want to save up to, and the account doesn’t release until we do. This way I can throw in some change here and there when I have a good week, but don’t have to worry about an upcoming maturity date releasing that money before it’s ready.
All in all, I would recommend using Savings if you are someone who struggles to save money and can afford the 3k in game points to open an account. When I started writing articles this year, I just threw all of that money into the Savings account before I could spend it, which ended up being the way to go for me. Savings helped me save $1.1 million this past season, and it could help you save up too!