The Investor's Time Machine

The timeline of the game

1928–2025

  • Mission 1: Compound interest vs. inflation, 1950–1959
  • Mission 2: Riding out a storm, 1973–1977
  • Mission 5: Interest rates and bonds, 1977–1986
  • Mission 4: The silent enemy: costs, 1982–2001
  • Mission 3: Don't put all your eggs in one basket, 2000–2009
  • Mission 6: A financial crisis, 2007–2012
  • Mission 7: The return of inflation, 2020–2023
  • Mission 8: Final exam: a surprise period
  • 1929: The Wall Street crash
  • 1973: The oil embargo
  • 1987: Black Monday
  • 2000: The dot-com peak
  • 2008: Lehman Brothers fails
  • 2020: The pandemic
A free game about investing

Learn to invest by traveling through almost 100 years of real markets

Go back to a real moment in history with money to invest. Time moves forward month by month, the news of the day arrives, and you decide. Every return is real, and so are the fees, fund costs and taxes. No account, no real money.

Start mission 1 →See the lessons
How to play
real monthly market data
1928–2025
missions through history
8
key ideas explained
23
real headlines
156

Scroll to travel through time

The game

A time machine for your savings

You arrive in a real month of the past with a sum to invest. You don't know what happens next, just as nobody did at the time.

Each mission is one real period, from the 1950s to the 2020s. You travel through it month by month, and your money does exactly what it would have done.

How it works

Five things happen on every trip

  1. 1Choose where you investA low-cost app, your bank or an advisor. Each charges what it really would: trading fees, spreads, fund and custody costs.
  2. 2Split your moneyUS stocks, government bonds, the money market, gold, housing. Whatever you leave out stays as cash and earns nothing.
  3. 3Time moves month by monthPress play, or move one month or one year at a time. Every month brings that month's real returns.
  4. 4The newspaper stops the gameWhen big news breaks, the game pauses on the real front page. Keep your mix or change it: you decide without knowing what comes next.
  5. 5Costs and taxes are realEvery trade, every fund fee and the tax on your gains comes out of your money, so you see how they add up over the years.
The lessons

A short chapter before every mission

Each chapter is a few full-screen cards: the idea, a chart, the key points and the rule to remember. Compounding, risk, diversification, costs, taxes and panic, in plain words.

Chapter charts use 1928 to 1949 only, years no mission is set in, so nothing gives the story away. A mission's own figures unlock once you have played it.

New to investing? Start with Foundations: three chapters before your first trip.

See the lessons
Audience

Who it's for

  • Complete beginnersNo knowledge needed. Every new word is explained when you hover or tap it.
  • Students and teachersShort lessons with real figures, takeaways and a quiz, free and without an account.
  • Anyone curiousSee what crashes, inflation, fees, taxes and panic selling really do to savings over the years.
Inside the game

What you'll see

Real news, as it happenedWhen big news breaks, time stops and you read that day's paper, like “North Korea invades the South”. Keep your mix or change it.
$0$10k$20k$30k$40k192819321936194019441948YearValue (US$)Cash (under the mattress): $10,000 at the end of 1949Money market: $12,300 at the end of 194910-year bonds: $19,779 at the end of 1949US stocks: $31,192 at the end of 1949
Real returns, month by month$10,000 in US stocks in January 1928 fell to $3,492 by 1932, and was worth $31,192 by the end of 1949. Prices rose 36% over those years.
  1. 1Compound interest vs. inflation1950–1959
  2. 2Riding out a storm1973–1977
  3. 3Don't put all your eggs in one basket2000–2009
  4. 4The silent enemy: costs1982–2001
  5. 5Interest rates and bonds1977–1986
  6. 6A financial crisis2007–2012
  7. 7The return of inflation2020–2023
  8. 8Final exam, blindfoldedA surprise period
See the mission map
8 missions through historyEach one opens when you earn a star in the one before. About 20 minutes each.
Sources

Real data, honest simplifications

Every figure comes from published sources: Robert Shiller (Yale) for US stocks, bond yields and inflation; Aswath Damodaran (NYU Stern) for T-bills, corporate bonds, housing and early gold; and datasets/gold-prices for gold since 1968. Every news story is real, dated and sourced. The game never shows you what happens after the date you are in.

Some things are simplified: prices are monthly averages, so one-day crashes look smoother; amounts are in US dollars; taxes follow one simple rate per mission.

An educational game, not financial advice. Sources, methods and simplifications

Your first trip

Ready to travel?

Mission 1 takes you to January 1950, with money to invest and ten years ahead of you.

Start mission 1 →See the lessons

Each mission opens when you earn a star in the one before. The last is a final exam: a period drawn in secret, with no dates and no news, so only your judgment counts.

Mission map

Eight missions through real history

  1. Mission 1 · FoundationsCompound interest vs. inflation1950–1959 Locked
  2. Mission 2 · Risk and diversificationRiding out a storm1973–1977 Locked
  3. Mission 3 · Risk and diversificationDon't put all your eggs in one basket2000–2009 Locked
  4. Mission 4 · Costs and taxesThe silent enemy: costs1982–2001 Locked
  5. Mission 5 · Market cyclesInterest rates and bonds1977–1986 Locked
  6. Mission 6 · Market cyclesA financial crisis2007–2012 Locked
  7. Mission 7 · Market cyclesThe return of inflation2020–2023 Locked
  8. Mission 8 · Final examFinal exam, blindfoldedA surprise period Locked
Free playThe 1950s with any amount, no mission rules.LessonsThe ideas behind each mission, with real figures, takeaways and a quiz.