Life is long.
The rules are simple.

How Each Month Works

At age 8, you receive $100 each month, rising $10 per year until 18. Monthly spending keeps the previous month's amount until the player changes it and is capped at $100,000 per month. Automatic allocation is always on and applies only to this month's new net income, never to existing balances. Stable, Growth, and Retirement shares may total less than 100%, with the rest staying in cash.

The Happiness Baseline

The happiness baseline starts at zero. Spending uses a cubic-root curve: tiny purchases no longer create a sudden joy spike, added joy slows as spending rises, and the same spending earns less joy when the baseline is higher. The baseline rises with inflation and moves 2.5% toward the previous month's spending. The age factor falls linearly from 2.0 at age 8 to 0.5 at age 100, then continues at the same slope until reaching its 0.1 floor around age 124½.

Daily Time Allocation

Before 18, divide 16 daily hours between Study and Play. From 18 onward, divide 18 hours among Study, Play, and Work. College fixes 8 study hours daily from 18 through 21. Study accumulates only until age 30, and work experience accumulates only until 50; later work still earns income but no longer raises the wage base. Monthly wage base equals cumulative study hours ÷ 10 + cumulative work hours ÷ 40, cutting wage growth from work experience in half. Play gives no free happiness; spending joy is multiplied by (play hours ÷ 8)^0.7. Zero hours still means zero joy, eight hours means ×1, and further play has diminishing returns.

Children and Family Joy

After work begins and before age 45, you may make a one-time choice to have a child. For 18 years, required living costs double and monthly spending counts at half its amount for spending joy. Each month, allocate 0–8 daily hours to childcare within the same 18-hour budget shared by study, work, and play. During those 18 years, total monthly happiness is fixed at ×1.20. After the child reaches adulthood, the lifelong multiplier is based linearly on total childcare time: zero childcare gives no bonus, while eight hours every day for all 18 years reaches the ×1.40 maximum.

Education, Wages, and Expenses

Before 18 there is an allowance and no required living cost. Required living costs begin at $1,000 per month at 18 and then follow inflation, while college ages 18–21 waive them. Wage base comes from study accumulated before 30 and work accumulated before 50, with college graduates receiving a 1.2 multiplier. Final wages also reflect current work hours and inflation; after 65 they decline linearly each month, reach zero at 85, and work is unavailable thereafter.

Cash and Debt

Cash earns inflation minus 0.5% each year, floored at zero. When cash is short, the game proportionally sells Stable and Growth investments first, then automatically draws from Retirement. If cash remains negative after every asset is exhausted, debt keeps compounding and that month's happiness becomes zero.

Two Stock Accounts

Growth targets a 12% average annual return. Both accounts share one monthly market direction: Stable captures half of Growth's gains but only a quarter of its losses. Every amount supports cents. The percentages above apply only to future new money and never change existing balances below; existing stock balances remain manually adjustable.

U.S. Social Security

A teaching estimate uses the highest 35 earning years and the 2026 AIME bend points. Claim from 62; full retirement age is 67; delaying increases benefits through 70.

Retirement Accounts

You cannot contribute before work begins. Contributions are capped by that month's wages and cannot be funded by selling stocks or moving existing cash. Voluntary withdrawals remain locked before age 59½, but if cash and ordinary investments are exhausted, Retirement is automatically drawn to cover the shortfall. When annuity income starts, the entire Retirement balance moves to Stable stocks and the account closes permanently, with no further contributions or withdrawals.

Lifetime Annuities

Annuities unlock at 40 and can be funded only from Retirement using the transfer control below; there is no duplicate annuity slider. Before activation, the balance adjusts monthly by 80% of that month's positive Stable return and never falls when Stable declines. You may activate lifetime income from age 50; otherwise it activates automatically at 80. Manual activation first warns that the annuity balance becomes inflation-adjusted monthly lifetime income while the entire Retirement balance moves to Stable stocks and Retirement closes permanently. The annuity cannot be changed or funded after activation.

For a plain-language look at real-world lifetime-income and annuity strategies, explore GICROSOFT.

Mortality and Happiness Ranking

After age 85, natural death is checked monthly: 0.02% in the first month, 0.10% in the fifth, then another 0.02 percentage point each month. Each month you may reduce mortality by 0%–90%; every 10% reduction costs one extra current base living cost. For example, 0.02% becomes 0.018% at a 10% reduction and 0.002% at the 90% maximum. Longevity spending is unavailable while cash is negative: the reduction automatically becomes zero until all debt is repaid. The setting otherwise persists until changed, and one-year settlement checks debt, charges the eligible cost, and tests mortality month by month. There is no forced age limit; life ends only when a monthly natural-death check succeeds. Lifetime happiness is the only goal, and the leaderboard compares happiness alone.