A Lada cost 9,000 rubles—the equivalent of 30 monthly Soviet salaries. I discovered that the parents of almost all my Soviet school friends lost the value of one or two Ladas in bank savings—this happened because goods were in short supply, so people simply stockpiled money in their accounts. Meanwhile, a cooperative apartment in Minsk or Moscow cost half the price of a Lada (5,000 rubles) at the time. Today, an apartment in Moscow costs $300,000–$500,000. People always face the question of how to invest wisely—much like in the game of Monopoly :)