Gamifying Financial Literacy
When did you learn to balance a checkbook?
My memory is fuzzy (maybe that’s both the problem and the point), but I believe I was first exposed to this in 10th grade. Of course, like most things in school, it was addressed theoretically with a simple worksheet for a grade. I forgot everything as soon as I got my A+ and we moved on.
Fast forward 15 years.
I have a PhD from MIT, and a recent college graduate in a cheap suit at an Edward Jones office is telling me my math isn’t mathing, and my current investment strategy will make me work until I’m 75.
Oof. Like my dad always told me… I was book smart, but not street smart.
I swore my kids wouldn’t make this same mistake. I’d ensure they learned life lessons early and often, so they wouldn’t feel like a smart stupid person.
Easy to say, but how?
Games make learning fun and memorable. However, popular games like Monopoly are superficial regarding financial and investment literacy.
Then I found Cashflow by the author Rich Dad, Poor Dad. To play the game, you had to understand concepts like buy-low-sell-high and managing a P&L and ledger.
I hear you thinking, “That sounds boring and complicated.” I wasn’t sure it would keep my 11-year-old engaged... but it did!
Last Saturday, we had a 4-hour marathon session. The beginning was difficult. Calculating monthly savings after income minus expenses took time. But a few hours later, she had the mechanics of buying a rental property down pat.
“I just spent $5,000 for a down payment.”
“Ok, so now I have a mortgage of X per month.”
“But now I have Y extra cashflow monthly.”
“My salary and passive income is now X and after expenses I have Y.”
By the 5th or 6th time she did it, she was zipping around her P&L and edited 2-3 pages of ledger entries like a pro.
Did it stick?
Today we pulled out the board again. She remembered the goal and mechanics of buying low and selling high for stocks, and after acquiring two more properties, updated her monthly income and expenses budget.
Is this an accurate reflection of reality? No. Buying a home isn’t as easy as 1-click shopping on Amazon. There are lots of mechanics at play. But at a high level, she was so proud of how she managed to finally start seeing saving and monthly income build.
Best of all, it sparked interesting conversations during our store visits about other financial topics.
My goal isn’t to make her an accountant or an investment banker (AI will handle that by the time she starts working). But before she makes the financial gaffes I did as the book-smart kid, I want to ensure she has a strong foundation of financial literacy.