Money Games
I remember as a kid I loved to play games, especially with friends and family and I enjoyed hours of fun playing those games. Some of these games actually were useful in teaching me about Money and it’s use, not just about the joy of competition (and winning).
The money games I played when I was a kid were:
- Monopoly, which is an obviously good money game, in the sense that it teaches kids about ownership, money management and about some monetary concepts like Mortgages, Taxes and Going bankrupt (not too sure what Free Parking taught you, but you did learn that it was good to stay out of jail as well).
- Careers was another game that I enjoyed, because it taught you about working or at least introduced the concepts around building a career and what you might need to do to build that career.
- Life, was a great game for day to day family life teachings, where you simply lived a life and had to pay out a lot of money along the way and attempt to get rich by the end of it all (and stay out of the poor house).
The best money game when I was a kid was called Pay Day, which was actually quite simple, but very effective in teaching you about balancing budgets, paying bills and living within your means. When I started playing this game I had no idea what some of the concepts being taught were, but when I got older more and more of those concepts showed up in my day to day life and I am sure I said to my wife more than once, “This is just like playing Pay Day”.
Not sure what today’s kids do to learn about money, although I guess games like SIMS and such do have a monetary concept to them (as does Roller Coaster Tycoon, a game I enjoy playing still).
Did you have a favorite money game when you were a kid?
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November 3rd, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Monopoly always seemed a bit like a cop out. Your annual salary was almost half the price of the best property on the board. Fun, but I’m not sure what it taught about finances. (And if you play by the official rules, as opposed to the Free Parking “lottery” version, free parking just teaches you can always depend on parking to be hidden within the price of goods and other services, whether or not you use it.)
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:26 PM
Monopoly was and is my all time favorite game, hands-down. I have to say, the game taught me how to deal and negotiate for pieces of property with other players, and it definitely played a role, albeit perhaps a less significant one, in how I became a business person down the road. Nice thread
November 5th, 2009 at 9:31 PM
I agree that Pay Day is the best out of that list.
Older Sims games like SimCity were great at teaching cash flow management!