Teaching Financial Literacy: 10 Board Games For Kids 10 And Older
Teaching Financial Literacy To Our Kids With Board Games Can Help Them Learn Concepts While Also Having Fun
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“Do not keep children to their studies by compulsion but by play.”
– Plato
There are many ways to approach teaching financial literacy to our kids and improve their financial capability but sometimes we just don’t know where to begin. Do we teach them about saving money? Do we teach them about financial institutions, bank accounts and checking accounts? Do we teach them to be an entrepreneur? When and how do we start teaching them about financial literacy?
There are so many possibilities on what to teach them when it comes to financial education as well as where to potentially start because the subject is either not taught much today, or when it is taught, financial literacy is approached with concrete rules we call “should dos” (as in “you should do this or that” with your money). We think that both of those approaches are wrong and instead what we really need to be doing is teaching our kids how to think about using money as a tool to live the life they want (whatever that life may turn out to be).
We have lots of options for parents to begin to teach their kids on this site, but we wanted to talk in this post specifically about one of the best ways to possibly begin the conversation by also getting the whole family involved with some fun: educational games for kids.
Board games can be a great way to spend time together but also begin to discuss important financial principles, and in the below article we have laid out 10 that we love for children who are 10 and older. Let’s dive in!
Act Your Wage
Age Range: 10 Years Old And Up
Publisher: Ramsey Press
Our Take: While we do not agree with the philosophy that “all debt is bad,” for a lot of people this line of thinking has worked and Dave Ramsey’s method has dramatically improved their lives. Act Your Wage! features 2 to 4 players and is a great way to start discussions around the potential pitfalls of debt or credit (of which there are many), saving money, investing money, giving money, and earning money.
The game has a lot of elements, but it is pretty easy to follow once you take a turn or two. You roll, you move, you do what the space says or the card says.
Some of the elements we liked were the lessons of landing on "pay your rent or mortgage" as well as the landing on “payday” where you make a salary associated with the job you pull at the beginning of the game with cards that give you a profile (it gives you life details like you're an architect making $85k, you own a home for $1000 a month, and 2 car payments, etc). This can help parents or grown ups start the discussion around earning money and how it can affect some of the decisions you make in life.
This game definitely teaches you to always save and have money in the bank (reserve envelopes) for housing, food, electric, emergency fund which is also a helpful discussion point for their future (49% of Americans couldn’t cover a $400 emergency expense today). While we think updated versions could have more variability (i.e. the ability to switch jobs), we admit it was kind of addicting to play and can be a great way to start financial literacy discussions.
About The Game: The Act Your Wage! Board Game is a hands-on way for families to have fun applying Dave Ramsey’s life-changing money principles. Players earn a salary, pay bills, save and pay down debt. Kids and adults alike will discover the importance of budgeting, saving and staying gazelle intense so they can be the first to yell, “I’m debt freeeee!” Learn to keep your savings up and expenses down with Dave Ramsey’s Act Your Wage Board Game.
Catan
Age Range: 10 Years Old And Up
Publisher: Catan Studio
Our Take: Catan is a strategy game as each player seeks to win by building settlements, cities, and roads to become the dominant force of the island of Catan. In a game meant for up to 6 participants (with the extension - regular game has 3-4 players), players trade resources and earn victory points along the way seeking to outmaneuver their opponents.
What we liked about this game from financial literacy teaching standpoint is you can weave in several lessons throughout.
For example, parents can talk about the idea of deferred gratification or being patient for something you want (like building a settlement!) or some of the trade offs you make through the game being similar to decisions you will make around your own life when it comes to trying to use money to the life you want to live.
About The Game: Players take on the roles of settlers, each attempting to build and develop holdings while trading and acquiring resources. Players gain victory points as their settlements grow; the first to reach a set number of victory points, typically 10, wins.
Stockpile
Age Range: 13 Years Old And Up
Publisher: Nauvoo Games
Our Take: If you are looking to give you kids a basic intro into how the stock market works but are not ready quite yet to sign them up for an app or get them a custodial account, the board game of Stockpile can do a great job teaching some of the basic concepts.
The game includes concepts like dividends, stock splits, and reasons behind why shares go up or down in an easy way to understand and talk about with our kids.
The game can be played with up to 5 players and age range is a bit over 10 (typically 13+) but parents can take it slowly and start to supplement this game with having kids pick actual stocks and watching how they move from day to day or week to week as well as thinking about why (before investing your money).
About The Game: Stockpile is an economic board game that combines the traditional stockholding strategy of buy low, sell high with several additional mechanisms to create a fast-paced, engaging and interactive experience.
In Stockpile, players act as stock market investors at the end of the 20th century hoping to strike it rich, and the investor with the most money at the end of the game is the winner. Stockpile centers on the idea that nobody knows everything about the stock market, but everyone does know something.
The Stock Exchange Game
Age Range: 10 Years Old And Up
Publisher: 8th Kid Games
Our Take: If you are looking for another stock market game that goes into a bit more depth than Stockpile we found The Stock Exchange Game to be a useful teaching aid. You will explore terms like what is a stock ticker, base financial stats (beta, PE or PEG ratios, yield) with the ability to talk with your kids in a bit more depth about how the market works (this game would go great along with picking an actual stock or two and following it together).
The game features up to 6 players and while we did find it might be a bit complicated in general (we are not sure that every 10 year old may be able to grasp all of the concepts here), it can be a great tool for at least starting to teach investing while also having some fun.
About The Game: While this game may have a similar look to vintage board games, it certainly doesn’t play like one. Think of each trip around the board as a year in your life. Investing with the goal of how to retire.
Early in the game, purchase risky assets with higher returns, then later in the game sell the risky stocks for safer, more stable investments. “Wheel and Deal” buying and selling stocks to flip profit into more money and the investor to retire with the most assets wins. No prior stock knowledge needed to have a great time.
CASHFLOW
Age Range: 13 Years Old And Up
Publisher: The Rich Dad Company
Our Take: For parents who are looking for a fun way to introduce their kids to the concept of entrepreneurship (we call entrepreneurship “skills for self-empowerment”), CASHFLOW is a great way to do it.
While we would disagree with the thinking that entrepreneurship should be the goal for everyone when it comes to ways to earn money (we think you should learn to earn money in a way that fits with the broader life you want to live), for those who are interested in starting to teach their kids more about it the game is helpful at thinking about the concept of generating your own income.
Suited for up to 6 players, you will learn terms like assets, liabilities, along with how to fill out a financial statement. Overall, similar to some of the games above being maybe a bit complicated for a 10 year old, the game gets easier to understand as you go along and can be a great first step down the path of entrepreneurship.
About The Game: Play your way out of the rat race by generating passive income through real estate, stocks, companies and more. The updated CASHFLOW starts you in a typical 9-to-5 drag of a job, from there you’ll battle to acquire stocks, houses, apartments, companies and more to build up your passive income until you graduate from the RAT RACE to the FAST TRACK (Where the real money is made).
Mogul
Age Range: 10 Years Old And Up
Publisher: Joel Harden
Our Take: Let us start off by saying we found this game to be one of the more complex on this list to start (would recommend for ages more 12+) although once you get the hang of it you can use it as another way to teach principles of investing and entrepreneurship.
The rule book is long but the concept of the game is simple once you get the hang of it. Players move along a track similar to that of other familiar games, and on certain spaces players are allowed to draw a series of cards from different decks (the deed, condition and ownership decks) to put together profiles of properties.
Once the property is created, it may be purchased and other spaces allow potential tenants to be found (the game ends when someone reaches a predetermined net worth). Players must also use forms and charts to keep track of the ongoing amortization costs as well as the ongoing costs which can get a little complicated but for a parent who is interested in teaching the details around real estate investing and doing proper due diligence around investing, this game can be a great place to start.
About The Game: Each spin around the board presents opportunities for excitement and profit. Buy a car, try your luck at the casino, or find the Big Shot Investor to sell your properties to. Move tenants into your properties, collect rent and your salary, or even get a hot tip for great deals on properties. MOGUL is an open ended game.
The goal is to get to a predetermined net worth first, but how you do it is up to you. Will you leverage every asset you have to gobble up as much property as you can to flip it as fast as possible, or will you take a more conservative approach.
Diversify your holdings all over the board, or try and corner a neighborhood, there is no right answer as game action never stops.
Monopoly
Age Range: 10 Years Old And Up
Publisher: Hasbro
Our Take: Monopoly, which was first invented in the 1930s, continues to be a wonderfully fun option to teach our kids important financial lessons. Whether it is saving, investing, deferred gratification, or making decisions with money Monopoly offers kids and all families a great place to start money conversations.
About The Game: Select a favorite Monopoly token, place it on Go and roll the dice to own it all! It's all about buying, selling, and trading properties to win. Chance or Community cards can be a game changer.
Will they make a player richer or send someone to Jail? Looking for games for Family Game Night? The Monopoly game is a Family Game Night favorite, and it's a fun indoor activity for kids.
Cryptopia
Age Range: 10 Years Old And Up
Publisher: Cryptopia
Our Take: Overall if you are interested in starting to teach kids about the blockchain and cryptocurrency this game can be a good place to start. The game uses a lot of the current terminology around the emerging blockchain ecosystem but if you don’t know anything about it prior it doesn’t matter.
Pieces move around the board drawing cards in an effort to build your own blockchain and have it prevail over the other players in the game (up to 6 players can play).
We thought the game was fun overall and not too intimidating for kids (could even possibly try it out on kids younger than 10) as it plays similar to several common board games (i.e. drawing cards and moving pieces around the board) allowing you to enjoy it even if you are not sure what all the current crypto terms mean. Should you want to do more research or explain things further to your kids around the blockchain, this can be a fun place to start.
About The Game: Cryptopia is a blockchain game that allows players to build and solidify their blockchain and dominate the market to win. Players must collect development, funding and influence assets and invest them to gain points. The fast-paced gameplay includes strategy, patience and a bit of luck to win Cryptopia.
The game is very synonymous with the current blockchain market and the craze and fascination surrounding it. It takes a well-tuned plan, patience and luck to be successful with blockchain, and all of that is needed to be a champ at Cryptopia
Charge Large
Age Range: 10 Years Old And Up
Publisher: Hasbro
Our Take: So this game was actually born out of the financial crisis and overall is a great way to introduce kids to the concepts of credit and credit scores (for more on teaching kids about credit and how to give them a good credit score prior to turning 18 check out our mini course, Raising Credit Conscious Kids).
The goal of the game is to upgrade your credit card (from gold all the way to black) as you travel around the board and make smart decisions with your money to accumulate cash and pay off debt. The game can be played with up to 4 players and we found it fun while also being able to touch on an important topic like credit.
About The Game: In today’s economy, getting and keeping good credit isn’t easy. But now you can take the crunch out of credit with Charge Large, the game that makes buying, building and even borrowing pay of big.
Travel around the board using cash and your gold credit card to scoop up prime properties. Buy strategically, borrow wisely, and pay back quickly to earn a platinum card. (It also helps to hit the lottery and collect rent!) If you’re the first to have cash, a zero credit balance, and the coveted black credit card, you’ve beaten the credit card blues, and won the game.
The Entrepreneur Game
Age Range: 10 Years Old And Up
Manufacturer: DM Media Incorporated
Our Take: In a similar vein to CASHFLOW above this is a great game to use if you are trying to teach kids more about entrepreneurship. The game may be best for kids a bit older than 10 (we leave it to you to decide) but the goal of the game is to build your own business (home based or brick & mortar) while traveling the game board making decisions and trying to avoid bankruptcy.
What we liked were some of the real concepts driven home around what it is like to start a business (ex. marketing, legal, finding investors) that can be explained to kids as the game moves on or built upon with more research later. You win the game by having the most assets and liquid cash at the end of the game.
About The Game: The Entrepreneur Game is a STEM Accredited educational game, serving as a gateway for children and adults to learn about money, innovation, and entrepreneurship, using 21st Century skills to gainfully maneuver on the road to success and financial freedom.
Check out these and other financial literacy games at our curated game library here
To find out more about courses we offer to teach kids financial literacy click here
Know of any other great board games you have used with kids that were great at teaching money habits? We would love to hear about it here
