Video Games and Financial Literacy The following games can be used to enhance 86 percent. Less than half of players financial literacy. Background on using real understood finance charges before playing, games in financial learning from recent while 82 percent did so afterward. And literature on the topic follows the game list. women said they felt more confident about handling finances after playing EverFi. www.everfi.com Practical Money Skills EverFi is a web-based simulation game http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/games/ designed for individuals ages 16-24 that trainingcamp/. covers a wide range of financial topics. This This website contains seven free games that link: can be embedded at no cost in other http://www.everfi.com/images/screenShots/EverFi websites. The most widely used is Financial LifeMap.jpg provides a screenshot. EverFi Football, a joint venture between Visa and contains many “virtual worlds” and the NFL. The game is accompanied by a interactive activities including a tour of the classroom curriculum designed for high NY Stock Exchange and a used-car school students. Teams compete by dealership. EverFi offers a five-hour series of answering multiple-choice questions to earn Web tutorials. This is a SimCity-style game in yardage and score touchdowns. Financial which they control characters‟ spending Football has been distributed by 23 state habits, rewarding good choices and suffering governments to every public high school in the consequences of bad ones. those states. Building on the success of Financial Football, Visa recently released Doorways to Dream’s (D2D’s) Celebrity Financial Soccer (Financial Football outside of the US), an interactive FIFA-themed video Calamity game that tests users‟ knowledge of personal www.celebritycalamity.com. finances. Financial Soccer offers single player The game is designed for low-to moderate- and head-to-head game play options and is income females ages 18 to 32. Students being translated into a dozen different practice paying off credit card bills, learn how languages. This free game features three much they really pay for items when they difficulty levels – children, teens and adults – pay interest, and pick up a basic and has companion lesson modules for understanding of how to use credit. This classroom use. Visa will roll out Financial game‟s primary focus is credit management. Soccer in over 12 countries in the months From D2D‟s website (based on n =44): leading up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. “These preliminary, small sample tests The 5 other games on this website are revealed that after 60 to 90 minutes of game Countdown to Retirement, Smart Money Quiz play, players showed increases of 15-30% in Show, Road Trip to Savings, Ed‟s Bank, and financial self-confidence. In addition, key Cash Puzzler. All seven games are based on knowledge questions reflective of core game the Practical Money Skills for Life program, teaching points showed 50-70% increases. which is Visa‟s widely used financial At the same time, these same players rated education program. The program contains Celebrity Calamity as 4.27 (out of 5) for comprehensive money management fun.” Doorways to Dreams found that 55 resources and lesson plans tailored for use at percent of the players understood the home and in the classroom. meaning of annual percentage rate before playing, but afterward the figure climbed to Page 1 of 4 Ekomini the game. The goal of Moneytopia is to make sound financial decisions and achieve www.ekomini.com financial goals over a multiyear period. Ekomini counts deposited coins through an Moneytopia takes players through 40 years online bank. The program is designed for of financial decisions, including where to live, children. Using a web-enabled coin-saver what clothes to buy, where to invest, and (piggy bank) kids deposit their money, see what bills to pay. To win, players must keep the amount deposited and how much has careful track of their finances, pay their bills accumulated. on time, and manage all of the small day-to- day items that can impact their finances. Wells Fargo’s Stagecoach Island Players can use cash, credit cards, or high- http://blog.wellsfargo.com/stagecoachisland/ cost payday loans to pay their bills. Virtual world game originally developed Occasionally, players must deal with surprise through Second Life in 2006. Users can expenses such as a wedding or the birth of a connect with friends and learn money child. An investment advisor offers financial management. It has four neighborhoods: tips throughout the game. Isla Del Sol, Desert Hollow, Sapphire Springs, and Olympic Valley as well as a T. Rowe Price Associates and Disney’s The Learning Lounge with a virtual ATM. Users Great Piggy Bank Adventure. can earn money (shells) and save to buy land and start building a home. Users work The Great Piggy Bank Adventure is a virtual virtual jobs, use credit cards, and take out board game that focuses on the importance home loans. of wise financial planning. The game is designed for children ages 8 to 14, and CentsCity parents are encouraged to play the game along with their children. Players learn about http://www.centscity.com/ important financial concepts and use these This program is unique because it allows lessons to complete the game and achieve parents to embed rewards in the program. their dream goals. The game‟s lessons cover (This could be something free such as more setting goals, saving and spending wisely, television viewing time or items purchased the impact of inflation, asset allocation and through the site). The program is designed diversification. Players strive to collect as for ages 8-14. Focused on managing money many truffles as possible to reach their (i.e. creating a budget, checking versus financial goal. Players can invest in three savings account, and balancing a piggy banks representing cash, bonds and checkbook), borrowing money (i.e. owning a stocks. The returns vary with each round but credit card, paying for college, and rent vs. are based on actual, historic returns in their mortgage), and growing money (i.e. buying respective markets. & selling stocks, owning a business, and understanding compound interest). CentsCity Community Bank’s (Bank of America) Sir is aligned with national standards published by the National Coalition of Teachers of Save-a-lot’s Kingdom. Mathematics (NCTM) and the Jump$tart http://www.kids-save.com/home Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy Children list items they want to save for and, (National Standards in K-12 Financial if they wish, can upload pictures of those Education Standards; 3rd Edition, 2007). items. If they have more than one item they‟re saving for, they can allocate a FINRA’s Moneytopia percentage of savings to each item by using a simple priority slider. Users can see how http://apps.finra.org/moneytopia/moneytopi much they have saved toward their goal with a.html a progress bar that also allows them to FINRA created Moneytopia: The Big Dream transfer money from one goal to another. for servicemen and women and their spouses The game is designed to provide positive ages 18 to 24, although anybody can play reinforcement to children as they do chores Page 2 of 4 and save toward the savings goals their literacy.” Financial Services Review, Vol. family has decided upon. Each time children 16, 2007, pages 105-116. log on, they record the completion of chores “Playing a stock market game is consistently and whatever money they earned from their related to higher literacy scores, presumably parent(s). The game automatically allocates because the fun and interactivity of playing this money to their goals based on the such a real-time game provides the intrinsic priority slider, and all allocations can be motivation necessary for learning.” “For high viewed in the log. The program also features school students, motivation is a key factor to an online game that teaches children about becoming financially literate and trained saving and budgeting. This game, known as instructors who teach personal finance Sir Save-a-lot‟s Kingdom, allows children interactively through activities such as a from around the world to compete with each stock market game or other simulations are other by making virtual saving and spending certainly a start.” decisions that affect the growth of their village. Thus, the program features both an Lusardi, A., 2008, Financial online banking feature and an interactive literacy: An essential tool for informed game. consumer choice? “However, a specific school-based Background on Real Games and Financial educational program that is consistently Learning related to higher financial literacy scores is the stock market game. Those who play a Mandell, Lewis (2008), “Financial stock market game in class do three to four Literacy in High School,” forthcoming in percentage points better than all students on Annamaria Lusardi (ed.), Overcoming financial literacy tests. This may provide the Saving Slump: How to Increase the some guidance on how literacy courses could Effectiveness of Financial Education and be improved upon.” “Courses can be Saving Programs, University of Chicago customized and tailored to various needs and Press. levels of financial knowledge. Moreover, as Mandell says “The stock market game is the the evidence on the effectiveness of the only school-based educational program that stock market game in high schools seems to is consistently related to higher financial suggest, it may be important to find ways to literacy scores. Starting with the 2000 make courses engaging and to stimulate Jump$tart survey, when it was first interest in acquiring financial literacy.” measured, students who played a stock market game in class do 3-4 percentage Walstad, WB & Buckles, S. 2008. points better than all students.