Money Games

I remember as a kid I loved to play games, especially with friends and family. I had hours of fun playing those games. Some of these games were useful in teaching about Money and its use. They did not just teach about the joy of competition (and winning).

The money games I played when I was a kid were:

• Monopoly, which is a good money game in the sense that it teaches kids about ownership, money management and some monetary concepts like Mortgages, Taxes and Going bankrupt. What Free Parking taught you, I don’t know. 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. At least it introduced the concepts around building a career and what you might need to do to build it.
• 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. It was 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 favourite money game when you were a kid?