by Elisabeth Donati | Sep 11, 2017 | Extra Money Game Activities Category
Helping people distinguish between Needs and Wants is critical when you’re teaching them how to make wiser financial choices with their money. Learning to use their Living Jar for their Needs and their Savings and Play Jars for their Wants is important.
Purchase this financial education activity
Our Money Game Wants and Needs Activity is in the form of a debate. You can be as silly or serious as you want to be with this debate. I love to put on my purple wizard cape and have my ‘magic’ wand handy to summon the person who wants to talk up to the front to state their case…so to speak.
What you have below is the activity
by Elisabeth Donati | Jul 30, 2013 | Extra Money Game Activities Category, Money Game Specific
One of the activities we do in every Camp Millionaire and Moving Out! for Teens program is simply called Financial Habits. It’s great for an adult financial education program as well as many adults just don’t understand the importance of establishing great financial habits.
We even have a financial principle that goes like this…
“Your Money Habits Always Add Up In The End”
What you do it this…
Important financial habits everyone might want to learn.
- Before the program, draw a T on a large piece of flip chart paper.
- Write “Poor Habits” on the left (it’s important that it be on the left*).
- Write “Rich Habits” on the right (it’s important that it be on the right*)
- Hang it on the wall in front of the group where everyone can watch this sheet start to fill up with information.
- As the program goes along, simply fill in the left and right sides of the chart, being sure to go over them at the end of the day as a review.
- NOTE: notice that we use a different color for each new habits. DO NOT use just one color as it just blends into one great big page of words no one sees.
It’s easy to look at almost any money management habit and see both sides in terms of behavior. The more habits you can illustrate on the chart, the better and if you need to start a second sheet, by all means do it.
Remember, one of the most important things you can do to help your students (any age) learn is to illustrate the information. This simple activity done throughout your programs can make the difference between your students remembering the information or not.
What habits will YOU write on YOUR sheet?
Final Note: It’s always best to have a sheet pre-written on your instructor table where you will see it often as the program goes by. This way you can add any habits that you miss while you’re in the process of teaching.
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* In neural-linguistic programming, the past, or where you’re going FROM, is generally illustrated on the left and the future, or where you’re going to, is generally illustrated on the right.
For example…if you’re telling a story to a group of people in order to illustrate moving from an unwanted state (emotion, situation, etc.) to the desired state, you usually start telling the story from the audience’s left (your right), which is their past and move across the space to the audience’s right (your left) which is their future.
by Elisabeth Donati | Jul 8, 2012 | Extra Money Game Activities Category, Money Game FAQ, Money Game Specific
As you know, I love getting great questions about The Money Game that allow me to expand the game even further.
Sometimes the questions spur an addition that is so blatantly missing in the game it causes me to pause, and think, “How did I miss that?”
It always reaffirms my continual philosophy that all great things are collaborative in nature. I know for a fact that Camp Millionaire and The Money Game are as great as they as because of all of you!
Here’s the question from our Money Game Instructor, Kristina Steiger, from Dayton, OH. She posted the question on our private Money Game Facebook Group. The questions were important enough to put on your Money Game Blog.
KRISTINA’S POST…
Good morning,
I have a small group (6) of students who have been playing The Money Game this week and we have a few questions.
Question #1 – Making decisions about events.
The first is in regards to rounds and making decisions about events. We know the decision about what to do about an event (i.e., pay this round for a car accident with cash, or pay double the credit card bill next month*) comes before you collect your passive income.
However, can you make the decision about what to do, knowing you are getting that passive income? For example, if they need an extra $200 this round, and they’ll get that when they collect their passive income in a few minutes, does that work, or do they need to have that money currently in their account before the round’s passive income is collected?
* Or a third option is to forgo putting money in the Play Bag the next round. This way they can still Pay Themselves First.
ANSWER
Well…the answer is, “That Depends.”
It depends on whether the players want to practice the habits of financially free people or broke people.
It depends on whether you want to instill our Money Game Principle of “If you can’t afford it in cash, you can’t afford it at all.”
You see, here’s the thing…we’re trying to teach kids to think like, and make decisions like, wealthy, financially free, rich people. In this case, they tend to spend money they HAVE, not money they’re GOING to have.
Why? Because ‘stuff’ happens and you can’t ‘count’ on money you don’t have…until you have it.
When I play The Money Game with our players, I always emphasize that it’s their choice AND they have to make those choices knowing the consequences of those choices.
My preferred answer to this question is that they can PLAN actions that involve the money that they are reasonably sure they will be getting but that they don’t ACT on those plans until they have the money in their hands.
Question #2 – About saving money during the game.
Our second question is about “winning” the game. Since we have a small group we wanted to play as many rounds as we could, knowing that by the end they would all have been able to invest in at least 10 assets which produces the $1,000 of PI per month required to win the money game.
What is the ratio, or ideal amount, that students should have IN the bank, i.e., their money game registers, when they are financially free?
The kids were making that much in PI income each month, but wanted to spend most of it buying new assets. This meant that when we ended the game, some kids had 20+ assets, but only had $200 in the bank.
ANSWER
Kristina, this is such a brilliant question…it’s the one that caused me to pause, realizing I hadn’t hard-wired this lesson right into the game. The answer is taught in The Money Jars Activity Lesson but it’s not reinforced in the game unless an individual instructor chooses to do it.
The answer is that they ‘should’ have 3-6 months of living expenses put away in their ‘Just In Case’ Jar in case of, well, you know, just in cases:-).
If your expenses are $900, they theoretically need at least $2700 put away to truly win the game in real life. And since we’d never get through the game if the players had to do this, we need to address it…so let’s do so now.
Let’s look at The Money Jars for clues. If we look at the 6 jars and divide their initial $1000 paycheck into the jars, we have:
Living Jar (55%) – $550
Freedom Jar (10%) – $100
Saving Jar (10%) – $100
Education Jar (10%) – $100
Play Jar (10%) – $100
Donation (5%) – $50
Now let’s look at the Expense Bags relative to The Money Jars. They aren’t an exact match (because we wanted to keep the workings of the game simple) but they are close:
Rent, Living, Car Payment, Credit Card Payment = $600
Paying Yourself First (after round 1) = $100
Education = $100
Play = $100
Donation = $100
Total = $1000. We didn’t want to have to rip the $100 into a $50 for donation so we rounded up and since we absolutely wanted Donation to be part of the game, it had to be $100.
So what is missing, technically from the Expense Bags? You probably figured it out…the SAVING Bag.
The solution was for the register to be both the Saving and Freedom Jar money but that makes it only $10% of their paycheck. This is a blip in the game we haven’t been able to nail down because, quite honestly, it’s never been an issue because kids realize they must have money in their register ‘just in case’ one of the Event Cards costs them money (and they often do!).
My suggestion is to make sure:
- They have gone through The Money Jars lesson with the kids.
- You reinforce the importance, by reviewing the jars lessons, of having 3-6 months of expenses saved up for just-in-case events. And that means always having money in their register (truth is, it takes people time to save up 3-6 months of their regular expenses so you can talk about this as well).
- You absolutely should encourage them to save up money in their registers when you first introduce the Event Cards. Let them know that some of the events might be opportunities that require money to take advantage of.
Question #3 – About having ‘winners.
If we want a first, second, and third place winner, should that be based on who gets the 10 assets first, or is there a way to determine a winner based on their accounts (i.e., student A has $1000 in the bank and 11 assets, Student B has $1000 in the bank and 12 assets, Student C has $1900 in the bank and 10 assets)? Which one would be first?)
Great question…
ANSWER
It was never my intention for there to be a winner of a series of rounds of The Money Game but that EVERY player get the chance to ‘win the money game’ or at the very least, realize what is TAKES to win them game.
You see, in life, there are already trillions of examples where people believe that they can’t win the money game, for one reason or another. The point is that ‘ALL WEALTH IS LEARNED‘ and anyone can win the money game if they develop the right:
- Financial Mindset
- Money Habits
- Invest in assets
- Do what wealthy people do
I personally never promote one winner. Instead, at the end of the game…be it 3 hours, 1 day, a weekend or during a 5-day summer camp, we ask WHO has won the game, WHO is close to winning the game, WHO understands how to win the game and finally WHO chooses to be financially free and is wiling to do what is necessary to make it happen.
If you want to make winners and give prizes (assets preferably…never piddlyjunk please). Savings Bonds work great and aren’t expensive), then base it on how much money is saved in addition to the base number of assets. It promotes a better lesson in regard to basic financial habits.
Hope all this makes sense.
Thank you
OMG, thank you for asking! Upload some photos of your players!
by Elisabeth Donati | Nov 16, 2011 | Extra Money Game Activities Category, Financial Education
Almost 10 year journey I embarked on a journey into the fascination field of financial education and along the way, there have been people and processes added to our programs that enhanced their effectiveness by leaps and bounds.
One of these activities was suggested by my life partner, Steve Gordon, and it had to do with inviting people to think about an older version of themselves. Let me explain…
Kids Don’t Often Relate to Later
What I noticed early on was that the kids and teens in my Camp Millionaire programs (and many of their parents:-) had a really hard time thinking and planning for a future that was so far in the distance. When you think about it, using classic ‘retirement’ ideas (which I don’t teach the standard way…I teach financial freedom instead. More on that later), you’re asking a child to plan for maybe 50-70 years in the future. How many of us big kids can even do that now? Exactly!
As you might imagine, the challenge of making financial education relevant to their lives NOW has been the topic of more conversations than I’d like to recount but one such conversation led to this revelation…if you can get them to somehow relate to THEMSELVES later as a real human being and then put them into that older version’s mind, body and living situation, something seems to shift so they see the relevance of establishing great financial thoughts, beliefs, and habits NOW.
This brilliance came from Steve when he suggested I do a simple exercise with my participants (all ages) that literally walks them through a visualization of seeing their older selves. I tried it and guess what? It worked brilliantly!
I have used this visualization, and many variations of it, for over six years now quite successfully. I have included the basic version below for your convenience. Feel free to tailor it to fit your needs but whatever you do, use it!
Note: younger children often balk at closing their eyes in a room full of their peers. It isn’t necessary for people to close their eyes in order to visualize something. If I told you right now to NOT think of the purple elephant with pink pokadots in the hallway, you can’t NOT see the elephant. Wasn’t he cute? :-). I also tell them that they all look silly so not to worry about it!
Hope you enjoy the process and let me know how it goes! One last note: if you’re an adult, don’t be surprised if you end up in tears.
The Older You That’s Depending on the Younger You
The following visualization is designed to put you in touch with the older person you will eventually become; the person that is counting on a younger self to make decisions that will lead to a secure, happy future full of promise, adventure and financial freedom.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to record the visualization and play it back, listening to the sound of your own voice. If you can’t do that, simply read through it once and then go back and do it.
Here we go…
Find a comfortable place to relax, either sitting in a chair or laying down on your back with your hands at your side. Close your eyes and take a nice, slow deep breath in … and then out. Take four more slow, deep breaths, each time feeling your body and mind begin to get more… and more relaxed. Feel yourself sinking into the chair or the ground beneath you.
Feel yourself become heavy… deep breath in… and out. Imagine your body sinking deeper… and deeper… and deeper toward the floor with each breath you exhale.
Now imagine you are walking through a forest of old growth trees. It’s summer time and the canopy of the trees provides the perfect shade for a hot summer day. Hear the birds to your left and if you notice, there’s a little stream on your right. Your walking on a path of soft pine needles that make the most lovely sweet sound when as you walk along happily and contented.
As you continue walking, you notice there’s another path that goes slightly off to the right. You decide to take it and within just a few minutes you notice that the trees are beginning to clear and all of a sudden you’re at the edge of a beautiful clearing. You’re standing in front of a beautiful open field of grass, gently waving in the sight breeze you start to become aware of. The path beckons you into the field.
As you near the opposite edge of the field, the path turns slightly to the right again and you are walking in the woods again but this time there’s maple trees and oak trees and wild flowers all around. As you continue walking, smelling the flowers and the fresh air, you notice, off to the left up on a little hillside not far away, the cutest little rustic cabin.
On the front porch, you notice someone is rocking in a old rocking chair; they seem as peaceful as can be. You look closely and notice this older person looks a little bit like you might look in many years to come. You watch that person for a while and notice how content and happy he or she looks, just watching the world go by, not a care in the world, free to do anything at anytime.
You decide to wonder up and chat with this person but as you get closer you notice they don’t see you. You walk up onto the porch and you begin to wonder what kinds of choices did their younger self make to bring them to the place they are today. The place you’re watching right now.
It’s time to begin having conversations with that person on the porch. That older person inside you that’s depending on all the choices you make now. Depending on those choices to create the life your older self wants to experience later.
Walk up onto the porch and walk behind your older self. Just for today, take a step into their lives; slip into that older body in the rocking chair and see how it feels. Is it comfortable? Are you relaxed? Did you make the right choices?
Each day you make choices that affect this older self. Each day you are given the opportunity to make decisions that either help prepare this older version of yourself for a comfortable life or a life of struggle and stress.
As you get older, each year you live in the choices your younger self-made. When you’re 20, you see where the decisions at 15 took you. When you’re 30, you’re depending on your 20 year old self. At 40, you’ll be looking back at the decisions you made at age 30 and so on.
As you begin to learn how money works and make decisions about whether to spend your money or put it to work for you, close your eyes for a brief moment and ask this older self what decision they’d like you to make. Remember you have just one chance to use each dollar you earn wisely or the power of that dollar to work for you is lost forever.
Take another deep breath in, and out, knowing that you have the knowledge and power to create the exact life that older version is waiting for.
Say goodbye to your older self, knowing you can talk to him or her at anytime. Walk back down the porch and go back to the path. Wonder on back to the right, back through the field, feeling the sun on your back, the slight breeze in the air. Walk back into the forest and when you see the Y in the path, continue on to your right. Take a nice deep breath in, smelling the forest and the pine cones and dampness. Know that now you have someone new to think about when you need to make a decision about life. Know that you have access to the answers at any time. All you have to do is stop and revisit the person on the porch. They’ll tell you everything you need to know.
Take another deep breath in… and out. Slowly, on the count of three, open your eyes and come back to the present. One…two…three.
END OF VISUALIZATION
Now that you’ve visited with your older self, you know that there really is someone relying on you to make the wisest of decisions possible.
Remember that you don’t always feels like you know what those decisions are, but if you take time to consult your older self, he or she can often tell you very quickly what the best decision is for them. The most important thing to do is make sure you listen to that older self!
What does YOUR older person what you to do today?
by Elisabeth Donati | Aug 15, 2011 | Extra Money Game Activities Category, Money Game Specific
Our Penny Vs. Million Dollars Activity has to do with compound growth and is a great way to get anyone to understand the power of money invested over time.
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Rather have a penny doubled for 30 days or a million dollars today?
Albert Einstein is often quoted as saying that “compound interest is the most powerful force in the Universe” and adults who don’t understand investing often say that compound interest is the most important thing for kids to learn.
We disagree…but only slightly.
It’s actually ‘compound GROWTH’ that is the powerful force, not just interest, and here’s why.
When people invest wisely with the goal of creating financial freedom for themselves, they put money into assets/investments that sooner or later (hopefully sooner) produce a regular stream of cash flow, or passive income, for them to live on. This way they eventually get to work because they WANT to and not because they HAVE to.
Many of the returns on these types of assets/investments aren’t based on interest at all.
Consider buying stock in a company.
You do it for a couple of reasons. First, with a ‘hope’ that the value appreciates (goes up) so you can eventually sell it for more than you paid for it…BUT this doesn’t produce cash flow for you to live on.
The real reason you should be investing in stocks is so that stock pays you a regular dividend, you CAN live on that. But remember, not all stocks pay dividends so do your homework when investing in the stock market for cash flow.
Consider buying a piece of rental property.
If you rent it out for more than your monthly mortgage payment, you CAN live on the excess. You can’t live on the appreciation, however, unless you eventually sell it and put the money you made on that appreciation into some type of other asset/investment that does provides you a regular stream of cash flow.
The only way that return is interesIf, however, you lend money on a first or second mortgage and that person is paying you interest, money that is compound interest based if you are the lender, i.e., you are playing the bank by lending someone money who will then pay you back what he borrowed, plus interest.
Purchase this financial education activity
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by Elisabeth Donati | Jul 20, 2011 | Extra Money Game Activities Category, Money Game Specific
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Two of the most important distinctions that Camp Millionaire and The Money Game help people (little and not so little) see is:
1) The difference between earning money and making money.
2) Seeing the different aspects of earning and making money by looking at the differences between being an employee, being self-employed, owning a business and being an investor.
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For those of you who have read our suggested books, you’ll recognize this activity as Robert Kiyosaki’s Cash Flow Quadrant information.
This activity is a great way to show kids where their money is going to come from using the four quadrants.
Note: I am often asked to do short presentations (usually 45 minutes or so) for career fairs and volunteering at high schools to share what I do for a living (entrepreneur). I never miss these opportunities to introduce the students to the quadrant and teach them the difference between earning money (trading your time and energy for money but only getting paid once for your time) and making money (trading your time and energy to get paid over and over and over again).
Most adults don’t even understand the difference between earning and making money, but when they do? Boy do they start seeing things differently in terms of how they bring money into their lives. Here’s a great video by Robert Kiyosaki so you can learn about the quadrant before you teach it to your students.
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