Global Money Week is 25 – 31st March this year. It’s a week observed in over 150 countries to teach and promote financial literacy among children and young people. I’m sure now that you are older and wiser, you wished someone had taught you a bit more about money to prevent those financial blunders you made in your 20s/30s and might still be making.
Of course, educational material on money, credit, and investments can be boring to adults and double boring to children. However, games like Monopoly can make learning about finance easy and even fun for kids as they learn valuable information that can help them make wise financial decisions. With investing in real estate being the new financial buzz for a lot of people. Here are 5 things Monopoly board game can teach your child:
- Cash is King: Monopoly teaches your child that you must always have cash in hand. To win in Monopoly you must be the last player left, in other words, the last one to have money. So, if you buy up everything in sight you would soon be cash strapped. When your financial obligations come, you won’t be able to meet them. Then, you will have to start selling off the properties (assets) you acquired at a deep discount to pay off your obligations. Winning in Monopoly is by collecting rents on property and having MONEY.
- Have a Plan/Strategy: Start with a plan. You usually can’t win by buying every piece of real estate you land on. Remember that funds are limited. So, with your plan, you budget considering the cash at hand as before you start buying properties. It teaches the act of decision making by thinking about how much cash you have, plan for purchases, taxes and rent, etc. The more properties you have increases your chances of getting rental income. So, having a plan on which strategy, which property from the onset is key
- Spend Wisely: The main lesson Monopoly teaches is about spending wisely. Don’t spend everything on buying properties when you still need cash to pay bills from landing on other people’s property. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket – buying the most expensive property and expect that to be the answer. In the end, it’s about balancing inflow and outflow of money and ultimately about spending wisely.
- Don’t Have Too Much Cash: Cash is King, and you need to have cash to meet our obligations but having too much cash is also bad. Too much cash means you are not investing and generating more income. This will result in you spending the cash at hand to pay rent when you land on another people’s property. So financial education, planning, budget, decision making is all key in helping you to make the right financial decision to win
- Negotiation is a Key Skill: Monopoly teaches negotiation skill – a very important skills useful in life from asking for a pay rise to negotiating a deal. The game offers opportunities to negotiate with other players to sell or secure properties, to trade property just to stay in the game and even to sell a get out of jail to another player. Here they can explore their ability to reach a mutually beneficial deal.
Amazing!!! Your child unknowingly learns all this from a fun game? Who says you can’t play and learn at the same time?
Don’t let the learning and fun stop. Sign up today at 9ijakids to play other fun games that teach children more on financial literacy. 9ijakids Piggy Savings, Kiddiepreneur 101 and Money Matters are all fun ways to educate your kids about financial literacy.
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