Using Monopoly or similar games for teaching personal financial education

You are so lucky to be able to organize this event. I have had the chance to play games with my students on make up days and last classes, but if you get to build in learning outcomes, I think that sounds like a double bonus.

Games to play... I agree that Monopoly and Life, especially the latter, may not be very educational or dynamic for your students. I did hear about a game called Acquire which is about investing in businesses. It's not literally about having a budget, but it sounds like it involves making calculated decisions about value and return. People who have actually played it can correct me if I'm wrong. Here is the description of the game from boardgamegeek.com... it might be suit your needs.

Acquire is a "Sid Sackson classic [that] has taken many different forms over the years depending on the publisher. Each player strategically invests in businesses, trying to retain a majority of stock. As the businesses grow with tile placements, they also start merging, giving the majority stockholders of the acquired business sizable bonuses, which can then be used to reinvest into other chains. All of the investors in the acquired company can then cash in their stocks for current value or trade them 2-for-1 for shares of the newer, larger business. The game is a race to acquire the greatest wealth."

The one I'd like to point at is Dominion: You set and attain short and long term goals. You make choices every turn. Money has a specific role in the game, as do your choices about how much and when to purchase it. Etc...: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36218/dominion

Given the likely budget and the stated scope of the convention, I think that Monopoly is a pretty appropriate choice. The cash in that isn't abstracted and its use is straightforward and obvious. Settlers is a nice suggestion, but the money in that game may be too abstract for the attendees to really absorb the desired lesson.

Best of luck!

I recommend you read this teacher review on his experience. You can also contact him on BGG.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/532115/at-school-by-request

The first thing that I can mention, since an appropriate game didn't come to mind yet, is playtime.

"On each of the two days of the tournment, each school will run ten games at once in a gym or hall. The school winners enter a final with another game (so we need two different games)."

Ten games at once, means 10 winners come out of the first session right? Then you would need a second session where two or three games are played simultaneously, out of which 3 winners will emerge. Then you need a third game to decide the school's winner.

This would make monopoly a very bad choice, since it takes about three hours (often more) to play one game. I can do some research, maybe I can find the perfect game for this project, because I love the idea! I would urge you to make playtime as a major factor when deciding on the game.

Which country are you going to?

Monopoly is a crappy, awful game, with no real choices and very little in the way of budgeting, beyond "can I afford this space I landed on, or not?". It also takes too long and is simply Not Fun for at least half that time. Life has no budgeting to speak of, and only one significant choice (college vs. no college) which has little bearing on general game play. For both games, you might as well just roll a die and collect that many dollars, for all the teaching on finances they actually do (to say nothing of how boring they are).

I would definitely second "Settlers" as it is widely available, even internationally, language-independent, and relatively easy to pick up and play. Get enough copies that you can play 3 people per board, if possible.

An article from the Wall Street Journal about Settlers' utility as a financial teaching tool:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126092289275692825.html

But basically, if your goal is to actually teach financial literacy you couldn't go wrong with just about ANY of the top 50 games in the "auction" or "trading" headings on BGG (many games are in both categories!).

Trading (~1,900 games listed):
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2008/trading

Auction/Bidding (~2000 games listed):
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2012/auctionbidding

Obviously there will be much overlap between the two. You can sort the lists by ranking and then check out the top 50 or so in each category and you can't go wrong. You'd certainly do better than crapfests like Monopoly and Life.

There are more games in "commodity speculation" and its subcategory "stock holding" that might be worth checking out too (again, plenty of overlap with the above two):
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2013/commodity-speculation
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2005/stock-holding

Ideally you should decide and acquire your game of choice BEFORE you leave, and just carry them in a suitcase or ship them overseas. It might be difficult to easily acquire some of these abroad, particularly if you need them quickly, but many of these are printed in Europe as well as the US, and/or can be shipped internationally if need be.

Looking for games that teach financial literacy? Honestly I can't recomend anything better then the "Cashflow" by the Rich Dad company.

http://www.richdad.com/store/ProductDetail.aspx?id=1

Problem is that it's hunky investment for a game. It's patented. Though it is played as an educational tool more then for fun. A tool to learn how winners handle money. Not, the basics of money....like how to save etc. In my opinion it is worth it's money price! Also it is best played in groups of people that are serious about improving their financial literacy. It is a fun learning experience!

I have played this game in groups a couple times. It was very interesting how each individual approached the game. The winner or the person to get out of the "rat race" is the one who applies the knowledge and also who thinks unconventionally about spending.

I don't enjoy monopoly as a fun activity. I'm pretty bored with it! Even the skyscraper version is ok but not much better. However, I will not deny that monopoly has some vary real educational value with regard to real estate investing. "Four green houses-red hotel" is a simple formula that applies in the real world.

In my opinion, Monopoly may be cheap but I wonder if the participants are really going to gain anything that is worth remembering from the experience.

Chashflow is expensive, but the lasting value and enormous and will be more impactfull on the participants. There are actually many groups all over the world who get together to practice this game.

$195?! Either the game better include some solid gold, or the whole thing is just an extended real-life example of itself: want to make money? forget buying properties or investing. just design something that claims to make people rich, and charge a fortune for it!

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/364820/a-riddle-wrapped-in-a-mystery-ins...

Ah, yes. I was right. If Cashflow is Chess, then Chutes and Ladders is Go.