Getting children interested in financial matters can be challenging. You need to explain concepts they can’t visualize easily, which might make the child disengaged. On top of everything they learn at school, your child may not be keen on having additional lessons at home.
Gamification of the learning process is an excellent way to overcome this issue and ensure your child enjoys the experience. You can find numerous money games for kids that will help them develop a range of skills, and this article highlights some of the best options for children of different age groups.
How Kids’ Money Games Improve the Learning Experience
Besides being a fun teaching tool, games help your child retain new information and apply it to real-life situations. Research shows that board games are an effective way to increase knowledge of a certain topic and improve a child’s cognitive functions.
Other benefits of gamification include the following:
- Instant feedback—Games are interactive, so your child instantly sees the results of the knowledge they apply
- Increased engagement—Achieving mini-goals, progressing through levels, and other elements of games keep your child engaged throughout the learning process
- Better problem-solving—Instead of merely repeating the theoretical knowledge they get, your child can see its practical implications
These benefits apply to online and board games, and using a mix of the two is a great way to enrich your child’s money lessons.
Board Games About Money for Kids
If you want to turn money talks into a fun family pastime, board games can be highly beneficial. Among numerous options, three games stand out:
- Buy It Right
- Money Bags
- CASHFLOW
Buy It Right
Source: Amazon
Buy It Right is an excellent educational game that helps your child understand the value of money. It can also be quite helpful in teaching them how to manage their allowance. The following table breaks down its basic information:
| Basic Info | Details |
| Recommended age | 5+ |
| Number of players | 2–4 |
| Skill focus | Trading and money recognition |
You can set prices for specific items you’ll trade as you move through the board. This gives your child a chance to develop several skills, most notably:
- Counting money and making change
- Recognizing different U.S. bills and coins
- Buying and selling products
Everything you need is included in the bundle, so your child can start learning immediately.
Money Bags
Source: Amazon
Money Bags is a fast-paced game that teaches your child the basics of collecting and counting money. You can find the relevant details in the following breakdown:
| Basic Info | Details |
| Recommended age | 7+ |
| Number of players | 2–4 |
| Skill focus | Money counting and recognition |
The gameplay is simple yet fun enough to keep your child engaged—they roll the dice and collect money based on the field they land on. This lets them practice early math while improving their money recognition skills.
The built-in spinner highlights coins that can’t be taken from a bank, so your child will need to work around these limitations to gather money, which improves their critical thinking.
CASHFLOW
Source: Rich Dad
Formerly known as CASHFLOW 101, this game was developed by Robert Kiyosaki, the famous author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. It’s suitable for slightly older children, as you’ll see in the below table:
| Basic Info | Details |
| Recommended age | 10+ |
| Number of players | 2–6 |
| Skill focus | Financial management |
With the gameplay of around three hours, this game teaches children about numerous aspects of wealth-building and wise financial management, most notably:
- Developing good financial habits
- Investing
- Building passive income
Besides some key financial management skills, your child can learn some of Kiyosaki’s best-known concepts presented in a fun, digestible way.
Online Money Games for Kids
Children get accustomed to technology early on, so you’ll want to make sure they use it for good purposes. You can find many educational money games online, such as:
- Cash Puzzler
- Peter Pig’s Money Counter
- Toy Shop
Cash Puzzler
Source: Cash Puzzler screenshot
Cash Puzzler is a simple puzzle/memory game that helps children identify and memorize U.S. denominations. Like other online options from the list, it’s a single-player game, and other features are as follows:
| Basic Info | Details |
| Recommended age | 3–6 |
| Skill focus | Money recognition |
The objective is as simple as it gets—your child should put together the chosen banknote from scrambled pieces. When they do, they’ll learn some interesting facts about the person on the banknote.
Peter Pig’s Money Counter
Source: Peter Pig’s Money Counter screenshot
Peter Pig’s Money Counter is a versatile game that uses rewards to motivate children to keep practicing. It focuses on two key aspects of early money management, as shown in this breakdown:
| Basic Info | Details |
| Recommended age | 5–8 |
| Skill focus | Coin recognition, money counting |
The game has three levels focused on coin identification and counting. Each time your child gets it right, they earn the amount represented by the coins. At the end of the game, they can buy items and dress up Peter Pig, which certainly adds some fun to the experience.
More importantly, the game prompts the child to save a certain amount of money before entering the store, which teaches children the value of prioritizing saving over spending.
Toy Shop
Source: Toy Shop screenshot
This game acts as a virtual store, letting your child buy toys by paying a specific amount from bills and coins of different values. It has two difficulty levels, which makes it suitable for a wider age group, as shown below:
| Basic Info | Details |
| Recommended age | 4–11 |
| Skill focus | Money counting |
Your child will see a toy with a price tag, and they must count their money so that it matches the requested amount. You can choose between a single-coin/bill budget or a mixed one depending on your child’s skill level and age. The game will help them understand the value of money and improve basic math skills.
How To Support Your Child’s Financial Literacy as They Grow Up
The games you saw here should help your child grasp the fundamentals of financial management. They’ll have a solid foundation for future knowledge they’ll need while growing up. As your child reaches their teens, you’ll need to educate them on new financial products and concepts, such as the following:
- Different types of bank accounts
- Debit and credit cards
- Saving and responsible spending
Besides the above, there’s one topic you’ll need to pay special attention to—credit building.
The Importance of Building a Strong Credit Profile
Your child’s credit profile can make or break their chances of obtaining loans and other credit products. It can also impact their place of residence and even their eligibility for certain jobs. With this in mind, your child should start working toward a good credit score as soon as possible.
They’ll likely need your support at the beginning, as children typically don’t qualify for financial products that let them build a credit history.
One way to support your child is to add them as an authorized user of your credit card. Some parents go down this road because the CARD Act of 2009 makes it almost impossible for children under 21 to obtain credit cards independently.
Adding a child as an authorized user lets you overcome this limitation and create a credit profile for them sooner. The problem is that there’s no long-term benefit because your child only builds a credit profile while they’re registered as an authorized user. When you remove them, they have to start over because all credit history associated with the card gets deleted from their profile.
If you need a more convenient and effective way of helping your child build a stellar credit profile, FreeKick can help.
Make Your Child’s Future Easier With FreeKick
FreeKick builds credit for children ages 14–25 by combining a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-insured (FDIC-insured) deposit account with additional services. It’s powered by Austin Capital Bank and lets you improve your child’s financial well-being in three quick steps:
- Create an Account
- Set It and Forget It
- Keep Growing
Create a FreeKick Account
When you go to FreeKick.bank, you can create an account by placing a one-time FDIC-insured deposit you’re comfortable with. The deposit amount determines the plan, and you have three options to choose from:
- Free—One-time FDIC-insured deposit of $2,500
- $49/year—One-time FDIC-insured deposit of $1,750
- $99/year—One-time FDIC-insured deposit of $1,000
Set It and Forget It
Once you open the account, FreeKick will build your child’s credit history for the next 12 months.
If your child is a legal adult (18 and over in most states), their credit history will be reported to three major consumer credit bureaus. Minors (14–17) build credit history the same way, but it will be reported when they become legal adults because credit bureaus don’t allow reporting for underage children.
Keep Growing
When the 12-month term ends, you can renew the account for another one. FreeKick can build up to 48 months of credit history for your child, which can save them over $200,000 throughout adulthood.
If you wish to close the account, you can do it at any point and get your deposit back. Note that if your child is a minor at the time of closing, no credit reporting can be done for the account—due to the credit bureaus’ restrictions.
Let FreeKick Monitor and Protect Your Child’s Credit Profile (Coming Soon)
Leaving your child’s credit profile unmonitored can be risky, as it makes their sensitive information vulnerable to financial fraud. In recent years, millions of children have fallen victim to identity theft, which robs U.S. families of around $1 billion annually.
A particularly dangerous form of this crime is synthetic identity fraud. If your child’s Social Security number (SSN) falls into the wrong hands, it can be combined with fake information and used to obtain fraudulent loans.
To reduce the risk of your child’s information being misused, FreeKick offers credit profile monitoring services for free with each account. The security measures your child will be covered by include the following:
- Social Security Number Tracing that tracks all crucial information tied to your child’s SSN
- Dark Web monitoring with the CyberAgent surveillance system
- Full-service ID restoration and $1 million insurance
- Neighborhood sex offender monitoring alerting you if an offender registers with a different name using your address
Adult children are eligible for additional services on top of the above measures:
- Lost wallet protection
- Payday loan monitoring
- Change of address monitoring
- Court records monitoring
Let your child step into adulthood with a remarkable credit profile while keeping their sensitive data safe—sign up for FreeKick.
Featured image source: Joshua Hoehne
