The 22-minute game section of the Money Smarts workshop for high-school students: four minutes to get ready, fifteen minutes living from 15 to 55 one decade at a time, and three minutes to find out who won — and why. Needs and wants, budgeting, investing early, Buy Now Pay Later and scams are taught earlier in the session; the game lets students try them for themselves.
Students learn the game from six slides with real screenshots first, devices down — then every table joins room 1234 (helpers load the devices beforehand). Volunteers read the two-page guide before the day — it uses the same slides, the same words and the same six numbered parts of the screen.
The aim and the clock, the six things on your screen, the surprise bill that starts every round (and a scam text to watch out for), the shop — Cash, Pay Later or Skip — your table's own budget, then join in three steps.
Thank you for volunteering! Page 1: the two big lessons, what is on the screen, each round in order, and a quick test-yourself quiz. Page 2: looking after several tables, what to do when someone is left out or a table argues, and five questions that do the teaching.
The ideas are taught earlier in the session. The game lets students live them, and the three-minute wrap-up recaps them.
Don't spend more than you earn, and keep some cash back for the bill nobody planned for. In the game each table sets its own budget on the right of the screen — wants, an emergency fund and invest — and a surprise bill lands just before every payday.
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.” Mr Micawber — Charles Dickens, 1850
Growth on top of growth, with time doing the work. In the game invested money grows a steady 7% a year (real investments go up and down) and roughly doubles every ten-year round, so $10,000 invested at 15 is worth about $150,000 at 55. A credit card at 21% compounds the other way.
“My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest.” Warren Buffett — Giving Pledge letter, 2010
One device per table, with volunteers helping the tables. The table set-up and the number of students at each table depend on the size of the audience. No student accounts, no logins, nothing to install.
The presenter walks through six slides with real screenshots — the aim, the screen, the surprise bill, the shop and the budget — while devices stay down. Then the host board goes up, every table checks it says You're in (helpers load the devices beforehand, room code 1234), and GO. Round one is the practice round.
Tables live from 15 to 55 in four rounds of 3 min 45 sec — each one ten years, with a big life event, a surprise bill before payday, and a new shop. The presenter runs the host board on the projector: it reads out each round, counts down, and holds the live leaderboard.
The winning table comes up the front to share the key to their success and collect their prize. Quick hands up — best buy, any regrets, who spotted the scam — then the two lessons the game proved.
The game section of the Money Smarts deck — slides 19 to 29 — with real screenshots of the game. The same slides are used to brief volunteers.
The whole workshop: all 33 slides of the Money Smarts deck, from the welcome to the reading list (PDF, about 2 MB).
The same free, Australian websites as the workshop's last slides — none of them are trying to sell you anything. The books are suggestions, not endorsements: borrow them from a library.