Teaching kids financial literacy is something most parents don’t care about. They expect schools to take care of it. The blogpost today reflects on events that passed in our family during the past months. Several months ago our daughter asked 10 Euro for the purchase of 800 R$ Virtual Money in her game Bloxburg. 
At that time I didn’t know what this game is all about…until last week. Read below what we did find out…..
How Online Gaming can improve your kids’ Financial Literacy
Our kids play often games on the Internet using their laptop, ipad or smartphone. I refuse to purchase a Playstation or any other gaming device as I believe there’s enough entertainment without those devices. Guess I am old school dad…lol. Kids need to have other hobbies and/or play outside while being in the nature. Kids have these days many screens to look at…computers, TV and smartphones.
But six months later after the purchase of 800 R$ I did find out that our daughter did spend this time useful in the game Bloxburg. Bloxburg is a game of Roblox and in this game you can build and design your own amazing house. You can purchase awesome vehicles, hang out with friends, work, roleplay and explore the city Bloxburg. The interesting part of this game is how each of our three kids applied his own view on finances and spending money. This resulted in the following three strategies. Let me tell you all about…
Strategy of our daughter L (10Y)
Our daughter started with a small house. She did quickly learn that you need to work for food and other necessities in her house. When she entered the game, her status showed STARVING…so the first thing she did was to run to the kitchen where she prepared tacos and some sandwiches. After a shower in the bathroom and a change of outfit, she showed me around in her BIG house that she has build out so far. The total value is now 204.221$. Did you know that she has two swimming pools ? One inside and one outside ?
Why do you have two swimming pools, I ask her ? Well, you know I like to swim, she answers…lol. Besides the fitness room, luxury living room, she shows me her garden and bedroom. She shows the washer machine and dryer and how she does the laundry. In the bedroom she takes a nap and makes up her bed afterwards as she like order. Pictures at the wall are from a famous Youtuber. In the garage we find a bicycle, a moped and a car of 25.000$ (not the cheapest one on the market). I ask how she purchased all those things. She answers she worked many different jobs : cashier at BFF, janitor at Green Clean, hairdresser at Stylez Hair (very bad salary she said), and many others. She even worked as a mechanic doing motorcycle repairs. Very quickly she concluded that pizza delivery person was the best paid job. She got promoted 4 times and now earns 1.000$ for three pizza deliveries in short time. With working hard, she was able to earn a lot of money and improved her house.
She even constructed a bedroom for one of her brothers so he could stay at her house during the construction of his house. How sweet ! What are her next objectives ? Just some improvements of the house and another promotion, she says. Great attitude, I think.
Strategy of our son I (13Y)
The strategy of our son was quite different. The first thing he does, is to sell the house he got for free. With the money he purchases land and starts building another house. He also finds out quickly that pizza delivery gives him the most. The total value of his house is now 52.404$. He doesn’t want to purchase a car. No need. He doesn’t want to spend much money on the house. He just wants to finish it and have a TV with real channels. He pities the fact that he can’t invest his money in other ways than just spend it for his house.
He would like to invest his money in different ways. Good thinking according to me. I know many people around me who just invest all their money in their house and garden.It is a choice you make in life.
Strategy of our son A (14Y)
The strategy of the oldest son follows the same strategy of his brother. He sells the house and starts to build another small house that he likes. Just one open space with a garage. In the garage he has a 25k $ car and his moped. The open space doesn’t have many fancy stuff as he doesn’t want to spend his money on expensive stuff that does not serve. He plays piano and has purchased a piano for the living room. He likes cars and he is working hard now. He wants to purchase the 90.000$ SUV 4×4 car.
The total value of the house is around 50.234$ and he doesn’t want to spend more. Just little cool things to decorate the house that don’t cost a lot of money.
Final Words
So what did we learn ? We learned many things while spending quality time with our kids. We learned how their current perspective on money spend is today. We learned how they see their future life conditions. They learned that you need to work for money before you can spend it for necessities and entertainment. I learned how our kids see the future and what their financial intelligence is for their respective ages. They enjoyed the fact that I did show interest for their online gaming and how they execute their actions in this virtual world. The difference in house value between the youngest daughter and the sons is amazing high. I personally enjoyed this time finding out about their online games. I can only encourage you to do the same and guide them in online gaming that teaches them something. In the Bloxburg game, you can only achieve more intelligence (building more skills) by reading books, said my son. Wise words ! We hope we didn’t bore you with this blog post but sometimes learning how to manage finances can also be done in online games, as I did find out. Are your kids learning something with their online gaming ?
Don’t hesitate to leave your comments and feedback. Let us know what you think.
Good luck with your personal finance strategy! Thanks for following us on Twitter and Facebook and reading this blog post. As always we end with a quote.
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