Learning to budget money in an appropriate way is one of the most critical skills that students will need to be successful adults. Unfortunately, many students are not fortunate enough to learn these skills in school. Whether you’re a teacher with an opportunity to make a difference, or a parent looking for resources, you’ve come to the right place.
We’ve done the research for you and found 10 online budget games for high school students! We’ve reviewed each one and given you a high-level overview of how the game works and what your student will learn. Check them out and give them a try!
Lights, Camera, Budget!
If you want a super creative game for your students to play while learning about budgeting, this is a great option. Students will learn to review different scenarios and make decisions based on a number of factors. This game is offered on the Georgia Public Broadcasting website and is free for students and teachers!
In Lights, Camera, Budget, your students will imagine themselves as movie producers. They receive a $100 million budget to produce their own 5-star movie. To be successful in this game, they must be able to answer a variety of financial management questions correctly.
The questions fall into several different categories ranging from financial institutions to insurance coverage and beyond. Students must answer 15 personal budget questions and make 12 decisions related to their movie. Their success in these areas will determine whether or not their movie will be 5-star rated or not!
How to play:
- Go to the GPB webpage for this game
- Click “Play Game”
- Choose your level. This game offers both middle and high school levels.
- Keep answering questions until you get to the end of the game!
Benefits:
- This game is highly creative and will likely keep your students’ attention
- It can be used as a competition between students to see who can get their 5-star movie produced first
Things it could do better:
- The game is simply a series of questions, which can become monotonous, depending on the type of learner who is playing.
- A $100 million movie budget is not likely a scenario that your students will encounter in their lifetime, so it’s not super relatable.
Misadventures in Money Management
Students who love comic books and graphic art will love playing this game! It was created by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to help teens learn good money management skills. It places emphasis on military families and personnel, but anyone can play and learn from it.
This game is a choose-your-own-adventure game that lets players make their own decisions and choose their own fate! It helps them learn to navigate different financial situations that are typical in real life. Learning how to address these sorts of issues in a game is a surefire way to help them remember their skills when the real thing arises.
Some of the topics covered in this game include:
- The importance of building rainy day funds and savings accounts
- Avoiding impulse purchases that could push you off track
- How debt can have an impact on a career in the military
How to play:
- Go to the MiMM website
- Click “Play”
- There is a place to enter an access code if you have one from your school, but you don’t need one
Benefits:
- This game is highly interactive and very likely to keep your students’ attention.
- Your students will build familiarity with the characters, making them want to return and play the game more frequently, which is always a good thing.
- It’s a no-brainer for any of your students who are part of a military family or are considering a career in the military.
Things it could do better:
- Since the focus is so heavily placed on service families, it can deter other students from playing
The Uber Game
There’s nothing quite like a game that gives your students real-life scenarios right out of the gate. Your students are likely very familiar with Uber and might even want to drive an Uber someday. In this game, they will learn whether or not a job as an Uber driver will cut the mustard in terms of paying their bills.
At the beginning of this game, there is an interesting twist. It asks the student to select their level of difficulty. For example, it may give them an option to be a person with good credit living in the city or a person with bad credit living a couple of hours away. The difference can be drastic for obvious reasons.
One of the best things for your students to do in this game is to play both levels. Play it the first time at the easier level and then try it again with the more difficult one. This will help them understand the differences between their own situation and those that others may be facing.
How to play:
- Go to the Uber Game website
- Click “Let’s Ride”
- Choose a browser that will support the game, based on the list provided
- Choose your level
- Play the game by answering the questions and following the prompts
Benefits:
- This game is all about gig-based income, which is popular with many Americans. This makes it easy to understand for many students.
- It’s very simple and user-friendly.
Things it could do better:
- It only gives students two options at the beginning, so it locks them into one level or the other, making it difficult to learn both perspectives.
Claim Your Future
Many students already know (or think they know) what they want to do for a living. A game like this one will help them understand the type of lifestyle that their chosen career will support. Although not all careers are listed in this game, it is possible for the student to choose a path in the game that will pay them a comparable salary to the job they want.
Once your student chooses a salary range for the game, they will be asked to make various decisions for their lifestyle. They will learn whether or not they can afford to live where they want to live. They will also have to make decisions about what types of food to eat, what car to drive, and more.
Your students will learn real information about the cost of living and the differences between needs and wants. It’s important for students to learn these types of lessons before they get out on their own and try to do it. If they’re going to fail, miss a rent payment, or go without food, they might as well do it in a virtual game!
How to play:
- Go to the Claim Your Future website
- Enter your grade & answer the prompts
- Click on “test your knowledge” and do the assessment first. This will help the game tailor the questions to your current level of understanding.
- Click on “play the game.”
- Follow the prompts and answer the questions in the game
Benefits:
- This game gives you the option of getting a random career or selecting the one that you want to play from their library. This gives the student more buy-in over the content.
- The “test your knowledge” assessment is a great way to determine your current level of understanding before proceeding.
Things it could do better:
- It’s not the most engaging game out of the ones we’ve selected, so it could use some work in that area.
Sonya Gives Advice
Society has a way of teaching students from a very young age that they need to spend, spend, spend. We all know that this is a terrible thing to teach them when they’re just learning about finances. In this game, they will learn about some of the key considerations in making a large purchase.
This game can be played independently or as a group, which is pretty unique for an online game. It will take the students through an interactive series of questions regarding large purchases. Students will learn how to build a plan around the large purchase that they want to make.
Another really important aspect of this game is that it directly addresses peer pressure. With instant gratification and social media constantly available, many students feel obligated to make purchases such as phones, expensive clothes, and other items. This game will help them understand the dangers of making large purchases as a result of peer pressure.
How to play:
- Go to the CFPB website and download the worksheet
- Go to the MiMM website to play the game
- Select the “Sonya Gives Advice” game
- Play the game and complete the worksheet
- Debrief with your peers at the end, if you played in a group setting
Benefits:
- The peer pressure conversation is very important, and it’s great that this game addresses it.
- This game helps students understand that making a plan is one of the best ways to be successful in making a large purchase without breaking the bank.
Things it could do better:
- It can be a little difficult to play this game because you have to go to one website to get the worksheet and another website to play the game.
- Making large purchases is not necessarily something that many high school kids are privy to, so it’s a little un-relatable.
Reality Check
Not only do these words ring true with your students, but they will also ring true with you, as well. It’s important for students to feel as though the games they are playing are relatable to them. This game is relatable and likely very interesting to your high school students who are already thinking about jobs after they graduate.
Students will learn what an hourly wage really means. For example, $20 per hour is almost $42,000 per year. To your students, that may sound like a lot of money, but this game will help them understand how far it will and will not go.
Reality Check will take your students through a series of questions about their dream life. It will ask where they want to live, what car they want, what food they like, etc. It uses an internal calculator based on real national data to let them know how much their dream life is actually going to cost.
How to play:
- Go to the Reality Check website
- Answer the questions based on what you want your lifestyle to be
- Fill in the amount of money you plan to spend on each of the hobbies/luxuries
- Click on “See Reality”
- Learn how much that life will cost
- Read the information about the types of jobs that are available in that salary range
Benefits:
- This game legitimately gives people a reality check into what their dream life will cost. This is important because high school students often have zero clues about the cost of living in the world.
Things it could do better:
- The potential responses to the questions are extremely limited. For example, the housing question only gives you the option to live at home with your parents or to have an apartment either alone or with roommates. However, many students have dreams of homeownership, so that should be included to help them understand how expensive it can be.
Money Magic
Imaginative students tend to enjoy games like this one. In this game, your students will help Enzo find a way to save $50,000, so he can go to Las Vegas and perform in a real venue. In order to do this, the student has to help him make important financial decisions along the way.
First of all, Enzo has to continue living his life while he’s saving money. This is an important lesson for students to learn because it’s critical to their budgeting skills. You can’t just sock away every dollar until you hit your goal. You still have to eat, pay rent, go to work, etc.
Students will have to help Enzo build his budget and add money to savings. They will also need to help him with his Vegas fund and how to advertise his magic show. After all, he can’t just show up in Vegas and expect to get paid! He has to get people to his show who will pay to see him perform!
How to play:
- Go to the Money Magic website
- Click on “Let’s Play”
- Follow the prompts and play the game
Benefits:
- This game allows students to be super creative and to think through a variety of perspectives on Enzo’s situation.
- It gives students the opportunity to think about daily living expenses, saving for a big goal, advertising a business, and more. It’s really comprehensive.
Things it could do better:
- This story is so odd that it’s difficult to relate to. Since it would not likely happen in real life, students may tire of it quickly.
- The categories for the game are a little confusing. For example, he has a “savings” category and a “Vegas fund” category, but the differences are never really explained, so students could become confused.
Spent
This is not a game for the faint of heart. It addresses poverty, homelessness, and other issues that often arise as a result of a low income. It is not intended to convince students that they need lots of money, but rather to enlighten them to what others may be dealing with.
If you want your students to learn more than just financial management, you should really take a look at this game. It’s a real simulation of what others go through on a daily basis. It can help your teen build empathy towards others who may be less fortunate.
Students who play this game will be asked to choose a job for themselves based on a few job postings that they read on the screen. They will then be asked to choose a health coverage plan because the Affordable Care Act requires them to get health insurance. The realistic questions continue throughout the game to help your students get a better understanding of life and how much it can cost.
How to play:
- Go to the Spent website
- Click “Continue to Spent”
- Read the disclaimer and click “Prove It.”
- Follow the prompts and answer the questions
Benefits:
- Your students will definitely come away from this game with a different perspective on poverty and homelessness.
- This game shows some of the harsh realities that some of your students might face during their lifetime, which could motivate them to work harder to avoid it.
Things it could do better:
- Although your students will learn a little bit about financial management in this game, they may become overwhelmed or distracted by the heavier issues that are addressed during the course of play.
- The game is a product of a ministry and should be used with caution. Some ministry-based lessons could be considered “religious” or “offensive” by some school districts and/or parents.
Hit the Road Financial Adventure
We all know that your students are itching to go on a road trip with their friends. Do you think your students have any idea how much it costs to go on a road trip? This game will help them understand the costs associated with adventures and vacations, including gas, hotels, food, and more.
Hit the Road is set up like an online board game. Each space on the board represents one day of the road trip. Students will be faced with a variety of issues that arise and need to be solved. Issues can be as simple as running out of gas or as complicated as losing your wallet and everything in it.
The interesting part of this game is that it is not exactly realistic because the players get the opportunity to work odd jobs to earn money while they’re on their road trip. While this is obviously not impossible, it is improbable. Working odd jobs to pay for gas on your road trip to Colorado is much more likely to be a movie script than an actual experience in life. Regardless, your students will learn from it.
How to play:
- Go to the Hit the Road website
- Click “start”
- Follow the prompts and click “yes” for instructions
- Read the instructions
- Click “play” to play the game
Benefits:
- All of these situations could actually happen while you’re on a road trip. High school students may not be taking road trips without their parents, but it’s likely that they will at some point in the near future after graduation.
- This helps students understand many of the things that are involved in vacations and trips, like gas and food, that they may not otherwise think of, likely because their parents currently cover those costs.
Things it could do better:
- The game is a series of questions and answers, so it’s not super engaging. To keep the students’ attention, it should incorporate some video elements or other things to make it more interactive.
- You may want to consider having students play this as a group rather than independently, so they’ll have more interaction.
Finances 101
Since most of your students have not likely had a job yet, it’s likely that they also don’t understand how their pay will work. Just because you make $10 per hour and work 5 hours doesn’t mean you’ll go home with $50. This game will help them understand how much will come out of their paycheck in taxes and other expenses they haven’t thought of yet.
After learning about gross pay versus net pay, they will learn how to budget for savings. This is a practice that is not regularly taught in schools but is critically important in adulthood. Helping your students understand the importance of saving money could be a game-changer for them.
In this game, students will be given a random profession and salary range. From there, they will be asked to open a checking and/or savings account. This process will help them understand the differences between the two and why they might want to have both.
How to play:
- Go to the Finances 101 website
- Check your browser settings to make sure yours is compatible
- Click “Play Now”
- Choose “Resume” if you’re returning to a previous game or “New” for a new game
- Create an account using your email and creating a password
- Follow the prompts and play the game
Benefits:
- This game prompts students to open a checking and/or savings account, which is a great thing for them to become familiar with early in life.
- Students will learn about the different deductions that will come from their paychecks, which gives them a deeper understanding of the value of money and how quickly it goes out the door.
Things it could do better:
- It’s a little hokey and could turn off some high school students who believe they are too sophisticated for this game. The graphics and art make it seem like a child’s game.
- Creating a username and password might be a no-no from their parents’ perspective, so you may want to check on that before assigning this game.
Why Games Are Helpful
Games are a great way to help students learn about various financial topics in a fun and engaging way. Sitting them down in a classroom and lecturing them is rarely a recipe for success. While some students can learn that way, others need something more stimulating.
High school students are accustomed to using technology in many aspects of their lives. Bringing technology and gaming into their learning space is another way to expand their knowledge of the subject matter. Using games to learn financial topics is not only more fun but also makes it easier to remember the content.
Which Game to Choose
Students have different interests when it comes to learning, just like they do in other areas of life. If you have the luxury of assigning different games to different students, learn a little bit about them first. Ask yourself questions like:
- What does this student want to do when he/she grows up?
- What do their parents do for a living?
- Have they expressed interest in a certain area of financial literacy?
If your entire class is working on financial literacy, it makes sense to assign the same game to everyone. Whether you’re doing weekly or monthly games, having them all on the same page will encourage class participation and conversation. Your debriefs will be much easier if everyone is playing the same game!
Conclusion
Financial literacy is a critical component of every student’s learning process. Although it is not always a part of the curriculum in public schools, it should definitely be included whenever possible. Creative teachers will find a way to incorporate this type of learning into their lesson planning to ensure their students get a well-rounded education.
Go online and play some of the games for yourself first. Many of them come with teachers’ resources and other items you can use when facilitating the game. We always recommend following up on a regular basis, as well, to make sure your students understand the subject and are progressing.