Tag Archives: kids

No comments

The Economics of Plants VS Zombies

  By remymartini • November 26, 2012 , ,

Even if you don’t have a smartphone, I’m sure you’ve at least heard of the popular game “Plants VS Zombies.” The plot of the game is that your neighborhood is under attack by a bunch of different Zombies. The only way to protect you and your family is by planting various plants that shoot, blow up, stall, or stomp on them to (re)kill them. It’s a strategy game that puts your Plants VS the Zombies…

You don’t get an endless supply of plants of course, because that makes the game WAY too easy and what’s the fun in that? You have to pay for plants with sunlight. Sunlight comes from either the sun (obviously) randomly or sunflowers (or a mushroom at night). Either way you start off with 50 in your bucket to spend on a plant.

Example of prices are as followed:

Sunflower 50

Shooting Plant 100

Potato bomb 25 (one time use)

The sun will randomly shine down to increase your pot (25 at a time), but do you choose to wait to gain more or do you plant a sunflower to hopefully make it increase?

There are different strategies to play the game, but the one that I have found the most useful is plant as many sunflowers as soon as possible so that you can get sunlight quickly. Then plant the attacking plants as needed when zombies start to attack. Don’t randomly start planting them until you see the zombies coming so that you can grow your sunlight bank faster.

Now what does all this have to do with economics?

It’s a great way to have kids relate something they enjoy doing to saving. Instead of sunlight, they save their allowance/earnings for a rainy day or maybe the Zombie apocalypse, you never know. Kids typically have the urge to buy everything they “want” without really thinking about what that means to their money, but if you use this as an example they may see it in a different light. Help them realize that what they buy effects what they do later in the week/month/year. Show them that when they put their money in a bank it grows faster (like planting more sunflowers). When they stop putting money into the bank account or use that money to buy something it slows down how much money they’re making.

Here’s a way to help Translate:

Sunflower (allowance) $50 (just and example)

Shooting Plant (Bike) $100

Potato Bomb (Candy/Fast Food) $25

If you want to be creative and goofy like myself you can create a money chart with pictures from Plants VS Zombies to help track your kids’ progress. They get allowance = sunflower. When they buy something it represents one of the plants. When something unexpected happens, such as they break a window with their baseball and they have to pay for it, that would be a Zombie.

Now this is economics on a micro level of course, but it’s a great way to talk to your kids about money in a language they can understand and is fun.

So what are your thoughts?

No comments

Finances – A Family Affair

  By remymartini • October 26, 2012

One thing that I really enjoy doing in a financial plan is to get the kids involved in some way. It may seem like a strange concept to get kids involved into a financial plan, but it’s a great way to teach kids not only the fundamentals of money, but responsibility as well. An extra bonus I have found is that the kids often can keep their parents in line when I’m not around.

Why teach kids about finance

Listen, first and foremost, I am not telling anyone how to raise their kids. I’m just giving my honest perspective from when I was a kid and what I learned (or didn’t learn) while growing up. Education and knowledge is power so empowering your child with financial knowledge will last a lifetime. If they can count then they can start learning about money.

 

What you’re teaching them about money (and I bet you don’t even know)

One thing I know many parents want for their kids is more than what they themselves had growing up. Recently, that has translated to giving their kids everything they want, consistently saying yes, and rarely saying no. What this looks like on a consistent basis is wanting to go out with friends, having the newest phone, latest fashion, the new game console, or even paying high insurance cost because of irresponsible activity. When you constantly cave on a kid’s wants & desires it creates a sense of entitlement and gives them an unrealistic view of the world. If they ask then they receive and don’t have any ideas of what it means to earn something as well as they are not accustomed to hearing and responding to the simply “no.” Another factor to consider is if kids don’t learn the importance and value of money, they are going to rely on you throughout their adult years when things get tight. That can be moving back in because of large student loans and/or over inflated sense of entitlement for a prestigious job they’re not ready for. Also when retirement comes around for you, you may not be ready to retire if you’ve spent much of your money on your kids through their adult years.

 

How & What to teach kids about money

It’s going to always depend on the age of your child, but the earlier the better. This is a great website by President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability that has easy ways to teach kids based off their age, so it’s a great starting point. It gives you easy ways of how to get kids engaged in everyday financial activities. The easiest thing I tell parents is to be honest one how you spend money when you’re out shopping. Say “We’ve only got $xxx to spend on Halloween. We can’t go over or we won’t be able to do y. If we spend less we can put the rest in our Disney vacation fund.” Be specific, simple, and most importantly explain the consequences as well as a reward for staying under budget.

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

If you have goals you want to achieve as a family, let the kids know what those goals are and what they can do to help. Just like in the previous example, be specific on the goal as well as how they can help, simple in the instructions, and (this is especially important for kids so pay attention here) let them know what is in it for them. At first you want to keep it simple with 1 goal to have the kids engaged in. Once they get that down you can add more goals to their scope.

Allowance – Setting Goals & Giving Them Responsibility

Many times I get “how much is a good allowance for my kids” or “when is an appropriate age to give kids an allowance?” You may be tired of hearing this from me but as usual it depends. You really should talk to a professional because it’s going to depend on your own budget first and foremost when it comes to an amount. Also, you may find more creative ways to “pay” them for the duties you give them. Whether it’s more game time or TV time, or an upgrade to a phone or electronic device, you can find a way to give kids responsibilities and then properly reward/pay them for a job well done.

Age is going to be a parental call. Personally as soon as they can count I would give them some responsibility and then rewarding them for a job well done in some way.

Financial Chat

If the child can say “I want…” then BOOM, that’s the best time to talk about money. Give them a simple lesson of having to pay for things they “want.” If they want to acquire the things they “want” there have to be trade offs. They have to save up for those moments either through direct allowance or getting chores done around the house to help pay for those “wants.”

So what is your experience of teaching kids about money? I’d love to hear from you!

Until next time my wonderful networking partners!