Disney Aims to Teach Kids about Personal Finance
Disney unveiled a new virtual board game that allows kids and adults to learn about money, personal finance, and wise financial planning.
The game aimed at kids 8 to 14 years old teaches them lessons of fiscal responsibility. Adults are encouraged to participate with their kids and get involved with their financial education.
The Great Piggy Bank Adventure as it is called was conceived by Disney imagineers and its sponsor, financial giant T. Rowe Price, during the height of the economic boom years in 2006.
The game seeks to impart four basic lessons in finance: setting goals, saving and spending your money wisely, staying ahead of inflation and diversifying investments through asset allocation.
The video games star pigs who are learning about saving to meet personal goals. The wolf who can raise inflation and take money away from the pigs is made out to be the villain in the games.
Participants start by choosing on a video screen the financial goals they want to achieve. The choices are redecorating a bedroom, saving for a vacation, putting money away for a college education and saving enough for retirement.
They’re given a plastic piggy bank which digitally keeps track of the money they’re either saving or spending at each of the three video game stations.
One game requires the player to direct falling coins into saving and spending buckets, and in another they have to move levers to stop a wolf from raising inflation. The third game requires a player to hide coins in diverse areas of a bedroom so they can’t be stolen by the wolf.
At the end of the exhibit, participants place their piggy banks in a detection box which measures whether they have met their financial goals.
The exhibit has a companion Web site for kids and parents which offers games and lessons on personal finance.


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