Board game teaches financial wellness

It’s more fun to learn about budgeting, saving, investing and all various aspects of financial wellness using an innovative and interactive board game.

A new board game called “Praxis” has been unveiled in town in a bid to make learning about financial planning more fun and exciting for Filipinos.

Praxis is a more comprehensive game in terms of introducing asset classes than other board games as it tackles basic financial processes like budgeting and saving, as well as more complex ones like investing in stocks, buying property and protection planning.

The board game also simulates real-life events such as getting a promotion, catching illnesses, paying taxes, borrowing and losing a job to force players to make financial decisions amid different economic cycles.

The board game was launched by Sun Life Grepa Financial Inc. in line with its financial literacy advocacy. The game was licensed from Singaporean game designer Sense for Money, whose customized board games are used by banks, financial and educational institutions for customer and community engagement.

“Talking about finances and understanding things related to it, like the concepts of insurance and investments, can be intimidating or overwhelming to many Filipinos. Praxis is a new approach that can help address this,” Sun Life Grepa president Richard Lim said.

The game is ideally played by five people and will last around two hours, which is enough to provide a crash course on various aspects of financial planning.  Being interactive, it allows players to learn from the mistakes of their peers aside from learning things on their own. The game is highly influenced by chance as players roll the dice to get the option to invest in stocks, buy insurance, savings instruments or property assets or to encounter unfortunate events like losing a job, incurring tax liabilities or contracting an illness. But ultimately, a player’s decision on how to save, invest or resort to borrowing will also influence the outcome of the game.

The player with the highest amount of cash hoard and cash equivalent of savings, investment and insurance instruments at the end of the game wins.

Praxis targets working adults but could also be appreciated by people as young as 14 years and college students who are about to enter the labor force.

This board game, however, is not commercially available like “Monopoly” or “The Millionaire Game” as it has been customized for customer engagement. It requires the presence of game masters who will act as the facilitators.

In the Philippines, the Sun Life group plans to roll out the game to corporations, schools and other institutions upon request.

“It’s a good alternative to holding seminars where you use power point to a sitting audience,” said Mylene Lopa, chief marketing officer at Sun Life Financial Philippines.

The game designer of Praxis has also developed a junior version for younger players. Lopa said the Sun Life group was considering to bring the junior edition to the Philippines as well.