Money Games
Click the titles to learn more about each game.
Act Your Wage!
Get gazelle intense with this new board game from Dave Ramsey. Invite friends over to play or have a family game night. It’s always competitive and fun! Keep your savings up and expenses down as you compete to be the first to yell, “I’m debt-free!” For ages 10 and up!
ThriveTime for Teens
Developed with guidance by Sharon Lechter, co-author of the Best-Selling Books: Think and Grow Rich – Three Feet from Gold, Rich Dad Poor Dad and the Rich Dad series of books including Cashflow 101 board game. Teaches financial management and cash flow skills in a fun and engaging way. Puts an emphasis on giving back to others and inspires discussion and further learning.
Cashflow for Kids
There is no such thing as being too young to learn about financial literacy, and especially about learning the difference between assets and liabilities. Cashflow for Kids is a great game to play and teach kids in an interesting way about financial lessons. It is good to start them young as they have no wrong notions and misconceptions about finances.
Pay Day
Pay Day is great for social interaction and a game that parents and children can play on a relatively even level. Simple and quick, a two lap game takes as little as 15 minutes. Kids will learn how to earn and save money, manage their money, and even take out loans — better to learn how destructive debt is in a game than in real life.
Money Bags
Players collect, count, and exchange money all the way to the finish line. Your kids will learn valuable money skills through fun game play. Includes game board with spinner, 100 plastic coins, play bills, markers, and dice. Best for 2-4 players, ages 7 and older.
Monopoly
We’ve all played it. Hopefully not too many relationships have been ruined over it, but seriously, it’s a great tool to teach real estate value and assets to your kids. Buy, sell, dream and scheme your way to riches. Players buy, sell and trade to win. Build houses and hotels on your properties and bankrupt your opponents to win it all. Chance and Community Chest cards can change everything. Includes gameboard, 8 Tokens, 28 Title Deed Cards, 16 Chance Cards, 16 Community Chest Cards, 32 Houses, 12 Hotels, 2 Dice, Money Pack and Game Guide.
The Game of Life
This was one of my favorites growing up. Life is full of adventures: this edition of The Game of Life includes 115 cards offering exciting choices As players move through the twists and turns of life. Choose from 31 Career cards, featuring unusual or quirky careers such as Ice Cream Flavor Maker or a Secret Agent. Many awesome vacations included as well. Whoever has the most money at the end of the game wins.
View our complete list of 50+ money games here.
Money Toys
Click the titles to learn more about each toy.
Learning Piggy Bank
A great tool to teach counting and saving. A toy bank that works with the colored numbers, as well as with actual money once your child is ready for that.
Money Set for Kids
This currency kit includes more than just realistic paper money and plastic coins, it also includes modern style credit and debit cards plus a realistic writable checkbook. Everything is high quality so you don’t have to worry about it being torn apart in a week. Let kids learn with fake money, before they start using real money.
Pretend & Play Checkbook
This comes with 25 life-sized checks, and a calculator. It’s important to teach kids what checks are, how to write them, and how their money is tied to them. Plus, kids have a great time writing their own checks for things around the house.
Toy Cash Register
Encourage beginning math and calculator skills while providing lots of opportunities for imaginative play. Features a built-in, solar-powered calculator that helps familiarize children with the use of a calculator. They will also learn currency denominations and have fun handling life-sized money. Large buttons on the keypad are easy for little hands to press and the cash drawer makes a “cha-ching” sound when it opens, just like a real register!
Play Wallet
Toy wallet with play money and write-on cards. Includes 14 play bills ($1S, $5S, $10S, $20S, $50S, $100) 19 play coins (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters). Write-on cards include: drivers license, bus and rail pass, 2 coupons, and store, bank, charge, gym membership, health, library, and toy donor cards. Perfect for playtime errands and pretend shopping.
ATM Piggy Bank
High quality and premium ABS. Safe simulation design. Can store 600 pieces of coins or 100 pieces of paper money. Automatic volume of currency with lights: when the banknote aims at cash inlets, it can automatically absorb. Password protection: if you press the wrong password, money will not be issued. Batteries: 3 pieces of AA batteries (not included).
View our list of 10 finance toys here.
Family Budget Tools
Click the titles to learn more about each budgeting tool.
EveryDollar
Dave Ramsey’s very own budgeting tool, and my personal favorite. Automated budgeting programs are nice, but this one lets you drag and drop your expenses into each category. It’s like a mix between automated and manual. With Premium, you can link all your accounts so you personally place each transaction in a budget category.
Personal Capital
Automated budgeting software that allows you to change the category of each expense. It also shows you your net worth if you link all your accounts, and include all your assets. The net worth is mostly what I use this for. It is free, after all.
Goodbudget
This is the perfect app for envelope budgeting. You can link your family’s accounts so that each time someone puts an expense in, it shows on everyone’s devices. It’s a simple way to manually input each expenses into a budget category. Great for kids to learn envelope budgeting.
BudgetSimple
One more option if you wanted to try something different. As the name suggests, BudgetSimple really is exactly that: simple. They provide automated and manual options, and it’s quite affordable.
Check out our guide to teach kids about budgeting here.
Useful Websites & Tools
These are all great resources for parents and children. I’m not getting paid to recommend these websites, these are simply the websites I would recommend to all my closest family and friends.
Bible Study Resources
- Accordance – Premium Bible software (not free)
- Bible.com – Amazing free resources, study plans and more
- Bible Project – Animated videos covering the entire Bible
- Superbook – Christian cartoons, Biblical stories
You can see 10 new Bible study plans we love here.
Blogs
These are the blogs directly about teaching finances to kids:
- Basic Money Smarts
- Biz Kids
- Compound Their Interest
- FamilyEducation
- Family Finance Favs
- The Heavy Purse
- The Mint Parent Blog
- National Bank of Mom
- Teach My Kids Money
We put together a list of family minimalist blogs here.
Credit Tools
- AnnualCreditReport.com – The best place online to get free credit reports
- Credit Karma – Free credit score check from TransUnion and Equifax
- Credit Sesame – Free credit score check from TransUnion and other tools
Family Schedules & Calendars
- Cozi Family Organizer App
- Monthly Magnetic Dry-Erase Calendar
- Weekly Magnetic Dry-Erase Calendar
- Yearly Wall Calendar
View our guide to create and stick with a weekly family schedule here.
Money-Smart Kids
These are all great websites that offer financial education for kids:
- Biz Kids
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- EconEdLink
- Financial Entertainment
- Hands on Banking
- High School Financial Planning Program
- Kid’s Money
- The Mint
- Money Talks for Teens
- Practical Money Skills
- Rich Kid Smart Kid
- Sense and Dollars
- Students’ Room
- Treasury Direct Kids
- U.S. Mint for Kids
Finding a Car
- CarFax – Get official CarFax reports on used vehicles
- Cars.com – Reports and information on all types of vehicles
- Consumer Reports – More reports on all types of vehicles
- Edmunds – Valuing used vehicles
- Good Student Auto Insurance Discount – Sign up for the discount here
- Kelly Blue Book – Another tool to value used vehicles
- Used Car Checklist (PDF) – My 20-point checklist for buying a used vehicle
View our complete guide to kids and cars here.
Giving Tools
- Charity Navigator – Charity evaluator resource
- Charity Watch – Another source to evaluate charities, more detailed
- BBB Wise Giving Alliance – Reports of charities’ spending and activity
- Charity Truth – Articles about specific charities and activities
- GiveWell – Summaries and reports on charities from all categories
View our list of 20 recommended charities here.
Online Safety for Kids
- Covenant Eyes – Screen accountability software
- FTC Consumer Information – Help dealing with child identity theft
- IdentityTheft.gov – Dealing with adult identity theft
- Kiddle – Safe visual search engine for kids
View our guide to protect kids from “the media threat” here.
Paying for College
- CFPB – Compare financial aid offers
- CollegeBoard – Apply for non-federal aid
- FAFSA – Apply for federal financial aid
- Federal Student Aid Toolkit – Tools and info
- IRS – Tax credits for college
- Military.com – Military college benefits
View complete guide to scholarships and paying for college here.
Phones for Kids
- Gabb Wireless – A safe first phone for your kids
- Nokia 3310 – A great dumbphone for kids
- TracFone ZTE Blade – Locked to TracFone, but an option
- VTech KidiBuzz – Kids can’t talk to parents, without a full-blown phone
- VTech KidiBuzz G2 – Second edition of the KidiBuzz
View our complete guide to kids and phones here.
Tools for Parents
- First Kid Bank – Free allowance and chore tracking
- Talk With Our Kids About Money – Helping parents discuss money with their kids