Introducing The Budget Game Apartment!

apartment

For Spring 2023, we have one of the most exciting additions we’ve ever seen to the PersonalFinanceLab Budget Game!

One of the most consistent items of feedback we get from students every semester in our budget game was that most events of the game had no long-term visual impact – a choice to buy an aquarium, for example, might improve their “Quality of Life” score, but they could not actually see what they bought, or compare against other students.

Our new Apartment changes that!

What is the Apartment?

Now every student will have their own place to call “home” as they progress through the budget game. The initial look of their Apartment depends on what students choose for their living arrangements at the start of the game:

This determines where their “stuff” will be when they check later; a run-down crash pad, or a swanky new building. Students will start with the “bare essentials” – folding chairs, a basic bed, and some other necessities.

However, as students progress through the game, their Apartment will start to develop based on their purchasing decisions. Even better, students can choose to purchase additional furniture for their Apartment at any time, contributing to their Quality of Life score!

Full Apartment

Students can also visit the Apartments of their classmates at any time from the Rankings page to show off their new digs!

What This Means For Learning

The Apartment is not purely decorative – there are some essential learning enhancements for the classroom. Now with the Apartment:

  • Students can “Save Up” for purchases, instead of just the random events that occur in the game
  • More opportunities for students to improve their Quality of Life
  • Which also can make it harder to set and reach Savings Goals, since students have more temptations to over-spend!

If you want to try out the Apartment for yourself, feel free to hop onto our Teacher Test Drive challenge and complete your first month of the budget game!

Happy Saving!

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