Financial
Literacy
Challenge

Get 1 Month Free Access to Fun &
Educational Personal Finance Games!

Registration is now open!

Budget Game

Stock Game

Curriculum



Register Now – It’s Free!

Welcome How the Market Works Teachers!

How does the Challenge Work?

This is a free competition where students learn through playing an engaging budgeting game, and a real-time stock market game, with national rankings and prizes!

Students participate in our Budgeting and/or Investing games, starting with $500 in their investing account, and $500 in their checking account. Students can play through our budgeting game to earn (and save) more money, which can then be invested in their Stock Game portfolio.

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Financial Literacy
Challenge

April 1 to April 30, 2026

Registration is now open!

Regional Prizes

Student Prizes

Prizes Total of

$500
$500

The top 5 students from both the Budget Game and Stock Game will each win a $50 Amazon Gift Card.

Teacher Prizes

Prizes Total of

$300
$300

3 teachers will receive a $100 Amazon Gift Card. Students can nominate their teacher, and we’ll pick 3 lucky winners who will each get a $100 Amazon Gift Card.

Testimonials from Past Participating Teachers

Both of my classes had so much fun with the Budget Game and had no idea of all the learning that occurred! Thank you for making this available. It is so hard to find quality, free resources.

Tracie Meyers
Livonia Central School District
(New York, United States)

This is an absolutely fantastic program that I wish ALL students had the opportunity to participate in. Your game has provided so many opportunities to relate the real world to my students in a way that is fun, and interactive but also gives them real world skills that will help them throughout their lives.

We now talk about IPO’s and company announcements and budgets and a whole assortment of other real life topics that in the past would have required an entire lesson to help them understand the basics just to have a conversation. Bravo! Not only did you help my students but you made my job easier and more fun as well.

Michael Eklund
Kenilworth Junior High School
(Alberta, Canada)

Thank you for making this amazing learning experience available to my students, and of course my congratulations to the other top 5 finishing students; as well as the entire 14,500+ student participants from across Canada, the USA, and elsewhere (?) who participated so enthusiastically, and did such a great job of representing their class/school.

Terrence Posylek
St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School
(Ontario, Canada)

What’s Included?

Personal Budgeting Game

Students practice managing a monthly budget, and building their emergency savings fund. So they can see how their decisions have consequences. Gaining experience on what it feels like to take full responsibility for their financial well-being.

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Virtual Stock Game

Students practice investing in real securities with US stocks, bonds and mutual funds. They learn from their own mistakes while using virtual money. So they can know how to grow their wealth responsibly, and make smart financial decisions when they’re ready to invest for real.

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Personal Finance Lessons

300+ self-graded pop quizzes at the end of each lesson that integrate to teacher reports.

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What are the Rules?

  • Trading is open from April 1 to April 30, 2026.
  • Students may trade US stocks and ETFs, and US mutual funds, and bonds.
  • Students can transfer additional savings from the Budgeting Game to the Stock Game to make more investments.
  • Students manage a virtual portfolio in the stock game, starting with $500 in cash.
  • Students can transfer additional savings from the Budgeting Game to the Stock Game to make more investments.
  • For prize purposes, rankings in the Stock Game are based on total portfolio percentage return. This means students who transfer more money from the budgeting game to the stock game are not at an advantage.
  • There is a $5 minimum price for all stocks.
  • Students may short sell and buy on margin.
  • Students may day trade.
  • Students must finish the Stock Game with a total portfolio value of $1,000 to be eligible for prizes. This means students must begin the budget game and transfer at least an additional $500 to their virtual portfolio to qualify for stock game rankings.
  • Students must make a minimum of 10 trades in the Stock Game to qualify for prizes.
  • Students may only invest 25% of their portfolio in any one security. Fractional trading is allowed.
  • Each student is allowed only one entry.
  • Students can play the Budget Game from April 1 to April 30, 2026.
  • The game includes 12 months of gameplay where students manage their bills and expenses.
  • They start as students with part-time jobs, and after 6 months graduate and take on full-time jobs.
  • Students earn the most amount of points for meeting their monthly savings goals, with additional points earned by building their Credit Score, Emergency Fund, and building their Quality of Life.
  • Students can choose to transfer part of their Budget Game savings to their Stock Game portfolio. Money transferred from the Budget Game to the Stock Game is counted towards savings goals, but not towards their Emergency Fund.
  • Students will also be required to complete mini-lessons on financial literacy topics as they play the game in order to proceed.

Financial Literacy Completion Certificate

Students don’t need to complete all the lessons to be eligible for prizes. However, why not take advantage of having free access to our curriculum?

We’ve included 86 lessons from our learning library on investing and personal finance. Each lesson includes a pop quiz at the end with 3-5 questions. Students are required to get 100% on all quizzes to earn the completion certificate, and are able to retake quizzes to improve their score. You can see their progress every step of the way from your Instructor Administrator page.

Example Assignments Include:

  • What is the New York Stock Exchange?
  • Investing Strategies
  • Pay Down Debt or Save?
  • Life Insurance
  • Use the Saving to be a Millionaire Calculator

Upgrade to a Premium Account

In this challenge, you’ll get to have access to a limited selection of what PersonalFinanceLab has to offer. To get a better understanding of what you’ll get when you upgrade to a paid account, check out our product matrix below.

  Free Instructor Account Paid Admin Account
Budget Game
Fully Customizable Game Settings
Stock Game
US Stocks, Bonds & Mutual Funds
Real-Time Prices (US Only)
International Stock Exchanges
Research & Quoting Tools
Options, Futures, Forex & Cash Spots
Tutorial Videos
Custom Exchanges
Advanced Trading Settings
Curriculum Limited
50 Personal Finance Lessons
300+ Personal Finance, Career Readiness, Investing, Economics, Marketing, Management and Accounting Lessons Limited
Aligned to Jump$tart Standards
Aligned to 20+ State Standards
Self-Grading Assessments
Pre and Post Financial Literacy Tests
Investing101 Completion Certificate
Financial Literacy Completion Certificate
Live Chat & Help Desk Support
Teacher Resources Limited
Basic Reports
Comprehensive Reporting
Lesson Plans
Fully Customizable Curriculum Settings
Slideshows & How-To Guides
9-Week and 18-Week Course Outlines
Teacher Training Webinars
Dedicated Account Manager

Information Request

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