Personal Finance Lab -- my REVIEW

 Disclosure: I received this product free through the Homeschool Review Crew

As a homeschooling parent, I want my children to be prepared for many different aspects of adult life--and handling their finances in a responsible manner is a part of this picture. I had the opportunity to review a product called PersonalFinanceLab, which is set up as an online game, to teach skills related to budgeting and living within a budget as well as the stock market. These products are the PersonalFinanceLab Budgeting Game, Stock Market Game, and integrated curriculum. 

These materials are fully online, and although they are set up for classroom or large group use, they are definitely also able to be used by one or two homeschoolers. 

My daughter is in 11th grade and she started out with the budgeting game. In this game, there are eighteen months of "life" -- and the student has the opportunity to manage money, assuming being paid a certain amount of money and having to pay certain bills (rent, gas, car insurance, food, etc.) Some of the bills that they are responsible for are regularly scheduled things, but occasionally other things come up that they also have to pay for. They can save money as well, and also build their credit score. 

A part of the game, as well, is labeled "quality of life" and this refers to things like hanging out with friends (and spending money), buying expensive things, etc. It gives a little explanation about the expenses that come up and also a little motivation at times (such as the explanation in the picture to the right about quality items and quality of life). We had some family discussions about quality of life and what that all entails, and how that can differ from person to person, depending upon their life values.

Working overtime was rewarded with extra pay, but a loss of quality of life points (see picture below).

Students can choose to pay with credit card or with debit card. My daughter has been taught to not use a credit card, so at first her credit score was suffering. She soon learned that to succeed in this game she needed to use a credit card (though she paid it off every month). This offered us a good opportunity to talk about people who use credit cards, and also about good intentions with credit cards, for instance how many people who get credit cards think, "Oh, I'll just pay this off every month" and then slip into charging more than they can pay in that month...or year...and it goes on. This brought up topics that were helpful to talk about as a family.

At the end of the eighteen months, students can see their scores--their "net worth", their credit score, and their quality of life score. I think this would be fun to compare if you were doing this as a part of a group of people. 

The other portion of the game is a stock market challenge, where students get to research and learn about the stock market--and buy and sell stock! This is like a simulation on a real-time stock market and students learn about different stocks and conditions and get to watch and change their portfolios. 

We set this up so that my daughter and I could play against each other...and I've got to say that it is lots of fun :) 

The set-up of these games seems a bit intimidating at the start, but there are tutorials to help walk you through the setup and also tutorials to help you play the game and run the games. There are also lessons that go along with each aspect of the course. Although we did not use these, I took a look through and there are many many articles and lessons that students can learn more detail about topics in these games. 

The colors and design of these products are very attractive and nicely done, it is definitely a professional product!

Although we had fun with these games, I feel I cannot recommend them for those whose family's approach to personal finance matches mine. Though it was fun, it does not align with my personal ideals.

PersonalFinanceLab is a beautifully made website, and it has been made so that it is easy for even the non-financially-savvy to use easily. The tutorials are there for whenever you have questions and the additional articles and curriculum are great for learning and discussion aids.

I would encourage you to check out this product for yourself as well as to read some more reviews by clicking the link below: