Are YOU looking for an adventure?
Embark on PlayMoolah’s Pirate Hunt Contest this May 21st!
You’ll have loads of fun being a PlayMoolah pirate!
This year’s contest brings together contestants from Singapore and all around the world to kickstart their savings journey. Stand a chance to be our grand prize winners and win fantastic prizes.
Just take 3 simple steps in less than 5 minutes to enter in!
Don’t miss our contest trailer here!
More details at www.playmoolah.com/contest
Have you found the best way your child learns about money? We learned from Howard Gardner, Professor of Education at Harvard University that children learn in a variety of ways. He states the 9 learning principles and of the myriad, we found that Spatial intelligence being the ability to form mental imagery of the world aided Jun Wei, 10 in significantly saving consistently over time.
Traditionally, piggy banks are a means to which children store their savings. Saving up for his new PSP goal in the PlayMoolah Goal Machine, Jun Wei actively took the chance to separate his current pool of savings in his piggy bank with a transparent jar, so as to apportion his savings for his new savings goal.
PlayMoolah’s Goal Machine
The ability to see his money grow in his transparent jar motivated him to save consistently more. The ability to draw the correlations and actively visualize the mental imagery around his savings growing in the transparent jar allowed him to attain feedback from his constant cycle of saving. Within a period of 3 weeks, the dollar amount in his savings had grown up to $28.
The power of visual recognition with Jun Wei visualizing with his mind’s eye enhanced and motivated him to save more. Identifying what Gardner has presented in determining the ways our children learn best, we too can be creative and see how these principles apply to savings and money management.
Jun Wei declared to his Mom that after 2 months of saving up for his PSP, he decided that it was not worth his effort in buying his ‘want’, his PSP. Having gone through the process of delayed gratification, and understanding the hard work involved in taking time to save for his goal, the boy surprised us when he told us he decided to give up his want.
What amazed us was this – His Mother seeing how he strived to achieve his goal while being consistent in the savings process, rewarded him with a PSP at the end of the day. Little did we realize the beginning of his savings goal resulted in a trip down to the local bank where they deposited his savings, from his humble transparent jar.
Just a few hours ago, PlayMoolah won the title of “Top Startup” with innovation in real financial education for children and parents. We’d like to take this chance to send our thanks to the SWIFT community for this amazing opportunity, and our love to everyone who gave us your support!
Innotribe, SWIFT’s initiative to enable collaborative innovation in financial services, announced that Playmoolah have been awarded “Top Startup” at the second Innotribe Startup Challenge Regional Showcase on April 24, 2012. The panel of industry experts have selected out of hundreds of application, the final 15 startups, among them were highly innovative technology startups in securities and payments.
“We’re very humbled by the audiences’ overwhelming reaction, proving that now more than ever, people are starting to rethink the purpose of banks and the need for effective financial education across the world. We hope to partner with many more schools, organisations and banks to bring fun financial education to more children and their families.” Min Xuan Lee, PlayMoolah’s Co-Founder, shares in response to winning the challenge.
Min Xuan, PlayMoolah Co-Founder pitching at Innotribe
PlayMoolah will now advance to the Innotribe Startup Challenge finals to be held at Sibos – SWIFT’s annual conference – in Osaka in October 2012. In addition, PlayMoolah’s Co-Founder, Min, will be jetsetting to Bangkok to be present at the Asian Banker Summit this week. Follow her tweets @minxuan and @playmoolah’s for live updates!
Playmoolah has developed technology for children that ties money management to real life, real dollars and real impact. They leverage game mechanics for behavioural change, empowering children with the curiosity, knowledge, skills and tools needed for financial capability and access.
Learn more about Innotribe and Swift!
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Dear Friends,
The world was shaken by the global financial crisis in 2008. Since then, questions around how people make decisions with their money, and the values that governed these decisions, were deeply reflected upon.
Did we forget that money was born merely as a medium of exchange of goods and services? Did we forget that money is merely a tool that should serve our needs and our dreams, or have we become slaves to the very notion of viewing money as a means to an end?
What spurred our journey was a burning passion driven by the love for children, youths and our leaders of tomorrow that made us rethink how money continues to shape and dominate their lives. The passion and inquiry, together with our team, has brought about the birth of PlayMoolah in 2010.
Since then, we’ve been working with children, parents, researchers and educators to design an experience to aid children with understanding the value of money and most importantly, to actually apply and practice money management in their everyday lives.
Today, the 18th of April 2012 is the day we finally say to the world, PlayMoolah is live! Here are 3 simple things you can do:
1. TRY & BUY
Children, come on board! Parents, kickstart your child’s financial education.
Click here and sign-up to enjoy a 15% discount with the promotional code “playmoolahlive”.
2. GIFT
Know a child who could benefit from an early financial education?
Visit this link to gift PlayMoolah to a kid you love.
3. SHARE
Join us in our movement for financial education, and to rethink the role of money in our lives. Share this message on Facebook, Twitter or email your friends with your thoughts on how money should serve our goals and dreams.
With joy on this day,
Audrey, Min & the PlayMoolah team
Just like the previous year, PlayMoolah’s heading down for the Child & Youth Finance International Summit conference this week!
Thought leaders, international experts and representatives will come together to address financial issues that affect the lives of children and young people. As part of the summit, there will be a children’s meeting where children and youth interact and share their opinions on financial issues that are close to their hearts.
PlayMoolah’s Co-Founder, Audrey Tan, will be sharing about her views on financial inclusion at the pre-summit and her research thesis on persuasive games and technology in savings and money management.
It is certainly encouraging to see many people from different parts of the world come together for one shared passion and vision. PlayMoolah has been really excited to be part of this movement since 2010.
P.S. Get your little ones to pledge at www.wofcha.org if they haven’t!
Like what American economist, Alan Greenspan says, “The number one problem in today’s generation and economy is the lack of financial literacy.”
Every child deserves an opportunity to learn and grow their money. Let’s not undermine the power children and youth have to reshape the future!
In celebration of ChildFinance week, we had our Moolah kids down at PlayMoolah HQ last Thursday for an international Skype chat with our lovely ChildFinance folks, Bianca from Amsterdam!
Being on Skype for the first time, the twins were all excited about sharing their savings goals and even what they have learnt from using PlayMoolah! Hafiy was saving up for a Lego Set (He has saved $15 currently, great job for a 12 year-old!) and Atiiqah was all enthusiastic about sharing with Bianca on what she learnt about earning a salary and using her money earned to purchase things she needed and wanted.
The twins having fun connecting on Skype:)
We all know that financial literacy is a complex and broad topic even for adults and it was just fascinating to see Hafiy and Atiiqah understand and even sharing basic knowledge about banks e.g. the siblings were sharing about setting aside their savings for the future.
I was surprised when I heard this! Looking back, this was nothing I would have thought of or done as a child!
One thing that struck me was that it is never too early to get children at a young age understand the power and value money can bring because they are the ones making informed decisions for themselves and they can make a change in their lives and others.
A truly inspiring and enjoyable time spent with the twins!
P.S. We’re heading down for the ChildFinance Children’s Summit happening on 2nd April in Amsterdam. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!
We all know that it is natural for kids to love playing and have fun, but is there anything beneficial about playing? Well, little Kiara has taught us to play and the value of playing! PS: We had a round of hide and seek as our break time play one afternoon with Kiara’s visit! 
Kiara and the PlayMoolah team
Play is necessary for a child’s development and a child’s experiences are often expressed through the channel of ‘play’. As we grow older, we stop playing often because we are caught up with work and other responsibilities. Or rather, we forget the need to indulge in play at times. American child psychologist, David Elkind, tells us in his book “The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally” that play can be understood beyond the surface level, it actually encompasses the mental and social well-being of kids.
A blend of her version of the Minis houses. Pretty uncanny, though I never expected something like this. Kiara sure did expand the possibilities of what could be!
Little Kiara had a go at designing our future minis!
PlayMoolah in partnership with Kids as they design the product with us closely.
Play stimulates our creativity and provides kids the space to imagine, discover and experiment things uncovered. Like what American educator, Fred Rogers said, “Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.”
Let us embrace the value of play and not undermine the power it brings!
PlayMoolah wishes everyone a Happy New Year!!
A roll of fun with our PlayMoolah kids took center stage at our HQ with us play-testing throughout 2011 with the little ones. What better new year gift than our user herself creating her own paper prototype experience with her Mom at home. (Thanks Finna for sharing this with the team!)
Sure is a sweet surprise for the new year, Phebe! Off to a great start of the year ahead with our PlayMoolah kids! Cheers!
Phebe’s own planet and avatar! We created this with her during our paper prototype too!
Remarkable piece of work coming from our PlayMoolah user as she experiments the financial literacy lessons.
Halloweeeeeen is here again! Halloween being a major family affair in the United States is commonly celebrated by young and old. As Nadira Begum aptly mentions, Halloween in Singapore is an occasion mostly celebrated by the teens and young adults.
Although this event is not commonly celebrated here among kids, occasions like these are not only moments where money conversations can occur, such occasions allow parents, teachers, or schools to explain the value behind decision making and spending. Substitute the event for Christmas, Chinese New Year or your child’s Birthday. You’ll find that the principles for decision making are equally relevant.
A parent in Asia or in the West, these pointers will be equally valuable for you!
1. What’s the greatest value?
What might be the greatest value for the purchase I am about to make? Is the items I am about to spend on for Halloween the best value for money?
Consider the alternatives this Halloween. thredUP had organized a halloween costume swap for families nationwide. Thousands of Moms had participated in this online activity to trade outgrown costumes for other fun ones that fit!
One could possibly save money, have fun and enjoy a whole new different experience for a change, taking Halloween to a different level of surprise!
2. Impulse decisions?
One night’s party can be expensive, one can be smart about the types of supplies that you’re buying. Do you find yourself quickly jumping on the bandwagon of the heavily advertised and expensive goodies? Investopedia gives great suggestion for this fall, “Look for items that seek out generic items in the aisles without the Halloween premium.”
Let us consider the alternatives that we have for what’s in our control of choosing and deciding our purchases in these holiday seasons ahead!
Image courtesy of life123.com
Thanks to the amazing people at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and Chicago, the children who participated in the PlayMoolah News Contest had a chance to tour the Reserve Bank for the very first time!
Special thanks to our judges Alejo Torres from the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank and Gayle Reaume from The Money Academy who took time to be a give their views on choosing the winners of this contest! Let’s check in to see what some of the kids thought of the experience!
“They went into a big room with pictures of counterfeit bills, with magnifying glasses and tools to spot which were counterfeit and which were real. We looked at bills that had been shredded and would be used for mulch, and then we went back to the starting point, where we got bags of actual shredded bills!” – Oliver Golden, 11
“What I liked best is seing all those stacks of money. It was really cool! I learned that money is not made out of paper. It’s made out of cotton and linen.” – Benjamin Leong, 8
Sebastian Golden, a 6th grader shared his experience being in the roomful of historical money, where bills engraved by Paul Revere, and bills from colonial times to now, and foreign bills. The face value was $250k, but the price for them now stands at $1 billion!
Where else do we go at the end of every tour? Little Samantha, 7, liked getting her souvenir best!
Some of our winners for the PlayMoolah Contest! Three cheers to the children who participated!
