6 Fun Money and Trading Games for Kids!
Written by: Liza Gresko, Mom and PR Specialist at Moss Tucker Group
It’s no secret that we are big fans of the power of play to help children learn various skills, whether it’s building their language skills or strengthening math confidence.
The same can be said about teaching money management skills, and it’s never too early to start!
Kids learn best when they’re doing and the best way to learn about money is to play with it. Trading concept games, money games, and financial literacy board games give children a safe, hands-on space to practice real-world behaviors: weighing choices, managing scarce resources, negotiating with others, and planning for future goals. The result isn’t just one more afternoon of fun. It’s measurable gains in executive function skills, strategic thinking, and the soft skills development that underpins lifelong financial wellbeing.
We will help explain how trading games work as classrooms in miniature, which cognitive and social skills they activate, and how some of our favorite SimplyFun money-collection games each map to crucial learning outcomes like resource management, negotiation skills, and critical decision-making.
Why games are such powerful tools for learning money
Games compress the messy reality of markets and trade into simple, repeatable mechanics. A single round can model scarcity, opportunity cost, and the tension between short-term wants and long-term plans. That compression is educational gold: kids experiment, fail, revise strategy, and try again, all while having fun. In fact, most of these skills are actually areas that most adults struggle with, so the key here is to introduce these important concepts to children early on, and to help them make good choices in the future when they have money of their own.
According to an S&P Global Financial Lit Survey, only 57% of U.S. adults are financially literate and average working-knowledge scores have hovered around 48% correct on the P-Fin Index for years. That's why game-based learning matters: it turns abstract money ideas into memorable, low-risk practice.
Studies like these find there are real cognitive gains from structured play with board and card games. Classroom and intervention programs show that playing games can improve executive functions (working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility), mathematical skills, and problem solving, all essential foundations for later financial decision-making.
Game designers who focus on financial literacy also find that combining strategic mechanics with moments of reflection increases children’s understanding and transfer of concepts, so it’s not just ‘playing,’ it’s playing with purpose.
Core skills trading & money games build: and why they matter
1. Resource management (and early economics)
Trading games force the players to track limited goods, decide what to spend or save, and what to prioritize. That is actually resource management in action: children must choose between immediate rewards and future payoff. When a child decides to trade two small tokens now for a rarer piece later, they’re practicing basic cost–benefit analysis, an essential building block of financial literacy games. In younger children, this is an especially difficult skill to master as it involves patience and strategy.
2. Negotiation skills
Trading games that allow player-to-player exchanges are like tiny negotiations in action. Kids learn to make offers, read others’ incentives, and find mutually acceptable trades. Those negotiation skills translate to everyday life, from swapping lunch box items in the cafeteria to collaborating on group projects. Negotiating and dealing with people, compromising and listening, are all vital parts of the soft skills development and imperative for successful lives and careers in the future.
3. Strategic thinking and critical decision-making
Games present layered choices for kids, like which resources to collect, when to block an opponent, how to adapt when plans change and what they’ve learned in order to not make similar mistakes in the future (or what they did well to repeat again next time!). This practice trains strategic thinking and critical decision-making, because kids must predict outcomes, set priorities, and pivot when new information arrives.
4. Planning and executive function skills
Longer games reward players who plan ahead, for example holding money back for a big purchase, or sequencing trades to assemble a set. These actions strengthen executive function skills like planning, working memory, and impulse control, all of which correlate with academic success and better real-world financial habits later. Think of it like Tommy getting $3 in his Birthday Card and the excitement that brings. Tommy really loves buying chewing gum at his baseball games, but he also really wants a new baseball glove. Will he spend the $3 now for gum, or will he save that $3 and put it towards his piggy bank savings to buy a new baseball glove a month from now?
5. Soft skills development
Beyond numbers, these games build communication, perspective-taking, resilience after loss, and sportsmanship, all important skills that matter whether you’re a child at home or at school, or an adult dealing with the stresses of every day life. Together, these social and emotional muscles make it easier for children to apply financial knowledge in messy, human situations.
How these five money-collection games teach money & trade concepts
Below are some of our favorite money and trading games to help teach kids financial literacy and spotlight other important skills kids can learn.
1. Bug Crafts — For Resource Management + Planning
2-5 players • 15 min • 8 & up
Buzz into a vibrant bug market where players collect and trade materials to craft for bees, ants, and ladybugs! Children must use decision making, planning, and resource management to outsmart fellow artisans and build the best Bug Crafts. Bug Crafts is great for Decision Making. Players have opportunities to trade, build, or take in each turn. Players strategize on how to make the best trades of goods to be able to save up for the best craft before it is snatched by another player for maximum points each day. Bug Crafts also helps develop Planning & Resource Management. Using basic math skills (including an introduction to factoring), players evaluate the market value of the materials, the number of materials saved, and the crafts available to build to make the best decision each round.
Skills highlighted: resource management, planning, executive function skills, strategic thinking.
2. Shelly’s Pearl — Negotiation skills + strategic timing
2-4 players • 10 min • 4 & up
Explore the ocean floor and trade colorful shells with Shelly the octopus! Collect shells, trade up for bigger ones at trading bubbles, and aim for your prize pearl. When everyone has their pearl, it's time to “shellebrate” together! (P.S. Shelly uses they/them pronouns, which can spark a great discussion if you like!) Shelly’s Pearl is great for developing Trading Skills, as players exchange two smaller shells for a larger shell learning that smaller values can combine to make larger values.
Shelly’s Pearl also helps with Achieving Goals as players collect and exchange shells working toward collecting the final prize shell.
Skills highlighted: negotiation skills, critical decision-making, soft skills development.
3. Ancient Finds — strategic thinking + critical decision-making
2-5 players • 10 min • 4 & up
Explore the Mediterranean and search for ancient artifacts with Ancient Finds. In Ancient Finds, players will learn addition skills, as they add dice values to match discovery cards and add the artifact values to make purchases. They’ll also learn prediction skills, determining the best time to purchase bonus sites and archaeologists to ensure the highest values at the end of the game. Ancient Finds is an exciting game for people ages 8 and up, and can be played with 2 to 5 players.
Skills highlighted: strategic thinking, critical decision-making, resource management
4. Eat & Tweat — economics basics + social exchange
2-6 players • 30 min • 8 & up
Can you manage resources like a pro? Guide your birds home by collecting and prioritizing their food options along the way. Use your skills to ensure a smooth journey and get those birds safely back to their nests! Playing Eat & Tweat helps children develop spatial reasoning skills, situational analysis, risk assessment and perspective changing. Educators can help social emotional development of patience and persistence by asking kids to explore the game board completely before making a move. This involves visual exploration and mental modeling of different scenarios.
Skills highlighted: resource management, negotiation skills, soft skills development.
5. Dish’em Out — money games + fast-paced decision making
2-5 players players • 30 min • 8 & up
This super fun game has players hustle to cook up customers’ meals without serving incorrect orders or wasting food. You can play Dish ‘em Out with 2-5 players, ages 8 and up. Dish ‘em Out is great for developing Planning Skills as players collect food tiles, based on the customer order cards received, while considering the varying cook times. Dish ‘em Out also helps with Strategy Skills as players take turns assigning customer order cards and make decisions based on the complexity and the associated point values.
Skills highlighted: money games, planning, executive function skills, critical decision-making.
6. BankIt! — learn financial responsibility at the mall!
1-4 players players • 30 min • 8 & up
What is the best way to teach kids money management? Take them to the mall! This award-winning game teaches kids financial planning as they save and bargain shop for a cool bike! Set your child up for future success by giving them a head start in financial literacy. There's no better way to learn than on a fun trip to the mall!
What kids will learn while they shop!
- How interest works
- When to save or spend wisely during a sale
- How to exchange money and make change
- And the importance of giving to charity
Skills Highlighted: money games, financial responsibility, decision-making, exchanging money, how interest works.
Practical ways parents and educators can maximize learning during play
Games are a fantastic starting point to help start these conversations, and when using a few strategic prompts, you’ll help transform play into intentional learning.
1. Ask reflection questions. After a round, ask: “Why did you trade that? What else could you have done?” Short reflection turns play into conscious learning.
2. Rotate roles and teams. Let kids play different positions like trader, banker, planner so they experience multiple perspectives and practice negotiation skills.
3. Introduce small ‘real-world’ rewards and stakes. Use chores points or privileges as in-game currency occasionally, like “this shell equals ice cream after dinner”. Remember to keep it low key play stays light-hearted and not stressful.
4. Use the correct language. Use phrases like “opportunity cost” or “saving for later” in context so children start linking vocabulary to everyday choices and understanding their meaning.
5. Extend play into projects. Have kids write a short plan for how they’d spend earnings from the game, connecting play to concrete planning and goal setting.
How trading concept games pave the road to future financial behaviors
Think of trading games as micro-habits for money. Children who repeatedly practice delaying gratification, weighing offers, budgeting resources, and negotiating tactics build neural pathways and social scripts they will draw on later. Those micro-habits translate into adult financial behaviors: setting budgets, comparing offers, negotiating bills or salaries, and making strategic investments of time and money.
Because games are social, they also teach the human aspect of economics, demonstrating in a fun and understandable way that money decisions involve others, builds trust, and affects relationships. That soft skills development is often overlooked in traditional financial education but is central to real-world money outcomes.
Final thoughts: play as the bridge between curiosity and competence
Money can feel abstract to children. Trading concept games, money games, and financial literacy board games turn that abstraction into tangible objects, choices, and conversations. Through resource management, negotiation, planning, and repeated decision-making, children not only learn about money they actually practice it.
Whether you’re setting up a family game night with Bug Crafts or using Shelly’s Pearl to spark a lesson on bargaining, these playful experiences are the building blocks of lifelong financial confidence, and can even help grown-ups practice their financial literacy too!
Help your child build financial literacy skills with Money Board Games.
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