By CNBC

Filed under: Checking Accounts, Savings Accounts, How to Save Money, Saving

You scrimped and saved, built a business, managed your growing fortune wisely. Now, according to studies of the super-rich and the merely wealthy alike, you have one overwhelming concern: How do get your well-off children or grandchildren to think more like you?

Relax: Your kids are probably getting these financial lessons of life on the Internet.

A host of digital entrepreneurs, banks and investment firms are building web and mobile platforms that educate youngsters about money-teaching grade-schoolers how to earn and save for things they want, middle-schoolers how to pay rent and college students how to trade stocks.

The trend is known as “gamification” because the learning comes through computer-game simulations of real-world financial events. Children adopt the personas of college grads getting their first apartment, young moms on a tight budget or small business owners. They pay for groceries and clothes, balance checking accounts and save for big-ticket items.

According to financial educators, gamification is designed not only to teach basic concepts but also to start conversations that let parents instill financial values in their offspring-or, often, to catch up with what kind of economic decisions their kids are already making.

“They have money already,” said Eileen Reid, a middle-school family and consumer science teacher in Howard County, Md. “They are getting cellphones and dealing with which plan costs what. They are very aware of their lifestyle.” Their parents are the ones who are uncomfortable talking about money, said Reid, whose own financial upbringing was of the “Do you think money grows on trees?” variety.

In her classroom, Reid uses a computer program called JA Finance Park Virtual, a collaboration of Capital One and the nonprofit organization Junior Achievement, to cement lessons she teaches from the blackboard.

“It’s an eye-opener for them,” she said. “They realize they can’t afford what they want their [virtual] children to have. They want $120 tennis shoes, so they have to figure out how to pay for it.”

Questions about sneakers quickly become discussions about how money represents priorities, Reid said. “What do you value? Is it really important to give to a charity? Should I continue with my education?” she said. “It’s fascinating to watch them come to life when we get to the virtual experience.”

The game, used in 468 schools nationwide, has been part of the curriculum at Maryland schools since 2010, after the financial crisis had made business leaders aware of the widespread ignorance about how mortgages, credit cards and other basic financial instruments work.

“The business community started going to the state legislature and said , ‘We have to get people more literate,’ ” Reid said.

Other parents aren’t waiting for schools to start the conversation.<br …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance