The Great Trade-off Game

Game

Financial understanding
In this game, the students learn that when they make a decision to save, spend, or invest their savings, there is usually a “trade-off ”: something they have to give up, sacrifice, or be willing to let go of in order to get what they want or need. Trade-offs are not necessarily financial. In this game, in which the students have to collect a specified number of money, fun, and free-time tokens, they may have to give up some of their fun or free-time tokens in order to earn some money, or they may have to spend some money to gain some fun tokens. They are presented with choices, which they can opt for or not, depending on whether it will help them to reach their goal.
Students will experience being flexible and dealing with change when they have to trade off their money, fun, and free time in order to meet their goal in the game.

Setting the scene
Write the definition of trade-off on the board: A trade-off is what we give up in order to get something else (opportunity cost). Talk about the vocabulary and then ask the students:
If you decided to do swimming lessons next term, what would you gain from that? (New skills, fitness, fun, …) What would you have to give up in exchange for those gains? (Money, time, maybe an alternative pastime that you could have been doing at the swimming lesson time, such as watching television or playing with a friend, and so on.)
The things that you have to give up are the trade-offs. Talk with a classmate about what some of the trade-offs involved in doing the following would be:
• getting a weekly paper round
• going to the movies this Saturday night
• going cycling with your friends.

After the game
Ask: What strategies did you use to help you achieve your goal in this game? How did having a specific goal affect your decisions? People differ in their decisions, even though their choices might be the same. Why might this be?
Give an example of a sports star who appeals to your students. What trade-offs do you think _____ has had to make in order to be successful at _____ ?
What trade-offs have you had to make in order to meet a goal or to do or buy something you really wanted? Tell us about your goal and trade-offs.
What trade-offs will the Murphy family have to make if they decide to go on holiday? (The time and effort they put into earning and saving for the holiday could have been used doing other things. They might have to trade-off doing some fun activities that cost money during the year while they are saving, in order to have fun in Brisbane.)
Challenge the students to make a goal for something they’d like to do or buy. Get them to make a list of the trade-offs they’d have to give up in order to do or buy it. For example, getting better at knowing their basic facts, buying a new computer game, earning some money, joining a new sport, reading a long book, and so on.

Homework activity
The students could ask someone they know, who has done something they admire or wish they could do, what trade-offs the person had to make to achieve their goal (examples could be: being a sports representative or a leader at school, having an interesting job, travelling, owning a dog or a nice car).

Social Sciences Links
Achievement objective:
• Understand how people make decisions about access to and use of resources (Social Studies, level 3)
Students could explore the positive effects and the trade-offs involved for a school “issue” such as a proposal to do more physical activity during the school day.

Other Cross-curricular Links
English achievement objective:
• Ideas: Select, form, and communicate ideas on a range of topics (Speaking, Writing, and Presenting, level 3)
Students could debate dilemmas such as:
Does money make you happy? Is it possible to be unhappy if you have lots of money? Is it possible to be happy with not much money? Would you rather have lots of fun or lots of money?

Answers

Game
A game evaluating trade-offs when making financial decisions.

Reflective questions
• Answers may vary. Very few people have the money to always buy anything they want. Some people don’t have enough money to buy everything they need and go hungry at times. Most people have to go without things they would like to have in order to buy the things they need. Things that might stop you from having everything you want all the time are limited money, limited time, limited energy, parents’ decisions, and so on.
• People who rely on “luck” (such as gambling) generally find that they spend more than they ever win. You wouldn’t want to rely on luck if the consequences were going to be too uncomfortable for you if you weren’t lucky (for example, spending all your money in the hope of winning a big raffle prize). Having some “luck” should be a pleasant bonus if it happens, rather than something you depend on, because you can’t count on being lucky.