Finding the fab finance fundas

CHENNAI: How early is too early to talk about money with kids?’, ‘Is there an easier way to break down financial jargon without getting preachy?’, ‘Why are my kids aversive to numbers, is it so hard?’... These are just a handful of queries that Santhosh Kumar Subramanian has repeatedly encountered in his innumerable interactions with kids and parents in the past decade, most of them during his workshops on financial education. 

After years of mulling over possible solutions to make finance fun for kids, it was only natural that the founder of Bambaram Toy Library arrived at an answer in December 2020 that involved a game — his debut board game titled Big Bull Junior. 

Launched on Tuesday, the Big Bull Junior is a fun and engaging game based on the stock market, aimed at kids eight years and above. “It’s been my dream to design a board game and I’m glad I ticked it off my bucket list. I’d collaborated with Funskool for this project. After analysing the gaming market, we realised there weren’t many finance-related games for children. So, we decided to explore that area and it worked favourably. While there are plenty of topics to experiment with, I’ve started with the basics of the stock market,” says an excited Santhosh. 

Decoding the game
Big Bull Junior is a 2-5-player game and takes 30 minutes to complete. The board displays three major components the round tracker, price tracker and central market. There are 105 cards, of which five are called ‘swap cards’ and the rest are ‘company cards’, with each card displaying two companies. The five companies whose stock prices players manipulate are Dosa Kingdom (food industry), Blackhawk (auto industry), NewsKapital (media industry), Cotton Ministry (apparel industry) and Yottaphone (telecom industry). There are ten company pawns (two pawns per company) and one round-indicator pawn.

“After dealing the cards, each player gets five cards and three open cards are kept next to the deck. One set of company pawns are moved along the price indicator and the other set is placed on the central market with bears and bulls (commonly-used stock market terms). The player who shouts ‘Big Bull’ first starts the game. In every round, each player does four actions. You need to pick a card from the open card or the topmost card from the deck and manipulate the central market by moving any two company pawns, you can move one step in any direction and increase or decrease the price, and update the price tracker with the new price. By the end of ten rounds, whoever has stocks worth maximum price rules the market,” he explains.

Money matters
Wish it were as simple as it sounds, right? Fret not. Santhosh assures that players will be able to get a grasp of it after a couple of tries. Additionally, the board game comes with a detailed set of instructions and answers to all your queries. Santhosh has also tested the game with 100-120 people and the response couldn’t have been any better.

“The board game has garnered appreciation for its simplicity. Thanks to Aishwarya Soni, the artist behind this game. In terms of takeaways, apart from financial skills, the game will also reveal the true colours of people based on whether they play it fair or bluff. The unlikeliest of people will surprise you. Swap cards, again, have a powerful role. Whether or not you want to risk your cards with others is a call you may want to take. Be mindful, so that you don’t fall into devious traps set by your fellow players. Mind you, nobody is reliable or your friend in this game,” he cautions with a laugh. 

Santhosh believes that knowledge gained through practical experience will have a lasting impact not only on kids but even on adults. “Children have to play, make moves and learn from failure. You can’t teach them portfolio and investment orally, as it can get cumbersome. This is a great family game to start with. It will also encourage families to not shy away and have conversations around finance confidently.

I’ve received good feedback for the game from kids who were otherwise put off by complex terminologies. I hope Big Bull Junior sets a benchmark for similar board games,” says Santhosh remaining tight-lipped about his upcoming board game project for Funskool. “All I can say is this one’s something to do with restaurants. I’m sure it will be a meaningful game where there will be a lot to learn,” he signs off.

Priced at Rs 599, Big Bull Junior is available on Amazon and at Funskool retail stores.