Board games about wealth can teach many about money and money management and let players prove their resource allocation skills. Many are escapist fun, allowing players to fill the role of investors, real estate developers, colonial governors, casino barons, art collectors, or movie producers. Here are some of the best games about wealth.
Monopoly
Monopoly is the classic game of real estate development. The goal is to buy properties, develop rental houses and hotels, and bankrupt the other players. Atlantic City is the setting, so famous real-life locations like Park Place and Boardwalk Avenue are the properties being developed. It rewards both aggression and planning, so it’s the quintessential board game about wealth. For generations, Monopoly has been a good way to teach kids about the basics of money management.
The Game of Life
The Game of Life is a classic board game that is simpler than Monopoly in many ways but adds simulated life choices such as career choices and family building to the mix. The Game of Life is for ages eight and up, so don’t expect complexity. Still, it’s a good and fun way to introduce financial concepts like having a good income and choosing a good career path. It also teaches the importance of investing and compound interest.
Cashflow
Originally known as Cashflow 101, Cashflow is a board game created by the controversial author and entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki. As Kiyosaki’s website states, Cashflow is a financial literacy game that combines “the best components of stock investing games, business building games, and real estate investing games” to teach people about generating and sustaining wealth. Players draw event cards that can be bought and sold. They can co-invest in cards or even buy them outright from one another. Dealmaking is encouraged.
Million Dollar Challenge
If The Game of Life has a less crunchy set of rules, Million Dollar Challenge is more complex. The game is harder to learn because it teaches players about investing. The beginning phase of the game focuses on learning how to trade and stopping losses. In the end game, you’ll learn more advanced investing concepts. The final goal is to become a millionaire before the other players.
Cryptopia
Cryptopia is a 2021 board game about blockchain asset building. The players collect influence and funding to invest in their blockchain while they use strategy cards to attack other players’ assets and defend their own. It’s a game of strategic investment but also business treachery. Designed at the height of the crypto bubble, one wonders if any post-2023 expansion will address the downside of crypto trading.
Modern Art
Enter the world of the modern art collector as you play a broker of paintings. The game posits five famous artists and their latest works of art. The players both buy and sell artwork, while putting works of art up for sale each round. Value is determined by how many of the same type of painting is put up for auction that round. After four rounds, the broker with the most cash wins.
Imperial
In Imperial, you play an international investor in 19th Century Europe. The goal is to increase your capital and gain influence among the European powers. Players watch their nations expand, levy taxes, and collect profits from their moneymaking schemes. Imperial does include warfare, but it’s also a game that avoids the luck of dice or cards.
I’m The Boss
I’m The Boss has players in the role of one of six premade investors. The spaces on the game board represent potential deals that eventually yield dividends. Players open negotiations, draw influence cards and seek to build the biggest bankroll. Once nine deals have been made, the likelihood of ending the game increases. I’m The Boss allows each player to undermine the other, but the winner is the best at negotiation.
Las Vegas: The Board Game
Las Vegas is a 2012 game designed by Rudiger Dorn that’s easy to play and promotes player interaction. The goal is to place the most dice on certain casino areas with variable amounts of cash on them. Las Vegas has a 2015 expansion called Las Vegas: The Slot Machine, which adds another casino location and is a must for six or seven-player games. If you like the game, you can expand your interest further by including a space for some of the best paying online casino sites, like North Casino.
Nightmare Productions
While Las Vegas has players as casino moguls, Reiner Knizia’s Nightmare Productions has players fill the role of movie moguls. It’s an auction game about movie production, so players bid on directors, actors, music soundtracks, guest stars, and agents. The goal is to complete production, while bonus points go to the first film completed, the best film, the worst film, and the best director.
Settlers of Catan
As the name implies, Settlers of Catan has players in the role of settlers on the island of Catan. The game’s premise is to build your civilization faster than the other players. You do this by unlocking achievements that earn victory points. Settlers of Catan is more about resource allocation than it is about warfare. Players build prosperity, so it’s more about economics than personal finance.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico is an underrated game about building wealth. Players take on the role of a colonial government who builds a city and ships goods back to Europe. They do so by efficiently using the island’s resources, which helps them amass victory points.
Agricola
Agricola is a Euro-style game released in 2007 that focuses on resource management. In this case, you play a farmer trying to build a prosperous farmstead. Players do this by sowing and plowing fields, collecting wood, buying animals, and expanding their farms. After 14 rounds, players receive scores based on their household’s size and relative prosperity. Unlike Settlers of Catan and Puerto Rico, Agricola focuses more on personal prosperity and less on the economics of a civilization or colony.
