Why Choose Plus Investing?
Teaching What Matters Most
Investing is no longer optional for a secure retirement. With life expectancy rising and pensions disappearing, today’s youth need to understand how to build their retirement savings early. Budget Challenge Plus Investing focuses on the essential skills students need:
- Using tax-advantaged accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs.
- Selecting low-fee mutual funds and ETFs.
- Diversifying investments to reduce risk.
- Maximizing employer contributions for free money.
- Staying committed to a long-term strategy.
The Problems with Traditional Stock Market Games
Unrealistic Scenarios
Classic stock market games hand students $100,000 in fantasy money, encouraging speculative trades and risky behavior. These games fail to reflect real-world challenges, like having to earn first in order to invest it, and the pain of losing hard earned money due to poor investment choices.
Misguided Lessons
Students often leave with the wrong idea: that success in the market requires complex market knowledge or is about luck or high-risk gambles. Losing can make investing in equities seem too complicated and risky. Yet, the long-term cost of making overly conservative retirement investments can be millions of dollars of lost gains. Winning encourages dangerous habits like buying on margin, day trading, and investing in speculative individual stocks. And emphasizes stock trading behaviors no financial planner would recommend, while ignoring investing for retirement.
What’s Missing
Key investing lessons are often overlooked, such as the power of compounding, the benefits of tax-deferred accounts, and how to build wealth sustainably over time.
How Budget Challenge Plus Investing Works
Budgeting Meets Investing
Unlike traditional games, Plus Investing connects retirement contributions to realistic budgeting. Students start with a modest 401(k) balance and grow it by managing their budget, paying bills on time, and saving responsibly.
Learning by Doing
Students experience long-term investing in a simulated 401(k). They make contributions from simulated paychecks, invest in mutual funds, and see how decisions today impact their future.
Hands-On Learning with Real Data
Using historical market data, Plus Investing provides a realistic experience of market ups and downs, helping students develop strategies for weathering volatility. Selecting periods with a minimally upward bias reinforces the benefit of staying the course and investing for the long-term.
What Makes Plus Investing Different?
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Realistic Contributions
Students invest from their simulated paychecks, making the process relatable and achievable.
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Tax-Advantaged Strategies
Contributions reduce taxable income, and students see the impact of these savings on their take-home pay.
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Rewarding Smart Choices
Trophies are earned for low-fee portfolios, strategic investing, and maximizing employer matches, emphasizing behaviors endorsed by experts.
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Focus on Sustainability
Investing success is tied to budgeting and saving, ensuring students build a strong foundation before growing their portfolios.
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Power of Compounding
A unique visualization tool projects students’ retirement savings 40 years into the future, demonstrating how small investments grow over time.
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Flexible Implementation
Teachers can use Plus Investing with a minimal amount of additional time at simulation launch and no additional time during the simulation. Of they can do a deeper dive, using the Mutual Fund Fact Sheets and the simulation experience.
Why It Works
Budget Challenge Plus Investing addresses the biggest barriers to young adults investing: procrastination, lack of knowledge, and misconceptions about risk. By teaching students how to start small and invest consistently, we equip them to achieve financial independence.
Ready to Learn the Right Way to Invest?
Provide your students with the experience they need to confidently secure their financial future. With Plus Investing, they’ll master the skills that matter most—starting today. Sign Up Now to transform how your students think about money and investing!