Learning about investing through gamification

As I pressed the ‘Next’ button, I was informed that I had got a bonus from the office. Grinning with joy I continued choosing the options that flashed before me on the screen, giving me different scenarios to choose from. Yes, I was playing a game that helped me learn about the principles of personal finance and my teacher was a gamification platform.

FingoMF: the gamification platform

Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund recently launched ‘FingoMF’ for investors to get educated about the finer details of investing. You can access the game in two ways:

1. By scanning the QR code on the top of this page with your phone or clicking on the following URL -
   
   https://fingomf.adityabirlacapital.com/


2. By visiting the investor education section of Aditya Birla Sun Life MF website of the AMC. Here you can access the game in two ways:
1. Click on the ‘others’ tab and then click on 'FingoMF' option in the dropdown menu,
   
   OR


2. Click on the gamification banner (Learn.Play.Repeat).

After you open the gaming platform, you will be asked a few details like your name, age and contact details etc. The menu driven, user friendly layout, then asks you to choose your financial goals like ‘Early retirement planning' or ‘Build long term wealth’ etc. Pressing the arrows will take you through the slides that have a few bulleted points letting you know things that you should know as an investor. You can play the game by clicking the ‘Continue’ button.

And the next question is…

The game offers steps like choosing your preferred Portfolio mode based on your risk appetite (e.g. Conservative, Moderate, Aggressive etc). The game guides you through each style and its allocation to various assets for your knowledge. A 1986 study done in the United States showed that asset allocation is the most important determinant of portfolio performance (source: Brinson, Hood, Beebower, Financial Analyst Journal 1986). Your asset allocation depends on your risk appetite and investment goals. You will learn through this game that the right risk profile / asset allocation plays an important role in achieving your financial goal.

Once you have chosen your portfolio, your gamified investment journey starts much like an obstacle race in the form of a quiz that gets more exciting as you keep moving on to the next level with correct answers or stopping to get the correct ones in case you chose the wrong ones. The background gaming soundtrack keeps you going.

The quizzes create awareness and also maintain interest with features like immediate feedback on the answers given by you, and real-life simulation. Imagine a scenario where you were going strong with your investment and then the market crashed making you lose money. Remember the March 2020 crash following the pandemic? Suddenly you are transported to that situation as the screen flashes out “You lost Rs… as a result of the pandemic”. This is followed by options to choose probable investor behavior like ‘stay put’, ‘Manage’ and ‘Change portfolio', forcing you to think like an investor in the situation that has taken place. Continuous feedback like “Well done”, “Correct” and “Incorrect” will provide insights about whether your decisions are those of an informed investor, including the correct answer if you made an incorrect choice.

The game will keep you engaged as you see your hypothetical wealth growing through the entire course of your investment journey as you choose the desirable investor behavior. The wrong decisions will result in your hypothetical wealth going down. At the end of the game, you finally come to know whether the decisions you took during your investment journey simulated by the game has allowed you to achieve your goals; and this is the moment of truth.

Gamification – A growing trend in learning and development

Do you know that the best way to educate, or to disseminate information that can be retained by the audience is through engaging activities like games? Gamification and e-learning are rapidly growing trends. Research studies in the United States shows significant improvements in engagement and learning outcomes through gamification:-

• 67% of students in the US prefer to learn through methods that incorporate elements of games, such as rewards and competition.


• 14% is the average improvement in test scores among students who participate in gamification-based learning


• 90% of instructors believe that game-based learning can improve student motivation


• 75% of the instructors think that gamification can facilitate the development of skills like collaboration, communication, and problem-solving.

(Source: Gitnux, an US based market research company)

Gamification for investor awareness

Which is the most important step of an investment plan? While you may quip in with “The products that we invest in” or “the idea about the expected return on our investment” etc, consider the scenario where you do not know what to invest in or why you should invest, or what will be the consequences of not investing for your financial goals in time for your money to grow in value? FingoMF is a very useful application in understanding important personal finance and investment concepts through bite size learning tips delivered in an easy to digest, fun way. The best part is that even if you fail to win the game, you can always go back and play the game again, as a more knowledgeable investor. The chances of winning will increase with repeated attempts – in the process (learn, play, repeat) your investment knowledge will keep improving.

The final word

Gamification is highly engaging and has increasingly been adopted by diverse industries like health, education etc. FingoMF is an excellent gamification tool for imparting investor education.

An educated investor is less likely to make wrong investment decisions which can harm their financial interests in real life. Through the games you will learn about the folly of redeeming your funds in low or fluctuating markets. The importance of discipline in investing and how that may translate into the accumulation of large corpus will drive the right behavior and help you achieve your financial goals.

Apart from behavioral aspects of investing you can learn about different finance and investment concepts like risk, return, liquidity, inflation etc. You can learn about different asset classes like equity, fixed income, real estate, commodities etc. You can also learn important personal finance concepts related to insurance, credit cards etc.

While learning about concepts is good, the real usefulness of investor education is in applying what you learnt through simulations, in real life situations. FingoMF takes you through simulations of different scenarios that you may face in your investment journey and tests how you apply your investment knowledge in these different scenarios. Try out the FingoMF and you will be able to improve your investment knowledge significantly through gaming experience.

Disclaimer: An Investor education and Awareness initiative of Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund.

All investors have to go through a one-time KYC (Know Your Customer) process. Investors to invest only with SEBI registered Mutual Funds. For further information on KYC, list of SEBI registered Mutual Funds and redressal of complaints including details about SEBI SCORES portal, visit link https://mutualfund.adityabirlacapital.com/Investor-Education/education/kyc-and-redressal for further details.