Pocket: A Personal Finance Game Page 203 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, Volume 44, 2017 ABSTRACT The gamification is a motivational methodology that includes mechanical and dynamic games, not used in recreational activities. Applied to personal finance, shows the importance of balance between income and expense, providing tools for the rational process of making financial decisions. The game is designed to teach this methodology, to strengthen the knowledge, applied to students of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and professionals of administrative and non- administrative areas. It is identified with the gamification the individual faces financial decisions as a fun way, increasing the knowledge, and at the end of the game all the participants had a similar level. INTRODUCTION Financial education is defined like “the process by which the investors and financial consumers develop skills and confidence to acquire major conscience of the risks, financial opportunities, to take informed decisions, to know where to come to ask for help and to take any effective action to improve its financial well-being” (Blanco Hernández, 2015). There is highlighted the importance of the training and the knowledge of information for the correct handling of the family budgets (Carmona, 2013), indicating that the knowledge in the financial handling can bring with it benefits in the personal finance, on the contrary its absence favors the capture of bad decisions, bad organization, departures higher to the income. With the use of motivational strategies like the gamification, defined as the use of elements of game in contexts that are not a game (Deterding, Sicart, Nacke, O’Hara, & Dixon, 2011) is proposed in a playful way to simulate situations of the everyday life in which it is possible to take decisions use against to the use of the resources, show of the objective decisions, the use of the budget, strategy and the consequences to future. PERSONAL FINANCE The personal finance is defined as the study of personal and familiar resources that are considered to be important for the achievement of the financial success, it includes expense, saving, protection and investment of these financial resources (Garman & Forgue, 2011). Also (Maya, 2014), includes the planning concept and this way it defines the planning of the personal finance PPF as “set of concepts, hardware and skills needed to solve problems and to take financial decisions”. The financial goals are related to the concept of the personal wealth, which can be subjective, since it depends on the individual who does the evaluation (Figueroa, 2009). The above mentioned evaluation depends on the perception of the consumers and the balances of the bank accounts and how the finance changes over the course of time (Berman, Tran, Lynch, & Zauberman, 2014). This way the PPF will be different for every individual who projects the budget, as to which the goals will be personal and in accordance with the interests, the individual will have to concentrate its efforts in maximizing the relation revenue - expense and looking for alternatives that allow to satisfy the financial goals. It is believed that a preference exists in the property asset investment. In the study of (Bover, 2005) 79.7 % of the assets of the households in Spain, is distributed in property assets. The decision to invest in another real estate property is bigger than the decision to acquire financial assets, this is due to the fact that the revenue is significantly top, in accordance with the Table 1. Of equal way, for the Colombian case, the preference to the Real Estate as alternative of saving happens in major measurement opposite to other financial alternatives. This due to the biggest access to the mortgage credit and to the additional purchasing power for the remittances. Nevertheless, the housing acquisition isn't always being the best alternative, there are financial, demographic and tributary factors that have influence in the awaited results, we’ll be positive or negative (Clavijo, Janna, & Muñoz, 2004). So that a balance exists between the expense and the revenue, not only it is necessary to carry out the planning and the budget, but also to control the expense and to continue the plan (Vahidov & He, 2010). It is as well as there has tackled the problem of the administration of the personal finance. Although there is clear the problems with the balance of the countable equation, it is mentioned that another difficulty exists in the handling of the personal finance. The ignorance of the Pocket: A Personal Finance Game Miguel David Rojas López Universidad Nacional de Colombia mdrojas@unal.edu.co Carolina Taborda Osorio Universidad Nacional de Colombia ctabordao@unal.edu.co Susana Maria Valencia Rodríguez Universidad Nacional de Colombia sumvalenciaro@unal.edu.co Page 204 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, Volume 44, 2017 financial plantation and few cultures of saving, in accordance with the survey of financial load and education of his holdings March - July, 2010 (DANE, 2010). The bad financial decisions comprise the reduction in the saving, in pension and capital formation, among others (N. García, 2012). The financial education increases the well-being of the individuals and contributes to the general well-being of the economy, since it smooths the functioning of the financial markets. This, because, on having grouped the guessed right decisions of all the persons. GAME DESIGN: POCKET Pocket is a game designed for the education of a methodology for the rational process of decision making financiers in daily situations and to reinforce the knowledge of the persons who have previous formation. The player will have to realize a classification of the income and expenses that appear before the game. In accordance with the taken decisions, there will appear different types of income and expenses. To give clarity to the assumptions of the game present the Table 2 and Table 3 in which the correct classification is detailed for the income and expenses, respectively. well as when there exists the option to "Buy" “not to buy” o “not to accept” any product, are chosen inside drop-down list. To realize these classifications, the game delivers to the participant the descriptions of every revenue or expense, avoiding subjectivities. After finishing the decision making process, the player TABLE 1 RENT VS ASSETS, (BOVER, 2005) Revenue Centile Main Housing Other real estate properties Financial assets Business for work for proper account Less than 40 72,6% 15,7% 8,6% 3,1% Between 40 y 60 65,3% 19,6% 9,2% 6,0% Between 60 y 80 59,1% 22,4% 10,9% 7,5% Between 80 y 90 55,8% 22,0% 12,7% 9,6% Between 90 y 100 43,2% 25,2% 19,8% 11,9% TABLE 2 CORRECT CLASSIFICATION OF INCOME Income Classification Periodic Salary Fixed Lottery Variable CDT Yields / Investment fund Variable Bond granted by the company Variable Bond for targets fulfillment Variable TABLE 3 CORRECT CLASSIFICATION OF EXPENSES Expenses Classification Market Variable Transport Variable Quota of handling savings account Fixed Mobile telephony Fixed Quota of mortgage credit Fixed Taxes of the housing Fixed Administration Fixed Leasehold Fixed Vehicle Buy Superfluous Maintenance Variable Gasoline Variable Parking Variable Medical Fixed Quota of handling credit card Fixed Credit Card Variable Medical expenses Variable Birthday Gift Superfluous Shopping XYZ Superfluous Page 205 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, Volume 44, 2017 sends the answers. Once there are received those of all the players, the answers sheet unburdens itself and interface is annexed like the input of the second, which corresponds to a file in Excel formed to generate the cash flows of all the participants of the game. It is necessary to stand out, that although the player has not hit the classification of income and departures, the cash flows generate with the correct places, that is to say, at this point do not bear in mind the classifications that the player realized, these are born in mind to realize the punctuation that the interface calculates automatically, with the help of Table 4 . Although the winner of the game is who takes the best decisions that are reflected in the biggest cash flow, also there is analyzed the player who realized the classifications of a correct way, this because one of the targets of the game also is to teach The Interface shows in detail income, expenses, the clear cash flow and the graph that allows to compare the result of each of the players, selecting in the drop-down list the code assigned to the player. The Figure 1, illustrates an example. winner is selected, verifying what the maximum value of cash flows was in the last period and the loser, with the minor. The above mentioned results will be those who are going to be analyzed in the socialization or feedback. In this feedback there are indicated to the player which actions it left of realizing that they might generate major participation and profit. The reasons are explained to the players by which gave themselves these results, bearing in mind that some decisions are important and perhaps definitive, depending on the combination that it is realized. The Figure 2 present to the lineaments of Pocket and its elements. The players have the possibility of analyzing what the mistakes were in the performance of the game and to raise corrective actions. With these conclusions it is checked that strategies and decisions can move into the real life. Also, taking like a flow as basic with negative periods, the resources, lack is demonstrated to support the obligations. On having selected, a TABLE 4 POCKET TABLE OF POINTS Concept Points To locate correctly the fixed income (for each one) 3 To locate correctly the variable income (for each one) 4 To locate correctly the overheads (for each one) 3 To locate correctly the variable expenses (for each one) 4 To locate correctly the superfluous expenses (for each one) 4 Insurances buy 3 Saving / investment 6 FIGURE 1 CLEAR CASH FLOW FIGURE 2 POCKET LINEAMENTS Page 206 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, Volume 44, 2017 player on the drop-down list generates the cash flow, in accordance with the decisions that this one took. RATIFICATION OF THE GAME As soon as the designed game was applied, one proceeds to validate the results of the evaluation of the game, if they fulfill the targets instructional and if this methodology has the awaited effects. In whole there were 63 players divided between students of ungraduated, postgraduate, professionals of administrative and not administrative careers. The ungraduated students took part in groups of 5 persons and those of postgraduate in groups of 4, the others realized this game of an individual way. In the Table 6 there presents the classification and the whole of the players. For the analysis of the effect on learning, there takes the initial period of the game in which the participant scarcely begins the decision making process and is compared with the results of the evaluation realized after the feedback, in which the learned concepts happen. There is realized the test of normality of the Shapiro-Wilk to determine if the average is a parameter typical of the population (Sen & Srivastava, 1990). Ho: The information is distributed normally Ha: The information is not distributed normally With the help of the statistical bundle Minitab the value is calculated p and the test statistic, this bundle uses the Ryan- Joiner test and indicates that it is similar to the Shapiro-Wilk. To accept the void hypothesis, the test needs that the statistician is near to 1 and the value p major turn α. As is observed in the Figure 3, for the qualifications of the initial period, the test statistician is 1 and the value is p > 0,100. With 95 % of confidence, the void hypothesis is not pushed back, that is to say, the information is distributed normally. As is observed in the Figure 4 for the qualifications in the final test, the test statistician is 0,995 and the value is p> 0,100. With 95 % of confidence, the void hypothesis is not pushed back, that is to say, the information is distributed normally. It is chosen to use the test t semi detached because only one set of individuals is hard and realized there are two remarks of each of them, after applied a treatment, in case of this investigation, the treatment is the game and the feedback. There is realized the analysis of contrast of averages to determine if the averages of the qualifications of the initial period and of the final test, or as per statistics differ, by which the following hypothesis test is realized, in accordance with (Devore, 2008): Ho: µd= µo, where µd is the average of the difference of the populations and µo is the hypothetical average of the differences. Ha: µd≠ µo To realize the averages contrast, it is needed that the number of information of both populations is equal. Therefore, for the meetings of game that were realized in a group way, the result of the team is assigned to every player. It is the case of the students of ungraduated and postgraduate. In the whole of the population of the qualifications of the initial period and of the final test it is 63. Comparing the averages of the qualifications one concludes that the game and the feedback had an effect on learning of the TABLE 6 CLASSIFICATION PLAYERS Classification Total Ungraduated students 35 Postgraduate students 16 Administrative Professional career 6 Administrative non Professional career 6 FIGURE 3 TEST OF NORMALITY QUALIFICATIONS INITIAL PERIOD FIGURE 4 TEST OF NORMALITY QUALIFICATIONS FINAL PERIOD Page 207 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, Volume 44, 2017 participants, since the qualification mediated in the final test it was 4.3, superior to the qualification average of 3.9 in the initial period of the game Of the same figure, with regard to the standard deviation, one concludes that the results of the qualifications in the final test, after applied the game, are closer to the average, to a comparison of the standard deviation of the results in the initial period, which was more dispersed. This indicates that the game helped to level the knowledge of the participants, since the qualifications were more nearby between themselves in the final evaluation. CLOSING ARGUMENT As it is observed in the Table 5 in average, the participants obtained positive cash flows, quite thanks to the initial balances of the flows of periods 1, 2 and 3 where the income overcame the expenses, which indicates that for these periods the decisions related to the expense were balanced. Nevertheless, from the period 4 the income and expenses were not balanced and the savings of the initial periods were the persons in charge of endorsing the expenses up to the period 5 and 6 repeats the balance again in the period. After the cash flows of every player group the individual results, that is to say, in the professional categories of administrative, professional careers of not administrative careers, students of ungraduated and students of postgraduate, the following results are obtained. The results reflect that the professional participants of administrative careers are usually more analytical and risky, this was the result of the feedbacks realized at the end of the exercise. These participants show that they accepted to realize all the possible buys because they were provided with sufficient income, while the professional participants in not administrative careers mentioned that its strategies were centring on increasing its income and reducing its expenses, that is to say, to chase the target that silver-plates them in the explanation of the game. In the meetings of the students of ungraduated and postgraduate, both of engineering, the results demonstrate that the ungraduated students obtain major income and reduce its expenses in the long term, that is to say, in the period n, although the result in the short term favors the postgraduate students. The period n bears in mind the present decisions and the probabilities of occurrence of the events to simulate several periods to future. The professionals' combinations of administrative and not administrative careers were present in the meetings of the groups 1, 3 and 5, the groups 2 and 4 correspond to ungraduated and postgraduate, both of engineering. In these organized heterogeneously groups, that is to say, in the groups of game 1, 3 and 5, the winners are the professionals for not administrative careers. With regard to the winners of each of the meetings of game, in the global result, it is highlighted that the biggest cash flow in the last period corresponds to the group 5 of the students of ungraduated with a whole of $ 18.953.986. The previous thing is observed in the Table 12. Next there have analyzed the results of the survey of evaluation realized to the players after the meetings of game, where it is investigated on the fulfillment of the instructional targets, the evaluation of the elements of the game and the lessons learned. Concludes that 83 % of the participants indicates to have learned on income, 86 % on expenses, 70 % of cash flow and 67 % on saving. Also, 79 % of the participants have knowledge previous to the concepts applied to the game. Checking the individual answers, it is demonstrated that 92 % of the professionals of not administrative careers assures not to have a previous knowledge, some of them are doctors, philosophers, dentists and artists. What allows to reinforce the result of the cash flows for this participants' category. One concludes that 94 % of the participants makes sure that TABLE 5 AVERAGE CASH FLOW Cash Flow Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Period 5 Period 6 Period n Initial Balance $ 0 $ 12.148 $ 55.447 $ 68.636 $ 63.724 $ 60.163 $ 90.295 Entire income $ 30.000 $ 61.051 $ 41.151 $ 31.255 $ 31.361 $ 58.061 $ 17.271.389 Entire expenses $ 17.852 $ 17.752 $ 27.963 $ 36.166 $ 34.922 $ 27.929 $ 3.025.328 Entire cash flow $ 12.148 $ 55.447 $ 68.636 $ 63.724 $ 60.163 $ 90.295 $ 14.336.357 TABLE 6 RESULTS OF THE UNGRADUATED STUDENTS Cash Flow Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Period 5 Period 6 Period n Initial Balance $ 0 $ 11.052 $ 53.268 $ 70.751 $ 78.358 $ 79.130 $ 110.011 Entire income $ 30.000 $ 61.064 $ 41.180 $ 31.300 $ 31.424 $ 54.256 $ 18.930.305 Entire expenses $ 18.948 $ 18.848 $ 23.697 $ 23.693 $ 30.651 $ 23.375 $ 2.278.454 Entire cash flow $ 11.052 $ 53.268 $ 70.751 $ 78.358 $ 79.130 $ 110.011 $ 16.761.862 TABLE 7 RESULTS OF THE POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS Cash Flow Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Period 5 Period 6 Period n Initial Balance $ 0 $ 13.649 $ 58.439 $ 79.328 $ 82.824 $ 86.907 $ 124.672 Entire income $ 30.000 $ 61.041 $ 41.142 $ 31.246 $ 31.354 $ 57.697 $ 17.199.090 Entire expenses $ 16.351 $ 16.251 $ 20.254 $ 27.750 $ 27.272 $ 19.932 $ 2.752.056 Entire cash flow $ 13.649 $ 58.439 $ 79.328 $ 82.824 $ 86.907 $ 124.672 $ 14.571.706 Page 208 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, Volume 44, 2017 Berman, J. Z., Tran, A. T. K., Lynch, J. G., & Zauberman, G. (2014). Expense Neglect Bias in Forecasting Personal Finances. SSRN Electronic Journal. http://doi.org/10.2139/ ssrn.2542805 Blanco Hernández, M. T. (2015). La importancia de la educación financiera y su influencia en los futuros estudiantes de administración y dirección de empresas. Anuario jurídico y económico escurialense, 48(2), 381– 400. Retrieved from http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/ articulo?codigo=5009673 Bover, O. (2005). Encuesta financiera de las familias. Revista de Estadística Y Sociedad - Indiceociedad - Indice, 13, 8– 10. Carmona, L. H. (2013, November 20). Modelo para finanzas personales. Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro. Retrieved from http://ri.uaq.mx/handle/123456789/540 Clavijo, S., Janna, M., & Muñoz, S. (2004). La vivienda en Colombia: sus determinantes socio-economicos y financieros (Vol. 300). DANE. (2010). Encuesta de carga financiera y educación de hogares marzo-julio 2010. Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). From game design elements to gamefulness. In Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference on Envisioning Future Media Environments - MindTrek ’11 (p. 9). New York, New York, USA: ACM Press. http:// doi.org/10.1145/2181037.2181040 Deterding, S., Sicart, M., Nacke, L., O’Hara, K., & Dixon, D. (2011). Gamification. using game-design elements in non- gaming contexts. In Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems - CHI EA ’11 (p. 2425). New York, New York, USA: ACM Press. http:// doi.org/10.1145/1979742.1979575 Devore, J. (2008). Probabilidad y estadística para ciencias e ingeniería (Seventh ed). México: Cengage learning editores. REFERENCES the knowledge of the administration of the personal finance it improved after applied the game. The perception of the participants is coherent with the statistical analysis with which learning ended The results of the game reinforce the theory of (Bover, 2005) in which a preference appears in the decision to invest in real estate property than in financial assets, with 95.7 % opposite to 73.91 %. It is observed as well as 73 % of the persons that they decided to invest in real estate property also decided to save in financial assets how it appears in the Table 9 It is highlighted that none of the participants chose the option not to save, which allows to make sure that the participants of the game belong to the small percentage of the population with saving culture, in accordance with the survey of financial load and education of hearths March - July, 2010 (I DAMAGED, 2010). The Gamification is a tool that has been used to deliver the participants in an entertaining way, strategies applicable to its financial decisions in the real ambience, which application demonstrates a difference between the knowledge given from the classroom of classes and the education "for fun". The above mentioned difference consists of the top results when the Gamification is used as a way of reinforcing the knowledge of the participants, what is translated into a major learning of the concepts. With the use of methodologies as the Gamification there are taught strategies applicable to the real life for the making of financial decisions, so that the income and departures stay balanced. The results of the participants improve in the final stage, after applied the game and realized the feedback. This is due to the fact that the concepts were presented in a playful way that generates remembrance, also, doubts clear up and the progress strategies are consolidated into the group. Although it is demonstrated in the results of the game that the persons without previous formation in finance present a better administration of resources, it does not mean that the financial education is unnecessary. Because hardware and resources are obtained to favor the saving, income increase, expense control, by means of financial products. TABLE 8 RESULTS OF THE POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS Ranking Group Winner Classification Player Result 9 1 Si Non administrative Plata $ 17.947.834 6 2 Si Postgraduate Posgrado 3 $ 18.464.809 13 3 Si Non administrative Meliza $ 17.179.885 1 4 Si ungraduated Pregrado 5 $ 18.953.986 7 5 Si Administrative Juan Miguel $ 18.464.809 TABLE 9 DISTRIBUTION OF THE OPTIONS OF SAVING Options Total Financial Asset 73% Other saving sources 27% Page 209 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, Volume 44, 2017 Figueroa, L. O. F. (2009). Las finanzas personales. Revista Escuela de Administración de Negocios, (65), 123–144. Retrieved from http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa? id=20612980007 García, N. (2012). El impacto de la educación financiera en los jóvenes: el caso de las finanzas para el cambio. Borradores de Economía, 687. Garman, T., & Forgue, R. (2011). Personal finance (11th ed.). Mason: South western Cengage learning. Jaramillo, C. M. (2007). Los juegos de clase no tecnológicos como una estrategia didáctica para la enseñanza de la ingeniería de software. Retrieved from http:// www.bdigital.unal.edu.co/1621/1/ carlosmariozapatajaramillo.2007.pdf Maya, L. M. (2014, June 5). Definición de un modelo para la planeación financiera personal aplicado al caso colombiano. Retrieved from http:// www.bdigital.unal.edu.co/48980/1/43845012.2015.pdf Sen, A., & Srivastava, M. (1990). Regression analysis:theory, methods and applications (first edit). New York: Springer. Vahidov, R., & He, X. (2010). Situated DSS for personal finance management: Design and evaluation. 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