By JACQI LEYVA-HILL
Special to the PRESS
A new Teen Financial Literacy program has been approved by Laguna Vista City Manager, Victor Treviño, and is now officially on the calendar, starting October 18th. Teens will be able to learn essential money skills by playing a fun board game originally inspired by Monopoly®.
The need for hands-on financial education is clear. According to the Council for Economic Education (CEE) 2024 Survey of the States, 35 states now require a personal finance course for high school graduation, sharp increase from just 21 in 2022—but access still varies by district. Now, teens in Laguna Vista and surrounding areas will have access to a fun financial education experience on a monthly basis—free of charge.
The monthly meetups will be facilitated by J.R. Hill, a junior at Port Isabel Early College High School who aspires to earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree after graduation. When he was 13 years old, he was introduced to the CASHFLOW® board game and enjoyed playing it with neighborhood friends in his hometown of San Antonio. Now that he lives in Laguna Vista and is preparing for college, he wants to share this fun, educational board game with his new community.
The game was created by investor and author Robert Kiyosaki to teach real-world financial concepts through play. “The purpose of CASHFLOW® is to change the way people think about money,” Kiyosaki explained in an interview about the game’s design. “The more you play, the richer you become in financial intelligence—long before you ever risk a dollar in real life” (Rich Dad Company Media Kit, “Robert Kiyosaki on the Creation of CASHFLOW®,” RichDad.com, 2019).
Unlike traditional lectures, CASHFLOW® places players inside a miniature economy where they juggle a paycheck, track an income statement and balance sheet, buy assets that generate passive income, and make trade-offs under uncertainty. Teens have the opportunity to learn the difference between assets—things that put money in your pocket—and liabilities—things that take it out. Players practice budgeting under pressure and discover how small, consistent choices compound over time. By recording each move on simplified financial statements, teens strengthen a habit many adults lack: writing numbers down, reading what they mean, and deciding the next best step. The game also surfaces behavioral lessons—how the fear of missing out (FOMO) can sabotage a budget, why emergency funds matter, and when it’s wiser to say “not yet.”
Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF), a national nonprofit tracking financial education, reports that only 26.3 percent of U.S. public school students are currently guaranteed to take a standalone course, though that share is projected to reach 53 percent by 2030 as new mandates take effect (NGPF State of Financial Education Report 2023).
Internationally, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA 2022) found that only 13.5 percent of U.S. students were top performers in financial literacy, while many others lacked a foundational understanding. Adult trends mirror those gaps: the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Foundation’s National Financial Capability Study 2021 found that just 27 percent of adults answered at least five of seven basic financial questions correctly.
Basic financial resilience is another concern. The Federal Reserve Board’s 2023 Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households revealed that only 63 percent of adults could cover a $400 emergency expense with cash or its equivalent, leaving more than one-third needing to borrow or sell something.
The CASHFLOW® board game turns those statistics into teachable moments. When a player lands on an unexpected car repair, the “emergency fund” isn’t abstract—it’s the difference between selling an asset, going into debt, or staying on track. When an investment card appears, teens compare expected cash flow to price, weigh risk, and decide whether it fits their long-term plan—exactly the kind of critical thinking they’ll need in adulthood.
By pairing a motivated teen leader with an interactive financial tool, the Laguna Vista Public Library is doing more than hosting a monthly game meetup. It’s giving young people a safe place to practice smart money decisions before the stakes are high—so when opportunity or surprise comes in adulthood, they’ll already know how to read the numbers and make confident, informed choices.
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