Life Capital: a Financial Literacy Board Game for Teens and Adults
About forty years of life in five hours at a real table: earn, spend, invest, borrow, lose a job, negotiate. 5–8 players, a Trainer and a Banker.
What is the Life Capital board game?
Life Capital is a financial literacy board game: a simulation of about forty years of life, played in person in five hours by five to eight players from 14. Each player keeps a paper ledger, a Trainer runs the table and a Banker handles the money. In Ottawa a seat costs CAD 200 from 1 November 2026.
The money is play money and the figures are for practice. What players take home is their own ledger, 3–5 personal goals for the month and a basic income–expenses–savings budget.
- Invest · Buy an asset with what your ledger holds.
- Sell · Turn an asset back into money.
- Spend · Spending goes out of your ledger.
- Charity · Giving to charity, written down like any other move.
- Job loss · Your income stops; a reserve planned earlier matters here.
- Wage · windfall · Money comes in: a wage or a windfall.
- Children · Children join your plan and your budget.
- Cards · Some ask for a decision, others you simply carry out.
How a game plays: four moves
01 · Starting conditions
Every player draws a Player Legend face down: a profession and a starting budget. You start from what you drew, the way it is in life.
02 · Your goal
You name your own Dream and learn the rules for reaching it. From here on, every decision is measured against that goal.
03 · The moves
Each move lands you on a sector of the board. You invest, sell, spend, give to charity, take a job loss, take a wage or a windfall, have children, and play whatever the cards bring. You write every move into your own ledger; the Banker pays out and collects the money.
04 · Financial freedom
The game ends at the notional age of 65. You win by entering the circle of financial freedom and acquiring the Dream you named at the start. Some players never get there, and the debrief starts from exactly that.
You can make a mistake here and see it in numbers within minutes: a safe place to be wrong, with the cost of being wrong made visible.
A date is held once the reply to your enquiry names it. Ask for a session date →
Who plays it
- Teens from 14: budgeting, credit, saving and risk at a real table, with adults or in a group of their own. Finance class for teens →
- Parents with a teenager: two seats booked together at one table, CAD 150 each.
- Adults: an audit of your own resources and life plan; groups of 8–16. Game formats →
- Schools: a club across the school year with full five-hour games. For schools →
- Company teams: decisions with finite resources and a written retrospective. Business simulation for teams →
Where the game comes from
A team of authors created Life Capital («Життєвий капітал») in Kharkiv in 2017; the rights holder of the methodology is the NGO Business Club Partner, Kharkiv. In Ukraine 196 school clubs had opened by the end of 2025. In Canada the game is run by LIFECAPITAL GLOBAL INC. from Carleton Place, Ontario, in English and Ukrainian, and the same board is played at the Canadian national youth tournaments in Ottawa.
Figures in Canadian dollars. The written offer carries the final number, the lead time and the cancellation terms. Book a seat →
No reply after two business days means the message did not reach us. Write to info@lifecapital.ca or call +1 613 621 1261.
Questions about the board game
What is a financial literacy board game?
A board game in which money decisions have consequences you can count: income, spending, saving, borrowing, investing and risk. Life Capital is one: a board simulation of about forty years of life, played in person in five hours by five to eight players from 14, with a Trainer and a Banker at the table.
How do you play Life Capital?
Each player draws a Player Legend face down (a profession and a starting budget), names a Dream, and then moves round the board: investing, selling, spending, giving to charity, losing a job, earning a wage or a windfall, having children and playing the cards. You win by entering the circle of financial freedom and acquiring your Dream before the notional age of 65.
Is it a money board game for teens?
Yes. Every program is open from 14, and teens play at the same table as adults or in groups of their own. A parent and a teenager can book two seats together for CAD 150 each from 1 November 2026.
How long does a game take, and how many players?
Five hours: a 30-minute briefing, a 2-hour first half, a break, a second half of 1 hour 45 minutes and a 30-minute debrief. Five to eight players sit at one table, eight at most; larger groups play several tables at once.
Where can I play it in Ottawa?
At an open session in Ottawa or Eastern Ontario: five hours from 13:00, usually at a weekend, in a booked room. The date is agreed in the reply to your enquiry. Families, friends, schools and companies can book a whole table or a session of their own.
Can I play it at home?
Life Capital is played at sessions led by a Trainer, who brings the board, the card decks, the play money and a ledger for every player. A family or a group of friends can book a whole table of up to eight for CAD 1,000. To lead a table yourself, play a session first and then train at the Trainer School.
Can I try it online?
Sessions run in person only: the board, the cards and the money are on a real table, and each player keeps a paper ledger. To see how a turn works first, a browser version of Life Capital in Ukrainian and English opens with no booking from the footer of this site; it is a development version kept up by the team.
Is it the same game as «Життєвий капітал»?
Yes. «Життєвий капітал» is the Ukrainian name of Life Capital, created by a team of authors in Kharkiv in 2017. In Canada sessions run in English and in Ukrainian, and the site has a Ukrainian page about the game.