Putting The Fun In Mutual Funds - Mutual Mania board game - Evaluation

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, Feb, 2001 by Sean O'Neill

GAMES | Getting a head start on INVESTING FUNDAMENTALS is child's play with Mutual Mania.

WHAT Monopoly did for real estate, Mutual Mania (Competitive Edge, $30) aims to do for mutual funds. Starting with $25,000, players circle the board and pick cards that report market-shaking events. Land on a space where interest rates go down, for example, and you get to compute how much your portfolio value has risen, and decide whether to buy or sell more shares. The player who amasses the most assets wins.

Mutual Mania is an entertaining way to kindle a young capitalist's interest in fund investing. The four 14-year-olds we invited to test the game played it for hours with enthusiasm. They quickly caught on to the idea of buying and selling, and weren't even intimidated by having to use the included mini calculator to compute net asset value. We worry, though, that younger kids might not have patience for either the calculator or complex investing strategies. While the game is aimed at kids 11 and up, we'd recommend it for older teens--and even adults.