Financial services can be challenging since they include charts, data, and tables. Nevertheless, banking sectors are trying to improve their client engagement with digital solutions, including Fintech.
They intend to include gamification in their financial products, game-like features that help the financial industry engage users effectively and turn mere procedures into rewarding and fun activities.
While apps like Fortune City have made strides in gamifying personal finance, newer platforms like the fastwin app are also emerging, introducing innovative ways for users to engage with their spending and saving habits.
For example, in the Fortune City finance app, the user’s app creates a simulated city depending on their spending. Their daily spending and income into an element of the city’s design so that the user can see their budget reflected in the app and indulge in mindful spending.
Fortune City and apps are similar to it develop a game out of managing spending. Consequently, clients can engage with their money in an interactive format and become more conscious of their expenses and saving habits.
How Gamification Can Help You Save More
If you’re struggling to build savings, gamification can help and motivate you to save and enjoy yourself. Here are a few ways gamification can help you save more:
Get rewarded for saving in real-time.
Compared to traditional budgeting that requires effort and time to yield outcomes as saving rates are high, a gamified experience grants incentives to consumers instantly. Positive reinforcement fosters and rewards positive behavior instead of punishing bad habits.
A financial psychology specialist and Money Habitudes creator, Syble Solomon, says, “We’re hard-wired to prefer pleasure to pain.” Money Habitudes is an online game that gives an in-depth understanding of different money personalities. Naturally, we’re encouraged to indulge in what we find satisfying.
This includes earning reward points as you are closer to reaching a savings objective. Truist’s Long Game, a finance app provided by the bank, rewards users with coins whenever they meet certain milestones in their savings. Those coins can be used to play games and win cash.
Earn extra cash
Gamification doesn’t only offer in-game rewards- positive reinforcement- but also offers chances to earn real cash, which can be added to a savings fund.
Gamification is effective when it carries out a mixture of rewards internal to the game, such as badges or points, and tangible rewards, like cards, gifts, or money. This kind of reinforcement motivates the clients to save more because of the reward they’ll receive.
See your spending and saving patterns visualized.
Financial gamification involves many visual elements, like tracking your savings progress on a map, building a virtual city, or collecting virtual coins to reach certain saving goals.
Some apps will pinpoint how to finance games and can take on unique approaches to envisage your money. The game works by linking your accounts, and it keeps track of your spending. The more you save in various categories, the more you earn rewards, which can be used to buy buildings for the virtual city.
Also, the game app breaks down your spending into pie charts and bar charts. You can easily know areas where you may be overspending and readjust with a simple glance at a graph or chart.
For instance, you may notice you’re spending more on fast food and decide to cook meals at home to save money.
Visualizing your finances can help you stay motivated to reach your financial goals. Seeing your progress every time can be satisfying and help you maintain track when things are tough.
Learn savings tips through trivia.
Gamification offers ways to develop financial literacy, making it more interactive instead of following a course or reading books on personal finance which can be tedious.
Through quizzes or trivia, learning can be more interactive and enjoyable. The users can be more likely to engage with the materials and retain what they’ve learned. Incorporating interactive features into learning experiences is called active learning.
For example, Truist’s Long Game integrates trivia questions into the game; when answered correctly, the user earns coins. Trivia includes questions about financial term definitions, how to build retirement savings, or different types of deposit accounts.
Make saving collaborative
When saving money is done alone, it can be so challenging. Meanwhile, gamification can make saving more collaborative, resulting in greater success, motivation, and accountability.
Through teamwork and social networks, users are motivated to save more money together and reach their financial objectives through competitions.
Gamification may create a sense of accommodating competition and shared fulfillment. That does not need to happen through technology. For instance, you can set a goal and compete against an intimate friend to see who can save huge money for a period.
Users can encourage one another, share strategies and tips, and celebrate milestones together, making saving money a shared experience.
How to Utilize Gamification to Meet Financial Goals
Different gamification platforms and methods work for different people. Here are the most common strategies and how you may apply them to reach your investment or savings goals:
Challenge yourself: If you are not ultra-competitive but are outcome-oriented, you can use an app like Qapital it Acorns to set your financial goals and improve your savings.
Compete against others: If you are competitive by nature, the Twine or PLB model may help you track progress alongside family members or friends and enable you to spend smartly.
Seek out cash rewards: If you are motivated by cold or hard cash, an app like a bank program or digit that gives bonuses just for keeping money in your account can be a means to make your money work for you.
Build virtual worlds: If you have spent endless hours tinkering in games like Roblox or SimCity, apps like Fortune City and Nestlings can motivate you to make smart financial moves to progress your virtual character.
Gamification puts a unique spin on your finances, an area many consider dry or hard to understand. If you’re looking for a way to improve your financial habits, adding fun to your traditional spending or saving can be worth exploring.
Conclusion
If you are not doing well in your savings or do not have sufficient money to settle an emergency, it is high time to give gamified savings an opportunity in your financial life. Check your credit union or bank if it offers game-like tools or apps.
If they don’t, connect with a financial gamification app or build challenges for yourself and reward yourself as you advance to your savings objective. Saving each month can provide financial protection in the face of unexpected expenses.
