Toolbox — For Training and Youth Work
All new tools in your inbox: Be the first to know about new tools for learning with our e-mail notifications.
Manual, Boardgame
Invest in Youth – Money skills are civic skills (board game and facilitation guide)
Free print & play board game and 10-workshop guide that teach young people financial literacy as civic education: taxes, public services, credit, inflation and democratic choices. In EN, DE, PT and IT, tested with 130+ young people.
Aims of the tool
Show young people that financial decisions are also civic decisions, connecting personal money to taxes, public services and community life.
Build basic financial knowledge and confidence: budgeting, saving, compound interest, inflation, credit scores, consumer rights, digital payments and scams.
Help young people understand how public finance works and how they can have a voice in decisions about shared money.
Give youth workers and teachers a ready-to-use, game-based method that needs no economics background.
Include young people with fewer opportunities and newcomers, who often have the least access to financial education.
Description of the tool
Invest in Youth is a board game (https://investinyouth.eu/print-and-play) with a facilitation guide for youth work and schools. Players start with €2,000 and move along a 69-tile path, drawing cards from five colour-coded decks:
Civic duty (blue), including group votes
Opportunity (green)
Random event (purple)
Expense (red)
Skill/task (yellow)
Many cards offer a third, ethical choice. The final score combines money, Civic Points and Reputation Points, so the richest player does not automatically win. This is the moment that opens the best discussions. Each language version includes country-specific cards (for example SCHUFA and Pfand in Germany), so players also learn the local system.
The “Finance is Civic” guide (51 pages) contains 10 ready-to-run workshops of 90–100 minutes:
What Is Money – Really?
The Price of Everything: Markets, Value & Inequality
Taxes, the Common Good & European Public Finance
Debt, Austerity & the Eurozone Crisis
Work, Wages & the Future of Labour in Europe
Green Finance: Climate, Capital & the European Green Deal
Housing, Wealth & the European Property Paradox
Digital Finance, Data & the Platform Economy
Banking on Solidarity: Alternative Finance & Cooperatives
Money, Power & Democratic Action
Each workshop follows the same steps: the civic argument, the economic background, a timed activity plan, debrief questions and further resources. The sessions follow a simple cycle: cards → play → talk → act. A glossary explains about 60 key financial and civic terms.
Learning outcomes. After a session, participants can:
explain what taxes and social contributions pay for, and why fair contribution matters;
understand compound interest, inflation and the role of a credit score;
recognise risks of digital payments, crypto hype and online scams;
reflect on how individual financial choices affect the community, and the other way round;
experience and discuss majority decisions, disagreement and how to make their voice heard.
Available downloads:
Disclaimer
SALTO cannot be held responsible for the inappropriate use of these training tools. Always adapt training tools to your aims, context, target group and to your own skills! These tools have been used in a variety of formats and situations. Please notify SALTO should you know about the origin of or copyright on this tool.
Tool overview
http://toolbox.salto-youth.net/6162
This tool is for
Young people aged 14 and over, especially young people with fewer opportunities, migrants and newcomers. Also youth workers, teachers and adult educators who want to teach financial literacy and citizenship together. The game also works with adult learners and mixed groups.
and addresses
Social Inclusion, Intercultural Learning, European Citizenship, Peer education, Youth Participation
Materials needed:
The print & play files from www.investinyouth.eu: board, rules, five card decks (designed for double-sided printing on ordinary A4) and the player tracker sheet
A dice, a token for each player, and pens
A table for 4–6 players per board; print several sets for larger groups
The “Finance is Civic” guide for the facilitator; the glossary as a handout (recommended for newcomers)
Duration:
One game takes 60–90 minutes.
A full session with introduction, game and debrief takes about 2–3 hours. Plan enough time for the discussion, or play fewer rounds.
Each guide workshop takes 90–100 minutes. Workshops can be used on their own or as a 10-part programme.
Behind the tool
The tool was created by
Highlights e.V. (Germany, coordinator), EDUMANSHA (Portugal) and Informamentis Europa (Italy). Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0). Free to share, translate and adapt, provided Invest in Youth is credited.
in the context of
The tool was created in the Erasmus+ small-scale partnership “Invest in Youth: Financial Literacy Meets Civic Participation Through Interactive Play” (KA210-YOU, 2024-3-DE04-KA210-YOU-000292304, funded through JUGEND für Europa).
The tool was published to the Toolbox by
ELN TIR (on 10 November 2026)
and last modified
3 November 2026
Comments
No comments have been posted yet.
If you want to comment on this tool, you need to be signed in with your MySALTO account. Sign in now