Financial Gamification: Dabao Budget

Thanks to technology, there is a plethora of tools out there to engage students in their learning. You probably have heard of Kahoot! and Mentimeter, but do you know there is a whole bunch of other websites out there, including Padlet, Classkick, Flippity, and Deck.Toys? Regardless of your affinity for gaming, gamification is definitely trending and it seems that many of our young people swear by it as a means to keep themselves motivated in their learning journey.

This is why the term "financial gamification" caught my attention when I read "Budgets Don't Work (But This Does") by Melissa Browne. My money book review is shown below.

This time round, i wanted to ensure that the time I invested in reading really translated into some form of payouts in my life, so I thought about 2 practices I could incorporate into my life and make my financial journey more fun.

This subsequently provoked me to do something radical.

I transferred $100 of my Lifetime Interest from my Singtel Dash EasyEarn account to my Singtel Dash wallet.

Now I don't know about you, but it was actually a very difficult thing for me to do. I like to mentally compartmentalise my money, so I normally won't fancy using the hard-earned interest from my savings account as spending money. But, spurred by the desire to do something different and shake up my life a bit, I bit my tongue and went ahead with the transfer.

As a creature of habit, I use nothing else than Grab Wallet when I dabao food, so yesterday was actually the second time I utilized my Singtel Dash wallet. With this "free" $100 in this wallet, I did feel that my usual dabao purchase yielded an extra serving of endorphins.

So how does financial gamification come in? Well, after that initial high, I got used to the idea of buying food from my Lifetime interest. I checked the rewards Singtel Dash had to offer; a $2 GrabFood voucher would require just 1100 points - nothing too difficult to aim for!

So when I overcame my mental hurdle and decided to use this $100, I reaped a couple of benefits. Firstly, I could keep track of my dabao budget easily as I could just monitor how long this $100 would last me (hence, the reason for me writing this Opinions piece).

Secondly and more importantly, now my essential spending had levelled up to a quest: Spend enough on dabao to redeem that $2 GrabFood voucher. How long will it take me to conquer this quest?

Your guess is as good as mine, but I'm kinda eager to find out.

For another good read on gamifying your financial goals, try "7 Things I Did That Helped Me Save 70% Of My Entry-Level Salary" (https://blog.seedly.sg/salary-budgeting-tips/). So, what are some financial games you play with yourself/others? Please share with me your best practices!

If you enjoyed reading this, pop over to my blog and get a money ripples idea (https://diaperfinancingfund.blogspot.com/2021/06/money-ripples-from-socash-to.html).