STAX Online Investing Game Disrupts Wall Street

Next Gen Personal Finance and McKinney teach kids how to invest wisely for the long run

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Nov 12, 2018, 11:00 ET

PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- For generations, Wall Street has promoted a particular way kids learn how to invest. But that is about to change with STAX, an online game that teaches students a new way to learn about investing.

Created by McKinney — makers of the Webby Award–winning game PAYBACK, which teaches students the real impact of college debt — STAX is in partnership with Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF), a nonprofit committed to ensuring students leave high school with skills to thrive in a complex financial world.

STAX gives students long-term investing strategies in just 20 minutes of gameplay. It's a striking departure from the Stock Market Game, the tool most used by educators. In an article in Advisor Perspectives, Allan Roth believes the game "has been hijacked by the brokerage industry to indoctrinate students into disastrous financial practices." He further describes the SMG as "yet another version of the financial services industry's game of 'heads we win; tails we win more.'"

"Young people are shying away from investing in the stock market. They think it's only for rich people, too difficult to understand, or that most people lose money," said Tim Ranzetta, co-founder of NGPF. "Condensing 20 years of investing into 20 minutes, STAX helps students discover the value of a simple, long-term strategy rather than being whipsawed by the vagaries of the stock market."

STAX allows students to chart their own investment strategy over a 20-year period and see how their results stack up against their classmates and "the market." Students allocate their savings among seven distinct saving and investment choices (savings account, CDs, index funds, stocks, bonds, commodities and gold). They receive lessons about each of these assets and some behavioral "nudges" to get them to act. Their convictions will be tested as they experience the volatility of the markets. Will they beat the market? They will have to play to find out!

Here's what leading investment advisers and writers are saying about STAX:

"If market games, which engage students in short-term speculation in individual securities, is the disease, then STAX, which demonstrates the wisdom of long-term passive investing, is the cure," said Bill Bernstein, author of several best-selling books on investing.

"Want a short, powerful lesson on the virtues of sensible, long-term investing? Call up STAX and, depending on the choices you make, you can see in just 20 minutes how things might go terribly wrong over 20 years, but also how they can go wonderfully right," said Jonathan Clements, former WSJ columnist, best-selling author and blogger at Humble Money.

About Next Gen Personal Finance

Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF), has become the "one-stop shop" for financial educators looking for high-quality, engaging curriculum to equip students with skills to thrive in their future. In just four years, NGPF's comprehensive online curricular resources and teacher training have already been used by over 12,000 teachers and over a million students in all 50 states. They love NGPF's approach that can be summarized as the 4 Cs: Curated, Comprehensive, Customizable and Current (and it's FREE, too!).

About McKinney

McKinney is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, with offices in New York City. Clients include Next Gen, Sherwin-Williams, Samsung, CarMax, ESPN and Dow DuPont, among others.

Media Contacts
Tim Ranzetta
Next Gen Personal Finance
650-218-8408
[email protected]

Janet Northen
McKinney
919.313.4062
[email protected]