How many times have you heard the saying “sometimes, life happens”? Everything’s going smoothly, and suddenly, you face challenges that turn your plans upside down. Vehicle breakdown, business emergencies, necessary home repairs, or a sudden health scare—when these “life happens” scenarios occur, you inevitably have to take a financial hit, take a step back, and take a few moments to reassess how to move forward.
Being prepared is one of the best things you can do now to help avoid being overwhelmed by such unfortunate events in the future.
But don’t go putting yourself in trouble just to gain practical experience! Just recently, Sun Life launched a new game called “Play for Life: A Game of Choices,” which allows you to test drive your financial journey and enhance your financial literacy in a fun, engaging, and risk-free manner.
A new and relevant take on a familiar gameplay loop
Play for Life is a free single-player game designed to emulate financial decisions you encounter and resolve to live a brighter life. The goal of this game is to achieve the financial goals you set for yourself through strategic decision making, all while navigating the various ups and downs that life throws at you.
You start the game by selecting your personal life goals and character. The currently available life goals include saving up for a vacation fund, business capital, automobile, retirement fund, education, or property—all of which are goals that everyone dreams of having. Each goal has a corresponding savings target along with a limited number of turns to get it done. As for the characters, you have the Specialist, Mechanic, BPO Employee, Gamer, Teacher, Medical Staff, Manager, and Executive. Each has its own corresponding income and expenses.
Throughout the game, you are rolling the dice to move your pieces across a game board peppered with real-life scenarios. These include “Life Wins” that present opportunities to advance closer to winning; “Life Happens” that forces you to dig into your savings; and “Life Choices” that require you to weigh the potential benefits and consequences of an investment. There are also various other spaces which lead to either extra income or unforeseen expenses; and even random world events such as acts of mother nature and economic changes which further require you to carefully manage the flow of your money. There’s also a mental wellness meter which, when empty, leads to impulse spending just like in real life.
Every decision you make echoes the complexity of actual financial planning. Do you hold off on investments to first build your savings in case of a string of bad luck? Do you purchase health insurance and take longer to reach your life goal to safeguard yourself against sudden medical emergencies? Do you invest in a hobby to keep your mental wellbeing up? In Play for Life, each event matters just like in real life. In fact, during one playthrough, I faced a health scare, utilities due for payment, property tax due, and because of these, I started running out of mental wellness stars which then led to impulse shopping. As a result, getting to the goal became a much longer affair. While I have not faced the exact situations in the exact same order, I had real-life moments where it was particularly tight between savings-extinguishing events and arrival of income. If I had my insurances and investments in place—both in-game and in real-life—the financial hit and anxiety would not have been as concerning.
These elements come together to create a familiar experience. Think of the board game “Monopoly,” but one that is less about underhandedly getting the better of others. Rather, Play for Life allows you to have an introspective journey with the life challenges that may come your way a few months or years down the line.
Victory is ultimately achieved when you have gained enough play money to reach your life goal. Whether you’re aiming to build a thriving business, buy a home, or go on a much-needed getaway, Play for Life offers a fun way to sharpen your financial acumen. With its gameplay combined with the simple controls and cute graphics, Play for Life is an entertaining financial learning experience for people of all ages.
Play at home, on-the-go, and at a mall closest to you
Sun Life’s Play for Life: A Game of Choices is available to play via https://playforlife.sunlife.com.ph/. If you want to try the tabletop board game version instead, just talk to a Sun Life financial advisor to learn how. Lastly, you can play the life-size version of Play for Life in select malls around the Philippines, including SM Lanang in Davao from August 24 to 25, 2024, and SM Iloilo from September 28 to 29, 2024.
Learn how to make brighter choices with Play for Life!
What are you waiting for? Experience the thrill of mastering life’s financial decisions—minus the real-world consequences—with Play for Life: A Game of Choices and be better prepared to achieve your dreams! Join the countless players who have already discovered the excitement that Play for Life offers by going to https://playforlife.sunlife.com.ph/.
Start playing today and embark on an adventure where every decision shapes your path to a brighter life!