PlayMoolah

Cultivating financial-emotional resilience (FER) for a flourishing life for young people, families and organizations. 

PlayMoolah aims to help our young people and families to build financial-emotional resilience and equip them with the skills to live a flourishing life. We do so by combining both technology tools and offline, community interactions to deliver a traditionally boring curriculum with more engagement and resonance. 

Research has shown that Money is the source of anxiety and stress for many especially exacerbated by the pandemic. Money creates its own emotional challenges eg: guilt when impulse spending happens, the fear that leads to an avoidance of money, hopelessness in one’s financial situation in some cases. “More than half (53 per cent) of Singaporeans cited money as the top source of stress, and this concern is particularly key among millennials (63 per cent)."

OECD Report shows in Asia, that financial stress was relatively common before the pandemic. In Malaysia, almost three in five respondents worried about normal expenses (59%), whilst 67% of respondents in Indonesia were concerned that their money would not last (Figure 2.4). A considerable percentage of people felt that they were just getting by financially, ranging from 19% in Korea to 42% in Indonesia

We need to first begin by understanding the gap in the current financial education landscape. We see that despite best efforts to provide greater technical education about money, the effectiveness of such programs is still in question. Why then is money still such a heavy stress factor? Why are people unable to apply the lessons of financial literacy? Why then do we insist on using the same old approaches in addressing financial illiteracy? 

We aim to equip young people and families with the foundation skills in managing their emotions and this includes the following: emotional literacy, flexible thinking, self-compassion, tolerating discomfort associated with delay gratification, making sound decision making based on intention rather than emotions and values identification. At the same time, equip our young people with the habits of mind, mental models to develop skills to practice self control, practical strategies to make good decisions and have productive money conversations. 

Data has shown the stresses of money in the region, coupled with that mental health struggles and money anxieties are added on as a double burden in the region. We see that many are, "Struggling to make ends meet Many respondents in participating Asia-Pacific economies had faced at least one period when their income did not meet their living costs in the 12 months prior to the survey (Figure 2.2). This had occurred to at least half of all respondents in Indonesia (58%) and Thailand (50%).

Households take various approaches to try to make ends meet, from drawing down on savings through to borrowing money or cutting back on essentials. Unfortunately, they all reduce financial resilience in the short-term in one way or another, making it increasingly likely that further shocks will be unmanageable."

Data source: oecd.org/daf/fin/financial-education/Financial-consumer-protection-and-financial-literacy-in-asia-in-response-to-covid-19.pdf

There is an opportunity for interventions before the issue of a mental health and financial crisis happen for the families 

The target population are families, young adults and organisations that fuel a community of entrepreneurs, business owners and educational institutions. We have been collaborating with local partners working with communities, through our Online portal, Community Honesty Circles programs targeted at changing money narratives, empower the community through teaching FER Skills, with entrepreneurship  and bringing interventions like Wealthbeing counseling as an aftercare. We also have opportunities to work with customers from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Our communities get to gather and meet each other from the different region when they attend our programmes, since everything has been pivoted online. 

• Improve literacy, numeracy, and social emotional learning milestones while supporting a diverse range of learning pace and styles => We empower and equip young people and families with POWER Skills that will equip them for life and set them up to live a flourishing life. 

• Strengthen delivery of STEM and 21st century skills for learners to effectively build work readiness => The learning of 21st century skills has a generational impact on the families and the next generation when they manage their finances and emotional aspects of money well. Societies will be impacted with good management and resiliency. 

• Support educators, school leaders, and other system stakeholders including through adaptive learning management systems, too personalized instruction, and access to professional development and training opportunities. => Educators have access to our materials, and we are also educating teachers in the institutions, alongside that training coaches into the space to be able to deal with money trauma and money challenges on a personalised basis through our wealthbeing program. 

• Equip teachers, parents, and other stakeholders within the education ecosystem with the digital literacy and confidence needed to engage meaningfully with edtech and enable capacity-building. => Our stakeholders use our technology systems to manage the educational content, learn and execute the lessons as well. 

Audrey founded PlayMoolah, one of the pioneering social enterprises here in Singapore with a mission to enable positive financial emotional resilience for a flourishing life. 

Our work at PlayMoolah has shown us that it’s the combination of building the Financial-Emotional  resilience muscle that will enable us to practice sustained behavioral change. Imagine yourself at the gym, training this muscle, recognizing that you have the ability, strength to transform your situation where money intersects the many areas of life, relationships, vocational choices and even our future self.

The Path Forward

We aim to equip young people and families with the foundation skills in managing their emotions and this includes the following: emotional literacy, flexible thinking, self-compassion, tolerating discomfort associated with delay gratification, making sound decision making based on intention rather than emotions and values identification. At the same time, equip our young people with the habits of mind, mental models to develop skills to practice self control, practical strategies to make good decisions and have productive money conversations. 

These are skills that one can learn and master so that when unexpected challenges arise, they will have the financial-emotional resilience to keep moving towards their goals.

WIth stronger financial-emotional resilience we can live emotionally sober, free and dignified lives that we are called to live. To put money in its place and really start living the best and flourishing life! 

We have tested and have worked with more than 100,000 people but are launching new products in the region as well to create greater impact. 

We have gaming models we use, alongside our learning platform and community blog that we use to engage our learners. 

Independent SROI Report

https://drive.google.com/file/...

•  This is with regards to the money narrative testimonials for Short-Term Outcome 2 submitted in the Logic Model. 

• We track the changes of practice of habits of minds and emotional regulation around money challenges. Responses can be in the form of testimonials, videos, short stories or comments.

• The logic model has the key aspects 

• We are also engaging the academic space to do independent study and tests of our impact assessment of our programs 

• Wealthbeing coaching also has a test in the change of financial behavior and trauma post counselling. Our counsellors has a baseline that tracks this 

Our goals to reach another 500,000 people in the next 5 years. Scaling up and replicating through working closely with the community partners, and corporates (Financials, educational, governmental institutions).  

Affiliate models are a key scaling point for us to allow people to earn an income from the sale of our products and services in the market.

Financing that will support resourcing capabilities, access to governments and institutions (financial and educational).

Network, bring on new board members and fundraise at some point. 

In 2008, while Audrey was on her undergraduate studies at NUS, she was on an exchange programme to work in a Silicon Valley startup. It was during the height of the 2007-2008 worst global financial crisis and recession of her generation. Many families, including her friends, were struggling financially. She saw what a drastic effect the economic collapse had on the everyday lives of people around the world.  It got her into thinking about where the root of these financial problems were, and realized how important it was for everyone to have a basic understanding of money management, right from their first allowance.  The idea to start PlayMoolah.com was born to address the gap in financial knowledge and positive behavior change.

The company started as an online platform focusing on children aged 6-12 years to interact and play on, while learning about ways to manage money. This specific target group are old enough to be conscious of decision-making, yet young enough to internalize these lessons quickly to affect life-long habits. 

Since 2010, PlayMoolah has been one of the pioneering social enterprises in Singapore with a mission to enable positive financial emotional resilience for a flourishing life. The company has developed its suite of IP across a mix of media, from technology tools to digital and in-person programs to serve its customers that include education institutions, financial institutions, corporates, governments and community organizations.  PlayMoolah’s products have impacted over 100,000 locally and globally.

We have a core team of 9 - each from a diverse field of expertise ranging from educators, technologists, psychologists, curriculum developers, and entrepreneurs. Recently, we onboarded 4 trainers and coaches to facilitate and host PlayMoolah programs and will be adding 5 more before November 2021 ends.

Audrey has been on a sabbatical from PlayMoolah from 2016-2020. And has returned to the business to helm the leadership at the start of the pandemic since. 

Diverse team of indviduals who have been trained in different fields https://www.playmoolah.com/abo...

Team 

• Bringing on Geraldine Wee, who has a decade of experience in experiential education and strategy. She leads the education division within the team and acts also as our strategic thinker for the business. 

• Winifred, Nicholas and Dr John are trained in the field of psychology, creative arts and data science respectively. Our team of experts are part time collaborators with us and have been instrumental in renewing the vision of the business 

• Chloe Kwek, a junior staff member who was an intern with us for 6 months and has chosen to delay University, to work with us at PlayMoolah. Being passionate about mental and emotional wellbeing in young people.

• Strong administrative staff Grace who is from the Philippines adding to our diversity and impact 

• Coaches from Kommunity Ventures who are assisting us with organisational and product transformation 

2019, was about the time that PlayMoolah came back operationally. Audrey aimed to transform the organization. Her experience in the space of impact tracking, working with social entrepreneurs taught her also about the need for greater sobriety around Financial-emotional resilience. Working with the renewed team of psychologists, creatives and educators at PlayMoolah taught Audrey that we needed to re-look the role of emotions, resilience in the context of our financial decisions. The recent Covid-19 pandemic was really a big trigger that accelerated the work that the company is doing, with the need of interventions in the financial, emotional, mental health space. The work we have been doing with the team on Cognitive Emotional regulation is the key when we make decisions each time.

1. NYC - National Youth Council Singapore, Government Agency. Rolling our programs to the local institutions and corporates 

2. Financial Institutions - Such as Eastspring 2021, UOB Bank in 2020

3. EO - Entrepreneurs Organisation Indonesia, we did programs for their children and youths 

4. Universities - To be announced 

5. Fin-Tech companies - Heritance, Inheritance planning and legacy planning application in Singapore

To obtain the support with financing, 

n addition to funding, each Challenge winner will participate in a ten-month tailored support program run by MIT Solve and the Octava Foundation that will include: 

• A comprehensive needs assessment to determine what resources and support are most appropriate in order to accelerate your impact

• Access to a network of resource partners, mentors,  and coaches across industries and sectors

• Learning and development modules aimed at refining your business model, theory of change, and plans for scaling

• Invitation to participate in Solve’s annual flagship Solve at MIT event (held in May each year)

mentoring, opening doors with the right networks for our growth stage and breaking into the region beyond Singapore. 

Will directly impact our bottom line, impacting revenue, financial viability and the lives we will reach.