Recently, I tried a small experiment with my colleagues and friends. What made it special for me was not just the idea, but the way everyone participated — with openness, curiosity, and a willingness to try something new. For 15 minutes, I put them into a simulation where they had to make financial decisions under pressure. Time was running out, oxygen levels were dropping, temperature was rising, and the only way to “escape” was to solve a set of real-life financial challenges.
What I truly appreciated was how everyone got involved. There was curiosity, some nervous laughter, quick decisions, second thoughts, and a lot of genuine engagement. It didn’t feel like a session or an activity. It felt like a shared experience. And more importantly, it gave me the confidence that this idea is worth exploring further, especially because of the thoughtful feedback I received from all of them.
🔗 You can try the simulation here: Mission: Financial Freedom — Money Vichara
Watching this unfold made me reflect on something we often overlook. We teach finance quite effectively in classrooms. Students understand concepts, they learn frameworks, and they can explain ideas well. But when real-life situations arise, the same clarity is not always visible. The issue is not lack of knowledge. The issue is that financial decisions in real life are rarely made in calm, structured environments. They are made under pressure, with incomplete information, and often influenced by emotions and habits.
That is the gap I have been trying to explore through this small initiative called Mission: Financial Freedom. Instead of adding more content or complexity, the idea was to create a space where people could experience decision-making. The structure is simple — fifteen minutes, fifteen situations, and a requirement to solve at least ten. But within that simplicity lies the attempt to recreate the kind of choices we face in everyday financial life.
As participants move through the simulation, they encounter situations related to protection, cash flow, investing, portfolio management, and financial continuity. These are not presented as chapters or topics, but as decisions that need to be made. For example, before thinking about returns, one has to confront the importance of having a financial safety net. Emergency funds and insurance, which often feel like routine advice, start to feel meaningful when placed in a decision context. Similarly, budgeting is no longer about fixed percentages, but about prioritisation. Investing shifts from being about selecting products to understanding why a particular choice makes sense. Portfolio concepts such as diversification and rebalancing begin to feel less theoretical and more like ongoing responsibilities. Even documentation, which many of us tend to ignore, emerges as an important aspect of ensuring that financial plans remain effective beyond one’s presence.
What this experiment reinforced for me is that learning finance through experience creates a very different kind of engagement. When people are placed in situations where they have to act, even in a simulated environment, they begin to connect ideas more naturally. They start seeing relationships between concepts, understanding consequences, and, perhaps most importantly, recognising their own thinking patterns. This is something that is difficult to achieve through traditional methods alone.
🔗 You can try the simulation here: Mission: Financial Freedom — Money Vichara
In the Indian context, this becomes even more relevant. A large part of financial learning happens informally, through conversations, suggestions, and fragmented advice. Many people are also not always comfortable engaging with technical language or dense explanations. In such a scenario, a simulation-based approach offers a simple but meaningful alternative. It allows people to engage with financial ideas in a practical way and build confidence through participation rather than memorisation.
This tool is still evolving, and I see it as a work in progress. But this initial experiment has been encouraging. It can be used in classrooms to complement teaching, in workshops to create interaction, or even individually as a way to reflect on one’s own financial thinking.
If you have some time, I would genuinely encourage you to try the simulation yourself. Spend fifteen minutes with it — not just as a game, but as a way to observe how you think and decide. You may find that it brings out insights that are difficult to get through reading or discussion alone.
I would also really appreciate your feedback. What worked for you, what felt unclear, and what can be improved — all of this will help in refining the experience further. The idea is not just to build a tool, but to explore how we can make financial learning more practical, engaging, and relevant.
At the end of the day, understanding money is important. But the ability to make decisions about money — especially in uncertain situations — is what truly makes the difference.
🔗 You can try the simulation here: Mission: Financial Freedom — Money Vichara
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