How Animal Crossing Tricks You Into Financial Literacy

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is here to trick you financial literacy. Relax on your very own tropical island. Plant tons of flowers. Own a house! Plus, through all of this fun, learn how to escape the fate (in real life or IRL) of becoming an indentured servant to your credit card company.

Here in the US, there aren’t any “nudges” from schools, popular media, or acceptable social situations to teach financial literacy. (Although there are enough get-rich-quick schemes to fill a lifetime.)

If you have the extreme good fortune to be born into a family with financial skills, you can learn from your parents. If you’re quasi-lucky enough to have a math teacher touch on the magic of compound interest, you might realize that turning money into more money sounds like a good plan. It is.

More likely, neither of those happened. Meaning the average American household has $6,591 in revolving credit card debt. That means the average family pays an extra $1,162 in interest on that debt each year.

No worries, Tom Nook has you covered.

A quick note here: If you are unfamiliar with the series, Animal Crossing uses “bells” as currency. Tom Nook & sons are raccoon entrepreneur bellionaires who monopolize trade on the island.