Life and work experience influences ‘All About the Money’ board game

By TIM ROWDEN

Editor

“It’s All About the Money.”

That’s the premise and the name of a Monopoly-like game developed by James Stubits, a former Machinist and Teamster, from Jennings, MO, who has used his life and work experience to develop the educational game for kids and adults.

Stubits was a Machinist with Lodge 1345 and worked at Missouri Pipe for 20 years before hiring on at Donovan Industrial Supply and joining Teamster Local 688. The job at Donovan dried up when the company was bought out by Ferguson Enterprises.

Lives and careers change, Stubits said, sometimes as a result of your own actions, and sometimes through events that are outside your control. That’s kind of the point of his game.

MORE REALISTIC THAN MONOPOLY

In Monopoly, every player gets $200 each time they pass “Go.”

In “It’s All About the Money,” it’s more like real life. Each player has a job with a set salary. Some make more than others, but they can move up or down in salary depending on what they do and the winds of fate. Being on top doesn’t mean you’ll stay there.

“This is more realistic,” Stubits said. “In real life, your education and training determines how much you’re worth. With this you can lose your job and get a better or a lesser one depending on which card you draw, but it’s all fun because it’s pretend.”

HOPE FOR ‘WISDOM’

For the uninitiated, a “Wisdom” card is going to be helpful, a “Booze” card, not so much.

“I got two thumbs up from the MADD mothers,” Stubits said. “They said, ‘It looks like you’re trying to do what we’re trying to do, but in a different way.’ It’s just an awareness type of thing.”

LESSONS FOR RTW

Stubits said the game even has some lessons for the fight over so-called right-to-work:

“Getting a job or giving up a job and getting something that doesn’t pay so well, not all people realize what it is to deal with that. This is putting yourself in another person’s shoes.”

Stubits has copyrighted the game and has prototypes, which he’s used to set up tournaments for kids at the Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club.

He’s trying to raise the funds to make and market about 3,000 copies of the game union-made in the United States for about $35 each delivered.

For more information, or to order your own copy of the game, visit www.itsallaboutthemoneygame.com.