Get Rich!

Card Game Origin Story

My family and I were in Quito, Ecuador, living at an orphanage in August of 2023. We were there as volunteers for the Utah-based non-profit O.S.S.O. (Orphanage Support Services Organization). My wife and I had worked with the same organization and orphanage in Quito for one year over twenty years earlier. This time we would stay for six months with our kids! In between teaching remotely for the College for Financial Planning and my wife homeschooling our kids, we helped renovate the volunteer house and served the children, especially the toddlers, in their daily routine of eating, sleeping, changing, and playing. It was a wonderful experience for our family that we will cherish forever.

One sunny afternoon, during a break, I found a few of my kids playing a popular card game that seemed to be about money and investing. I watched them play for a moment and then asked, “Are you learning anything useful about money?” One of my kids looked up, thought for a moment, and responded, “No”. And then went back to playing. It was there at that moment I thought, “I’ve worked in personal finance for over twenty years, we might be able to create a simple game that teaches a few important financial literacy principles.” And that is how the idea was born.

From there, we went to work. We framed out the structure of the game, consisting of assets, debts, income, and expenses, and how discarding combinations and risk multipliers would ingrain the core financial principles we hoped to convey. We then iterated and iterated, eventually adding rock, paper, scissors to handle the boom-and-crash cards. We even made our card game prototype in Quito by writing in pencil on torn-up pieces of paper. I remember us sitting at the kitchen table after dinner, trying different ways to play with these little pieces of paper, great memories!

After returning home in February 2024, we continued to iterate, and after a few more months, decided we had something that worked. We then worked with a graphic artist and had the first printed deck by late Spring. We started playing with friends and family, got a decent response, and even decided to tweak the rules a bit, including adding a quick-claim rule to introduce another element of engagement. However, other projects and life events took precedence, and so it sat on the shelf for a while until we went to Belize!

You Better Belize It!

In the winter of 2025, my wife and I were exploring other possible humanitarian opportunities. After attending a work conference, I met a presenter who was originally from Belize and returned often to teach financial literacy. I wanted to work with him on a project, possibly, but nothing ever materialized. However, my wife and I continued to explore service opportunities in Belize and decided to focus on Dangriga Town.

Through networking, we found an opportunity to help the Sacred Heart Elementary School repair its computer lab roof, which had been out of service for nearly four years. Through Rotary eClub One, District 5450 (my Rotary club) and the Rotary club of Dangriga, District 4250, we began raising money for the project. In December 2025, my family and I packed our bags along with one deck of Get Rich! and went to Belize. While we helped with the Sacred Heart roof and other service projects in Dangriga, I still wanted to see if I could contribute to a financial literacy project. I decided to visit the Ecumenical Junior College in town.

After a wonderful meeting with the Dean of the college, Karen Martinez, I began meeting with a group of faculty to support their interest in personal finance and in empowering students to make better financial decisions. During one of our weekly meetings, I asked them what they would like to talk about. I rattled off a few ideas, including playing a financial literacy card game I had brought from home. Everyone was interested in the game, so I pulled it out. We had a good time playing, and at the end, Dean Martinez said, “We need to hold an assembly and demonstrate this game to the students”. I agreed.

A few students were selected for me to work with. We met a few times to review the game mechanics and play a few rounds. On the day of the assembly. I spent some time explaining each card and some of the strategy. We then had the group of trained students come to the front and play a round of the game while it was projected onto the screen at the front of the class. The demonstration was a success, and students were interested in playing it themselves. Dean Martinez texted me afterward, saying that many others were interested in playing and wanted to know how to get copies. After discussing the number of students and future needs for a few minutes, we decided a few hundred copies would be a good starting point. I told her I didn’t have any copies but would find a way to raise the capital. A few weeks later, our stay in Belize ended, and we returned home.

A Rotarian's Dream and Students Play

After returning home a few months ago in the middle of March 2026, I began brainstorming ways to create a sustainable card game business that would also provide opportunities for humanitarian service. I knew if I could get Dean Karen Martinez and her students, a few hundred decks of Get Rich! I could replicate this for other students, too.

Interestingly, earlier in my career, I was a member of the Pocatello Rotary Club, District 5400, and we supported the hugely successful Dictionary Project. I remember delivering boxes of dictionaries to elementary schools in our city. We would give every 3rd grader in the class their very own dictionary to take home to promote reading and learning. I now imagine a similar project with our financial literacy card game, where, for example, every 8th grader gets a deck of Get Rich! Financial Literacy Cards to take home after learning how to play it with their teacher or local Rotarians.

Their own copy would help solidify these financial literacy concepts as they teach other family members to play…it is a dream, but a worthwhile endeavor…I’m excited to pursue. Recently, I met with an economics teacher and his high school class, and we played three rounds of Get Rich! In this preliminary survey, the pre- and post-survey responses were overwhelmingly positive. This anecdotal evidence was inspiring and gives me the determination to see this financial literacy project turn into a reality and open the door for future financial literacy humanitarian projects.