How to Use Fortnite V-Bucks to Teach Your Kids About Money

Kids who play Fortnite don’t want allowance anymore, they just want Fortnite V-Bucks. If you have kids and haven’t heard of Fortnite, consider yourself lucky. It’s the most popular video game in the world right now (I’m not exaggerating).

It’s basically a survival game. Think about Hunger Games but not so gory. The game usually starts out with 100 people in this virtual world and there can only be one left standing. You have to get kills, hide, and collect materials to create your own forts to protect yourself from attacks.

Sometimes you can play by yourself as a solo game, or you can play with one other person or in a squad of 2-3 people.

Before people start telling me how bad video games are, please save it. I choose to let my son play videos games in moderation because I did the same thing as a kid and turned out just fine.

My older sister and I would spend some of our free time playing games like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Tekken, Mortal Combat, etc. growing up and we had a blast.

It’s important to me to be aware of what my child is playing and who he’s interacting with since you can play games online with other people now. He’s only allowed to play with kids from school or kids who we know personally from other activities.

Plus, video games don’t dominate his free time and we’re able to discuss what’s real and what’s not. That said, Fortnite is a free game and which is why I feel it’s risen in popularity so quickly.

 

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However, there are certain added features you can purchase and that’s how they REALLY make their money.

According to CNBC, the game is projected to make $3.5 billion this year. If you want to buy something in the game, one of the easiest ways to do it is with V-Bucks.

What Are Fortnite V-Bucks?

V-Bucks is short for Vindertech Bucks which is basically in-game currency that you can use for Fortnite and other games. I swear for the longest time, I thought my son was saying B-Bucks so I started calling them that.

To my embarrassment, I was corrected eventually. V as in Victor 🙂

With Fortnite V-Bucks, you can buy skins to dress your character up with different outfits, purchase dances, materials and a monthly Battle Pass which allows you to earn even more V-Bucks.

I may have mentioned before how I chose to give my son a small allowance that is earned each month in order to teach him how to manage money. To my surprise, he started asking me to take him straight to Game Stop so he could buy a $10 PlayStation 4 card and redeem it for V-Bucks.

Now, I made it clear that I’m not going to be going broke and buying Fortnite V-Bucks every week, but I do feel like this virtual currency is a great way to teach kids more about money in a modern way.

Here’s how I’m using Fortnite V-Bucks to teach my son about personal finance.

Set a Budget, Avoiding Autodrafts

One thing parents can do is set a budget if they’re going to reward their kids with V-Bucks. If you only want to spend $5 – $10 on the game currency per month, communicate that with your child. As a result, they’ll learn how to work with what they have and save some of their V-Bucks from month-to-month if needed.

Personally, I don’t put my card on the account because I don’t want my son spending money on the game knowingly or unknowingly. I’ve heard too many stories of parents who find their kids spending hundreds or thousands on V-Bucks and that just blows my mind.

As a parent, you have to be responsible and aware of what your kids are doing and what’s going on with your bank account. I’d much rather go to the store and buy a PlayStation card that can be redeemed on the system for Fortnite V-Bucks. That way, we’re only spending the money we have and not overspending or going into a deficit for auto drafts.

As a result, my son knows that V-Bucks are a fun extra that isn’t guaranteed every month and isn’t going to dominate our budget because there are plenty of other things to pay for.

Explore Hacks to Save Money

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Saving money is such an important skill and habit to have. It’s best to help kids learn the value of money and the benefits that come with saving it early on. Using V-Bucks is fun way to reinforce the importance of saving money and getting more bang for your buck.

I use V-Bucks to teach my son about saving money in two ways. The first way is to literally save his Fortnite V-Bucks for future use and I’ll talk more about this in the next point. The next is to actually save money by getting V-Bucks for free or at a discounted price. Here are a few ways to do that.

1. You can earn free V-Bucks by playing certain versions of the game, like Battle Royale.
2. You can also purchase a version called Save The World for $40 which gives you V-Bucks and allows you to earn tons more for free as you play the game. We haven’t purchased Save the World yet but my brother saved up his allowance to get it a few months ago and it’s been interesting to watch.
3. The Battle Pass is something we’ve purchased for $10. It lasts 60 days and allows players to complete challenges throughout the game that take them to higher tiers. There are 100 tiers to reach for each battle pass and you’ll earn more V-Bucks and prizes as you climb up the ladder.
4. Another way to get free V-Bucks is to simply play the free game. You’ll earn them at a much lower rate but as you work your way through the main story, you’ll unlock Storm Shield Defenses. These always reward you with 100 V-Bucks and you can continue to use them to earn more.
5. During the game, there are early quests which you can complete to unlock challenges that each offer 50 V-Bucks rewards.
6. When you buy V-Bucks through the game, you can often earn bonus V-Bucks similar to cash back. For example, buying 500 V-Bucks may cost $4.99 and you’ll earn 100 V-Bucks bonus.
7. Finally, you can use sites like PointsPrizes to earn points for completing surveys and other offers. Once you accumulate enough points, you can redeem them for a PaySafeCard or cash via PayPal which can be used to purchase V-Bucks. PointsPrizes does have age restrictions but my favorite rewards sites are Swagbucks and Rakuten. I know Swagbucks is good to use so long as your 13-years old so it can be a great way for your teenagers to earn their own V-Bucks.

Practice Delayed Gratification

Once your kids know that V-Bucks are a limited want and not a need, they can start to practice delayed gratification and may even start saving some V-Bucks up long-term for a bigger reward.

The other day, my son was playing and asked me if it would be a good idea to buy tiers with his remaining V-Bucks. Since you can earn more tiers by just playing the game, I advised him to save his V-Bucks for something else he really wanted.

There’s an item shop in the game that debuts new skins, dances, and accessories every few days. If kids really want a particular item, it’s best they hold onto their Fortnite V-Bucks and wait to get it.

If they don’t have enough V-Bucks at the time, they can practice delayed gratification by saving up what they have and trying to earn more over time.

 

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m not a huge fan of the game but I’m at the point where if you can’t beat them, join them. There were plenty of fads that made up my childhood but this game is making history given its growing popularity.

I probably wouldn’t be talking about it here if it weren’t so huge. It’s basically like Facebook for gamer kids.

If parents are going to let their kids play Fornite, the best thing they can do is use it as a tool to teach them about money and other life lessons.

Now, I’d love to hear from you. Do you even know what Fornite is and do your kids play it? Do you have a love-hate relationship with the game like I do?