Money Management Simulator

About the Money Management exercise

Everyday money asks a lot: picking the right coins from a handful at the checkout, checking that the change is right, reading a utility bill to find what is due and when, and deciding what to do when a caller demands payment. After a stroke or brain injury, or with memory and attention changes, each of those steps can take longer and carry more risk of a slip.

The Money Management Simulator is a structured practice and observation activity rather than a quick exercise. It plays like a counting money game for adults, built around real everyday tasks. A clinician starts a session and hands over the tablet; the client works through about 25 minutes of money tasks with practice currency on screen: finding coins and bills, counting out amounts, paying and checking change, reading a bill, and everyday money decisions. Every action becomes an observation record.

What Money Management practices

Money recognition

Telling the 13 U.S. coins and bills apart on a board laid out in no particular order, from the one cent coin to the hundred dollar bill.

Counting and calculation

Building an amount such as $13.50 or $170.00 from a wallet with no running total shown, and recognizing when a wallet cannot make an amount exactly.

Transaction judgment

Paying a total exactly when the wallet allows, paying over when it does not, and checking the change handed back, including one purchase where the cashier returns too much.

Reading and reasoning

Finding the total, the due date, the delivery charge, and the late fee on a utility statement, and choosing the safer option in scenarios such as a gift card scam call.

How the tool works and what it records

Two switches set up a session: a distraction, and audio narration with the text always shown. After a short tap practice, the client finds ten named pieces on a board of all 13 U.S. coins and bills. Counting follows: five amounts from $3.30 to $170.00, each with its own wallet; pieces move to a tray by tap and back by tap, no total is shown, an I can't make this amount exactly button appears on every trial, and $21.75 is deliberately unmakeable. A text message arrives 90 seconds into the counting when the distraction is on. Then four purchases from one wallet, $17.25 to $94.75: handing over too little makes the cashier restate the total; paying over brings a change screen and the question whether the change is right, and the hardware store hands back five dollars too much. A fictional electricity statement stays on screen under six questions, and seven money decisions close the activity, with no time limit and no feedback anywhere.

The clinician toolbar logs cues (encouraged, hinted, told, showed or pointed, did it for them), notes, pauses, and skips. The observation record states counts only: identification, bill, and decision answers that differed from the expected option, tray totals that differed from the amount asked, an unmakeable amount handed over or a makeable one marked as not possible, underpayments and paying over when exact was possible, change checks, cues, self-corrections, replays, the interruption response, timing by phase with pauses over 20 seconds, and a full timeline. One session a month is free; Pro adds unlimited sessions, the observation record, and PDF export.

Screen or paper?

The screen suits sessions where the record matters: every tap is timed and saved, the interruption arrives on its own, the cashier responds to an underpayment, and nothing has to be counted by hand afterward. The physical kit suits handling coins and bills at a table, sessions without a device, and people for whom the weight and size of money in the hand is part of the practice.

The printable version is the Money Management Kit on rehabworksheets.com, and there is a money and medication guide to try first, with no email required.

Using it well

• Keep both switches on the first time. Narration with text and the text-message interruption give the fullest record. Turn narration off for a client who reads faster than they listen, and the distraction off when the goal is a calm baseline of counting alone.
• Read the difference column first. The counting section shows the amount asked for, what was handed over piece by piece, and the difference. The $21.75 trial cannot be made from its wallet, so the record notes whether it was handed over anyway or marked as not possible.
• Let underpayments play out. When too little is handed over, the cashier simply restates the total and the purchase stays open, and every attempt is counted. Resist stepping in; log a cue from the toolbar instead so the support shows in the record.
• Adapt for hand or speech difficulties. Everything is a tap on a large piece or button; there is no dragging and no speech. Each piece carries its name for screen readers, narration can be replayed, and a partner can point while the client confirms with Next.

Common questions