Twine Town is a life you build while you work through your Personal Finance course. Every section you finish counts as a week of work, and you get paid in Twine dollars (T$). Then it's up to you: where you live, how you get to work, how much you save, and what happens when life gets expensive. Your choices show up in your quality-of-life score.
Good to know: Twine Town comes with the Personal Finance Core Foundations (3e) course. If your class uses that course, you'll see Twine Town in your sidebar, right under Simulators. If you open it and see "Twine Town isn't open yet", it hasn't been turned on for your class. Ask your teacher.
How you earn money
You don't earn money by clicking around town. You earn it by doing the course.
Each section you finish is one week of work. A section counts once you've finished all of its lessons and its quiz.
Payday comes every two sections. Your paycheck lands in checking.
Bills are due every four sections, at the end of each month in town.
Score 80% or better on a quiz on your first try and you get a T$25 bonus for that section. You only get it once per section.
You get raises as you move further through the course.
When you finish a quiz, a strip at the bottom of the finish screen tells you when your shift is logged and when payday is. The Twine Town tile on your dashboard shows the same kind of thing.
The next time you open Twine Town after doing some sections, you'll see a summary called While you were in the course. It lists what each shift paid, anything new that opened, and your bills if a month ended. Click Continue to get to your town.
Your Twine Town page
Week and month. Next to the title, so you always know where you are.
Up next. The next section to do in the course, how many sections until payday and bills, and a Go to section button that takes you straight there.
Quality of life. Your score out of 100, how much it has changed since you started, and the five scores behind it.
Your wallet. Your Checking and Savings, anything you Owed on a card or payment plan, and how much is Left each month after your bills.
The map. Your town, laid out along one road.
Recent activity and Your class (the class leaderboard), further down.
Your quality of life
Your quality-of-life score is made from five parts:
Home: how nice your place is.
Ride: how you get to work. A car scores higher than the bus.
Security: how much you have in savings, plus your health coverage.
Freedom: how much money you have left over each month, minus anything you owe.
Fun: your monthly fun money.
Here's the catch: almost everything that raises one score costs money every month, which lowers your Freedom. A bigger apartment feels great until it eats your whole paycheck. Money sitting in checking doesn't raise your score by itself, so think about what your pay is for.
The map, the road and your ride
Your home is the first stop on the road. After it come the places in town, in the order your course opens them. The gold twine runs along the road as far as the places you can visit. Past that, the road is still being built and the lots are fenced off. Tap or click a fenced lot to see what opens it, like "Opens after 2.10".
Your ride waits by your home. It's a bus until you buy a car. Point at, tap or click a place and your ride drives down the road to it. Then the place opens so you can make choices.
The Brokerage lot is on the map too, but it's coming in a later release, so you can't open it yet.
The places in town
Bank. See your checking and savings, and move money between them. Later in the course, you can turn on automatic savings so some of every paycheck goes straight to savings. Savings earns a little interest.
Housing office. Pick where you live: the Family home, a shared apartment, a studio or a 1-bedroom. Click Move here to move. Moving out of the family home costs a security deposit plus movers, paid from checking. You get the deposit back when you move out. A common guideline is to keep rent at or below 30% of your gross pay, and the rentals show what share of your pay they would take.
Car lot. Keep your Bus pass or buy a Used 2017 hatchback with Buy it. A car needs a down payment, a monthly loan payment, gas and insurance, so it costs a lot more each month than the bus. You can sell it later.
Shops. Choose how much fun money you spend each month, from nothing extra up to the top amount.
Credit. Opens partway through the course. See your card balance and make payments with Pay it all or a set amount. Interest gets added every month, so paying only the minimum keeps debt around for a long time.
Insurance office. Opens partway through the course. Pick a health plan and, if you own a car, choose car coverage. Each option tells you what it costs each month and what you'd pay if something went wrong.
Bills and the end of the month
Every four sections, a month ends and your bills come out of checking. That includes rent (or your family contribution), groceries, your phone, how you get to work, fun money, insurance and any card payment. If there isn't enough in checking to cover them, the bank charges an overdraft fee. Keep enough in checking for next month, and move money from savings first if you're running low.
When something unexpected happens
Life in Twine Town can surprise you. If something happens that costs you money, a screen pops up and asks how you'll pay. Each choice shows what it costs you now and later. You have to pick one before you can do anything else in town, and the choice you make stays with you, so read the options carefully.
Checkpoints from your teacher
Your teacher might give you goals in your town, like turning on automatic savings or moving into your own place. They show at the top of your Twine Town page under From your teacher, with a due date and a button that takes you to the right place, like Open the Bank or Find a place.
A checkpoint is marked done automatically as soon as your town meets the goal. You don't have to press anything.
Once it's done, it stays done, even if you change things later.
Not open yet means you haven't reached the part of the course that opens it.
Past due means the due date has passed. You can still do it, but it's late.
The class leaderboard
Your class ranks you and your classmates by quality of life, not by money. It shows first names and last initials only, and only classmates who have opened Twine Town. You'll see the top 10, and your own row is always shown and highlighted. Classmates can't see inside your town, but your teacher can.
Your life report
When you've finished every section of the course, the Up next card changes to See your life report. It shows how your quality of life changed, your net worth, a summary of how you handled money, and every big decision you made, week by week.
Tips
Before you move, check how much each home leaves you each month. If it's close to zero, one surprise can put you in debt.
Build some savings early. It raises your Security score and gives you a cushion.
Do well on quizzes the first time. That bonus adds up over a whole course.
Check the Bank before each month ends so your bills don't overdraw checking.
Common questions
I finished a section but didn't get paid. Why?
A section only counts when all of its lessons and its quiz are finished. Go back and check for a lesson you skipped.
Can I start over?
Not by yourself. If you really need a fresh start, ask your teacher. They can reset your town.
I'm in two classes that use this course. Which town is this?
You have a separate town for each class. Use the Class menu at the top of the Twine Town page to switch.
Does Twine Town count toward my grade?
Only if your teacher assigns checkpoints. Everything else in town is there for you to learn from.
Is this real money?
No. Twine dollars are pretend, and the prices and pay are simplified examples.