A Sensible Start
The Sensible Simulation began in the spring of 2021. I was finishing my first year of teaching personal finance and it had not been as effective as I wanted it to be. I was trying to come up with a way for students to have a more meaningful understanding of money and its significance in our daily lives. At the same time, my son was taking swimming lessons. His swimming instructor was trying to wrangle a bunch of little kids to get them ready for a lesson one day. She told them, “it’s nearly impossible to learn how to swim without getting into the water.” She meant it as a way to calm down a couple of the kids who were crying on the side of the pool. However, it struck me as a far more impactful life lesson in how we all learn - by doing. This led to the first iteration of the simulation that gave students money to manage. It’s gone through several revisions and updates since then. However, the goal remains the same - allow students to earn, save, invest and even gamble their own money so they learn how to best manage it in the future!
Our Mission
We want to provide all students the opportunity to interact with finances in a low-stakes environment where they can fail, learn, and grow into skilled money managers.
Meet the CEO
My name is Tyler Killen. I was born and raised in Kirksville, Missouri. I have lived and worked in several different areas around the state. Kristen (my wife) and I moved to the Springfield, Missouri, area in 2019 for her job. As a teacher, my favorite season is always Summer! We have two children in school, so I really enjoy being able to spend more time with them as well. I'm also a huge sports fan and try to catch as many baseball and football games as possible every year.
I worked in several industries prior to education. Early in my career I was at a startup software company that had a wonderful mission to help train underemployed rural workers in IT. During my tenure there, I also served on an employee assistance team. Employees could apply for financial assistance and this team had to decide how to distribute funds. It was in this role that I discovered how pervasive improvidence was in the company, and throughout our culture in general. Almost three quarters of the company applied for assistance, including a bunch of my superiors. When talking to all of those who had applied, most weren’t throwing money away frivolously. They simply didn’t understand a lot of the basics and how quickly debt can escalate. That role also showed me that financial responsibility had little to do with how much one had in their bank account. So, I started taking classes to become a high school business teacher, specifically to teach personal finance. I never wanted to see more people end up in that position.