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Champion finance students pay visit to H&R Block

By Steve Rosen, McClatchy Newspapers, Source: MCT News Service

Twins Joshua and Brian Rosenfeld won't be basking in any national championship glory that includes million-dollar endorsement deals, signing bonuses and all-expenses-paid trips to DisneyWorld.

Too bad, because the 16-year-old high school juniors from Great Neck, N.Y., are certainly deserving. Playing in simulated business and personal finance competitions, they're two-time national champions.

Joshua, the oldest by one minute, and Brian finished first this spring in the H&R Block Dollars & Sense National Challenge. The Buffalo Wings, as they called themselves, outscored 3,500 teams (including 16 teams in the final) that competed during the past school year in the Kansas City, Mo.-based tax preparation company's inaugural personal finance contest.

The online competition was open to high school members of DECA, the association formerly known as the Distributive Education Clubs of America. The organization promotes marketing, management and entrepreneurship among students and educators.

The Dollars & Sense hardware was a nice bookend to the previous school year, when the then-freshmen Rosenfeld boys finished atop another DECA national competition that involved running a sports franchise.

Late last month, the brothers visited Block's headquarters as part of their prize to spend a day shadowing company executives. Earlier, they each received $10,000 college scholarships for finishing first.

The visit with Block management, including CEO Alan Bennett, was a "really big deal," said Brian.

Quizzical and confident, the two high school juniors don't come across as competitive machines. They participate in a very active DECA program at their high school, and that, combined with a good head for numbers and an interest in the business world, helps explains some of their success. Plus, they thought the Dollars & Sense game was fun.

The national challenge was based on a software curriculum, similar to the popular "Sims" games. Teams "manage" their online person through daily activities _ work, paying bills, shopping, paying taxes _ in an effort to accumulate the most wealth. If a bill goes unpaid or health issues crop up, players risk losing net worth or see their wealth drop to zero if their online person dies.

The Buffalo Wings won the final round with a net worth of nearly $74,000, after starting the competition with $5,000. This was accomplished in about two simulated years of playing jammed into 15 minutes of real time.

What was their winning strategy?

They didn't want to give away any of their tips. But Joshua offered this advice, learned from playing the game: "You always need to have a plan with your money, and be aware that there's always something unexpected that can happen. So be prepared."

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ABOUT THE WRITER

Steve Rosen is assistant business editor at The Kansas City Star. Readers may write to him at: The Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108; e-mail: srosen@kcstar.com.

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(c) 2010, The Kansas City Star.

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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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