Kayden Samuel, a 17-year-old senior at Forest Grove High School in Oregon, has independently developed a free personal finance app called MontoEdu that is now used by more than 5,000 people across over 10 countries. The app provides beginner-friendly lessons on budgeting, saving, credit, and investing, with over 40 lessons available and progress tracking so users can learn at their own pace. Its significance is heightened by two converging trends: Oregon's 2023 law requiring high school students to complete a half-credit personal-finance course starting with the class of 2027—Samuel's own graduating class—and persistently low financial literacy among adults.
The need for such a tool is stark. The FINRA Investor Education Foundation's April 2025 survey of more than 25,000 adults found that only 27% correctly answered at least five of seven financial-literacy questions, a figure largely unchanged since 2021. That means nearly three in four adults struggled with topics like interest rates and inflation. While Oregon's new requirement will eventually help students, most adults have already finished school and remain underserved. Samuel built MontoEdu for both audiences. "A lot of people don't realize how much they don't know about money until they're actually making financial decisions," Samuel said. "By then, even a small mistake can end up costing them."
Beyond basic lessons, MontoEdu includes savings, interest, and loan calculators, a stock market game for practicing trades with fake money, and full multilingual support with a built-in translation tool. That accessibility matters for users who are more comfortable in another language or don't speak English at all. One user, Aditi Sharma of Massachusetts, completed the budgeting lessons, reviewed her monthly expenses, canceled two underused subscriptions, and redirected $20 per month into the savings calculator to grow her emergency fund—illustrating the app's practical impact.
Samuel plans to keep adding lessons through his final year of high school and intends for MontoEdu, available at montoedu.com, to always remain free. "It's great to see how many people are using the platform, but what matters most to me is whether they're actually learning something they can use," Samuel said. "Even if someone just learns how to avoid a credit card fee or make a better budget, that's something that can help them for years."
The app's early traction and Samuel's commitment to free access underscore a broader implication: as financial decisions grow more complex, tools that democratize money skills—especially for young people and non-English speakers—can fill gaps that formal education alone may take years to address.
