Kayden Samuel, a 17-year-old senior at Forest Grove High School in Oregon, has developed a free personal finance app called MontoEdu that is now used by more than 5,000 people across over 10 countries. The app, created independently by Samuel, offers over 40 beginner lessons on topics ranging from budgeting and saving to credit and investing. It saves each user’s progress, allowing them to work through the material at their own pace. MontoEdu is available at montoedu.com.
The significance of Samuel’s initiative is underscored by broader financial literacy challenges. Oregon lawmakers passed a law in 2023 requiring high school students to complete a half-credit personal-finance course for graduation, beginning with Samuel’s class, the class of 2027. However, most adults never faced such a requirement. The FINRA Investor Education Foundation tested more than 25,000 adults on financial-literacy questions, and its results, released in April 2025, found that only 27% answered at least five of seven correctly—largely unchanged since the previous survey in 2021. This means nearly three out of four adults failed to answer at least three questions correctly about topics like interest rates and inflation.
Oregon’s new requirement won’t help adults who have already finished school, so Samuel built MontoEdu for them as well as for students. “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.” The app is designed for individuals managing their own money for the first time, such as a teen with a first paycheck or an adult who was never taught the basics.
Samuel also made the entire app available in other languages and added a built-in translation tool for people who are more comfortable in another language or who don’t speak English at all. The app includes calculators for savings, interest and loans, and a stock market game where users can practice trading with fake money. One user, Aditi Sharma of Massachusetts, completed the budgeting lessons and then reviewed her own monthly expenses. She uncovered several underused subscription services and canceled two of them, then put another $20 per month into the savings calculator to see how much she could grow her emergency fund.
The implications of MontoEdu extend beyond individual users. With financial literacy remaining low among adults and many students graduating without basic money management skills, Samuel’s free tool offers a scalable, accessible solution. It could help bridge the gap for those who missed formal education on personal finance, potentially reducing costly financial mistakes. Samuel plans to continue uploading lessons through his last year of high school, and he intends for MontoEdu 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.”
