Teen's Free Finance App MontoEdu Hits 5,000 Users in 10 Countries

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 in over 10 countries. Created for individuals managing money for the first time—such as teens receiving their first paycheck or adults who never learned the basics—the app offers over 40 beginner lessons covering budgeting, saving, credit, and investing. Each user’s progress is saved, allowing them to work through the material at their own pace. Samuel was motivated by the fact that many students graduate without knowing how to manage their own money, and he wanted to make financial education accessible to anyone, regardless of background.

The app also addresses a broader financial literacy gap. 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 of 2027. However, most adults never had that requirement. A 2025 FINRA Investor Education Foundation survey of more than 25,000 adults found that only 27% answered at least five of seven financial-literacy questions correctly—a figure largely unchanged since 2021. To serve these adults as well as students, Samuel built MontoEdu with features like calculators for savings, interest, and loans, a stock market game using fake money, and full availability in other languages with a built-in translation tool. One user, Aditi Sharma of Massachusetts, used the budgeting lessons to identify and cancel underused subscriptions, then used the savings calculator to plan her emergency fund. 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.