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. The app provides over 40 beginner lessons on topics such as budgeting, saving, credit, and investing, with progress-saving features so users can learn at their own pace. Samuel created the app for individuals managing money for the first time, including teens with their first paycheck and adults who were never taught financial basics.
The timing of Samuel's project is significant: Oregon lawmakers passed a law in 2023 requiring high school students to complete a half-credit personal-finance course for graduation, starting with Samuel's class, the class of 2027. However, most adults never faced such a requirement. According to the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, which tested more than 25,000 adults on financial literacy in April 2025, only 27% answered at least five of seven questions correctly—a figure largely unchanged since 2021. That 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 graduation requirement won't help those adults, since they have already finished school. Samuel built MontoEdu for them as well as for students, noting that many people don't realize how much they don't know about money until they're making financial decisions. "By then, even a small mistake can end up costing them," he said.
The app also addresses language barriers. Samuel made MontoEdu available in multiple languages and added a built-in translation tool, aiming to serve 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, plus 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, uncovering underused subscription services. She canceled two of them and redirected $20 per month into the savings calculator to grow her emergency fund.
Samuel plans to continue uploading lessons through his last year of high school and intends for the app, 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."
