Congress has set aside a whole month for financial literacy—April, each year since 2004—but obviously, people should work on their money smarts across the whole calendar.
Most important to us, however, are certain topics that don’t just make a huge impact on people’s lives, but that are under-taught in schools and at home.
The Tea: One such topic is investing, especially among teens. Indeed, there is a wide gap—a chasm, even!—between interest (which is high) and education (which is lacking).
YATI Tip: Looking to improve your financial life? Start with these 23 personal finance tips.
Fidelity's latest Teens and Money Study tells us a lot about how teens are interacting with money, and much of it is positive. But one significant shortcoming is their knowledge about investing and the stock market.
It makes sense. Minors actually can't just go out and open their own brokerage account. If you want to invest as a teenager, you're going to need a parent or custodian to open the account (and in most cases, sign off on all the decisions).
Still, there's a knowledge barrier, too. According to Fidelity's study:
- 55% say "investing is too confusing."
- 47% say investing "feels out of reach" or "takes too much time/attention."
- 42% simply believe teens can't trade stocks.
- 72% say they have "no" knowledge of trading stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The desire to learn is there, though. More than 90% of the young people Fidelity surveyed who said they didn't currently invest had an interest in doing so in the future.
The Take: So, how do we get that learning process started?
For us, it's the two E's: education and experience. Some people learn by reading, some people learn by doing, and some learn with a little bit of both.
YATI Tip: You can't invest with no money. Here are some popular ways for teens to make some investing cash.
If you visit our site, we have a full list of the best investing apps for teens. (And we highly suggest you check it out.) But today, we'll spend a little bit of time going through our absolute favorite stock apps—a few that power investing accounts, as well as a couple other educational apps that can teach teens about the stock market.
A few of these are products you'd have to sign up for (free or otherwise), while others are basic stock apps that don't require anything more than a quick, no-cost download.
Fidelity® Youth Account (Investment App for Teens)
- Product(s): Brokerage account, debit card
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: No account fees, no account minimum, no trading commissions
Learning early about saving, spending and investing can pay off big when you start on the right foot. And one tool that can help your teen get that jump is the Fidelity® Youth Account—a brokerage account owned by teens 13 to 17. They can use their own brokerage account to start their investing journey by trading most U.S. stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and Fidelity mutual funds.
Your teen will also get a free debit card with no subscription fees, no account fees, no minimum balances, and no domestic ATM fees.
And as for building smart money habits? You and your teen can access Fidelity's Dedicated Youth Learning Center, which is packed with materials developed specifically to help teens develop good financial habits.
You can read more about Fidelity® Youth Account in our in-depth Fidelity® Youth Account review.
Acorns (Investing and Banking App)
- Product(s): Investment account, banking services
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: Acorns Personal: $3/mo. Personal Plus: $5/mo.
Acorns is an investing and online banking app geared toward minors, young adults and millennials.
On the banking side, Acorns offers an FDIC-insured checking account with all the traditional features you'd expect from major banks: Visa debit card, mobile check deposits, fee-free ATMs, and more. But one of Acorns' longest-standing hooks is the "Round-Up," where the app rounds up purchases made on linked cards to the nearest dollar and invests the difference on your behalf. (So, say you buy a cup of coffee for $2.60; Acorns will round that purchase up to $3.00 and put 40 cents aside to be transferred into your Acorns account, which it will do once you hit $5 in Round-Ups.)
The investment platform is as simple as it gets, albeit limiting. Acorns provides pre-built portfolios made up of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that invest in stocks and bonds. It's great for beginners—ETFs are one of our favorite investments for kids, after all. But you should know that there are no self-directed options (that is, you can't just purchase the individual stocks and ETFs you want). You also have several investment account options with Acorns, including a basic account, tax-advantaged account (like a Roth IRA) and even custodial accounts, depending on which subscription tier you choose.
You can learn more about Acorns in our roundup of the best investment apps for beginners.
UNest (Investment App for Minors)
- Product(s): Custodial accounts
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: $4.99/mo.
UNest provides parents with a tax-advantaged custodial investment account that they can use to save for every important life stage their child will experience—college, a first car, even their own home.
Custodial investment accounts are among the best investments for teens. Parents can choose between a Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) account or a Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA) account. (And yes, we can show you the differences between UTMA and UGMA accounts if you're not familiar.)
The UNest Investment Account for Kids is available through an app that makes it easy for anyone to set up.
One neat perk from UNest: Bonuses earned through partner offers from companies such as Disney, AT&T, Uber, DoorDash, Levi's, etc., through the UNest partner program. When you spend with those vendors, you'll receive cash back in your UNest account within 30 to 40 business days.
You can learn more about UNest in our discussion about stock trading for teens.
Learn by MyWallSt (Investing Education App)
Learn by MyWallSt is a stock investing course wrapped up into a simple, intuitive app.
This app serves beginners beautifully, starting with basic financial concepts such as compounding, saving, and why it makes sense to invest in the first place. From there, it delivers definitional lessons on rudimentary terms such as stocks, stock exchanges, dividends, and more.
Once you're firmly rooted in terminology, the app goes on to teach you what qualities you should look for in a company you'd like to invest in, starting with qualitative factors such as visionary leaders, competitive advantages, and company culture, then moving on to quantitative factors such as balance sheets, sales growth, cash flow, even insider ownership.
Once that's done, it walks you through how to start investing, including how to build a portfolio, determining risk versus reward, and figuring out when it's finally time to sell your stock.
The course is broken down into small, digestible chunks written in plain language, with an audio option for each section. There are no frills, but no ads, either, resulting in a simple, streamlined experience that's perfect for teens who want to learn.
Best Brokers (Stock Game App)
We'll come right out and say it: It's difficult to find a good, free stock market simulator that isn't tied to a brokerage account and that has app options (and isn't just browser-based).
Best Brokers is the closest we've found.
Best Brokers is a realistic, real-time paper stock trading app that allows you to invest pretend money in big-name, kid-friendly stocks like Apple and Microsoft, and the rest of the U.S. stock market, much like you would with any other investing app. When you open the app, you're given $25,000 in play money and can start investing right away. As you do, and as time goes on, the app will show you how your portfolio is performing.
Best Brokers also allows you to compete with friends, send messages, and view a leaderboard. But one of the best features is its news reader, which provides you with a running feed from CNBC and Nasdaq.
There are a few downsides. For one, it's not a terribly intuitive app—we highly recommend viewing the FAQs and starter videos. It can also be confusing just because it offers up numerous European shares that you might not actually be able to access once you start trading for real in a U.S.-based brokerage app. And the news feed is perhaps too robust—it's a seemingly unfiltered feed that provides everything from general news to short technical-analysis updates that are really only useful to advanced traders.
Still, Best Brokers is the best of a mixed crop, and the best place to get started once you have a handle on the basics.
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We hope you pick up the spirit of Financial Literacy Month and decide to become more curious about the financial world. It's never too soon to start making the most of your money.
Riley & Kyle
Young & The Invested (Soon to be WealthUp)
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.