Schwab's New Moneywise Teens Hub: A Parent's Five-Lesson Summer 2026 Curriculum for the Kitchen Table

Charles Schwab quietly added a new Moneywise Teens hub to its long-running Moneywise initiative in spring 2026 [1]. The hub collects short videos and short articles on the topics teens actually ask about. Budgeting a first paycheck, picking a checking account, the difference between credit and debit, what a Roth IRA is for, and how to read the very first investing screen they will ever open [2]. The content is free, ad-free, and built around topics teens helped shape, which Schwab confirmed in its own write-up on the project [3].

For parents, the timing is useful. Summer break is roughly twelve weeks for most U.S. families. That is enough time to run a five-lesson curriculum in five Sunday conversations with five small weekly actions, using the new hub as the spine. The structure below is one we have seen work in families with teens age 13 to 17.

Lesson one is the most concrete one for a teen with any summer work, whether it is a W-2 job at a grocery store, dog walking through Rover, or a Stripe-based small business [4]. The conversation is simple. Pull up one Moneywise Teens video on what a paycheck actually contains and watch it together. Then pull up a real pay stub, theirs if they have one, yours if they do not, and walk through the four lines that matter. Gross pay. Federal tax withholding. State tax withholding. Social Security and Medicare. The fifth line, take-home pay, is what they spend.

The weekly action is for the teen to read their next pay stub and screenshot the four lines into a shared family note. The goal is not to teach the tax code. The goal is to make sure the teen never goes through their twenties believing that gross pay is the number they get to keep.

Lesson two is choosing a teen checking account. The 2026 options most parents are picking between are Schwab High Yield Checking opened jointly with a parent, Capital One MONEY for teens, and the major bank teen accounts like Chase First or Bank of America SafeBalance for Teens [2]. The Moneywise Teens hub covers the basics of what a checking account is and what a fee structure looks like.

The parent conversation here has three steps. First, walk through what the account does and does not do. It holds money, it sends payments, and it is the gateway to a debit card. Second, compare two accounts side by side on five things only. Monthly fee, overdraft policy, ATM access, debit card design, and parent visibility settings. Third, agree on rules together. How often the teen checks the balance, what happens if they spend the whole balance, and what counts as a normal versus an unusual transaction. The weekly action is to open the account, or to add the teen as a joint owner if one already exists.

Lesson three is the one most teens have already heard fragments of from TikTok, almost none of it correct. Schwab's Moneywise Teens content on credit covers the core terms a teen needs by their first year of college. APR, credit limit, statement balance, minimum payment, and credit score. The most useful single visual is a chart showing what a $1,000 purchase costs if paid in full versus paid as minimums over five years. At minimum payments and 24% APR, the $1,000 purchase ends up costing more than $1,700 by the time the balance is cleared [2].

The parent conversation here is the most important of the summer. Cover three rules. One, the credit card is a borrowing tool, not free money. Two, the credit score starts forming the moment a teen is added as an authorized user or opens a student card, and it follows them for the next 70 years. Three, the first card a teen carries should have a low limit and a clear payoff rule. A planning tool like Foundra walks young entrepreneurs and their parents through this conversation in plain language, alongside the basics of paying yourself from a small business, which is the natural bridge into week four. The weekly action this week is to look up their credit report or, if they are under 18 and do not have one yet, to set up a Credit Karma family alert and discuss what they would see when they do.

Lesson four uses the Moneywise Teens videos on retirement accounts. The pitch is simple and the math is unforgettable. A Roth IRA is a special account for retirement money that grows tax-free. In 2026 a teen with earned income can contribute up to the lesser of their earned income or $7,500 for the year [5]. One single $7,500 deposit at age 15, left to grow at a 7% annual return, becomes more than $200,000 by age 65 with no further contributions. If the teen continues to contribute at the limit each year, the same account can reach almost $4 million by 65 at the same 7% return [5].

The parent conversation should cover three points. One, what counts as earned income. Cash from babysitting and yard work counts, as does W-2 work and any 1099 income from a small business [5]. Two, contributions are made on a post-tax basis, so a teen earning under the standard deduction owes almost nothing in tax anyway. Three, the account is in the teen's name, with a parent or guardian as custodian until they reach the age of majority. The weekly action is to open the custodial Roth IRA at Fidelity, Schwab, or another major broker and deposit whatever the teen has earned so far this summer, even if that number is $50.

Lesson five is the one that intimidates parents the most and matters the least in the first 90 days. A teen's first investing screen is overwhelming. There are hundreds of mutual fund and ETF options inside any custodial Roth IRA. The Moneywise Teens hub covers a clean version of the two-fund and three-fund portfolio that most teen accounts should start with [2]. A simple total-market index fund and a simple total-international index fund will cover 90% of what a teen needs in their first year of investing.

The parent conversation here is about restraint. Three rules. One, no individual stock picking for the first six months. Two, no crypto in the Roth IRA, period. Three, automatic contributions monthly, in any amount, are worth more than perfect picking. The weekly action is to set up an auto-transfer of $25, $50, or $100 per month into the Roth IRA. The dollar amount matters less than the habit of seeing a transfer hit the account on the same day each month.

Two things make this kind of family curriculum work, and one thing kills it. The two that work are short sessions and concrete actions. Twenty minutes of conversation and one screenshot or one account move is enough. The one that kills it is the teen feeling like they are being graded. The Moneywise Teens content is designed in short formats, often two to five minutes per video, so the lesson can fit before dinner without becoming a class [3].

A second move that helps. Let the teen pick the slot. Sunday morning over breakfast, Tuesday after dinner, Saturday before a beach day, whatever they choose. A summer learning routine that the teen owns is one they will return to. A summer learning routine the parent owns becomes one more thing the teen tunes out [6].

After five weeks, the family has covered paychecks, checking, credit, Roth IRAs, and the first investing screen. That is more than most adults knew when they left college. The right next move is to keep the habit at a much lower cadence. Once per month, the family runs a 15-minute check-in. The teen logs into the checking account and the Roth IRA, screenshots the balance, and notes any unusual transactions. Once per quarter, the family does a slightly longer review and looks at the year-to-date contribution to the Roth IRA against the year-to-date earned income [5].

The Moneywise Teens hub will keep adding content through 2026 and 2027 [1]. As the teen ages into more complex topics like student loans, FAFSA, and the first apartment lease, the same conversation model still works. One Sunday, one short video, one concrete action.

What ages is the Moneywise Teens hub designed for? Schwab targets the content at teens roughly 13 to 18. The five-lesson curriculum above works most cleanly with teens 14 to 17. Younger kids can do an abbreviated version focused on checking and saving only.

Does my teen need earned income to do all five lessons? No. Lessons one, two, three, and five work without earned income. Lesson four, the Roth IRA, requires the teen to have at least some earned income during the calendar year, even if it is only a small amount from babysitting or yard work.

How much does it cost to open a custodial Roth IRA in 2026? Nothing at Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, or most other major brokers. There is no minimum balance to open, no annual fee, and no commission to buy most index mutual funds or ETFs.

Is the Moneywise Teens content actually free? Yes. The entire hub is free to use, no account required. Schwab does not run paid ads against the content. Teens can also follow the Schwab Moneywise YouTube channel for additional short-form videos.

What if my teen refuses to engage with the curriculum? Drop to one lesson per month and let them choose which one. The order is not important. The two lessons that almost every teen finds interesting are credit (because of TikTok) and the Roth IRA (because of the $200,000 chart). Start there and the rest tends to follow.

1. Schwab Moneywise: Financial Literacy Programs
2. Moneywise America: Financial Literacy for Teens
3. How to build a fin-lit program teens use? You ask them to help. (Charles Schwab)
4. State of Teen Financial Literacy 2026 (EVERFI)
5. What is a Roth IRA for Kids and How Does It Work? (Charles Schwab)
6. Youth Financial Education Guide: Empowering Teens in 2026 (Lifehub Education)