For Parents

70% Of Teens Want To Invest. 14% Say They Know How.

Seven in ten teenagers say they are highly interested in investing and only 14 percent say they know a lot about it. That gap is the whole parenting job, and the first month matters more than which account you open.

Foundra Kids·9 min read

70% Of Teens Want To Invest. 14% Say They Know How.

Schwab surveyed 1,000 teenagers and 1,000 parents of teenagers. Seven in ten teens, ages 13 to 17, said they are very or extremely interested in investing.

Fourteen percent said they know a lot about it.

That is the whole situation in two numbers. There is enormous appetite and almost no knowledge, which is exactly the condition under which people lose money and decide the subject is not for them. Bloomberg reported this month that families are increasingly funnelling Christmas and birthday money into teen trading accounts. The accounts are the easy part.

What the 2026 numbers actually say

A few findings worth knowing before you open anything.

Teens are finding out about investing far earlier than their parents did. Fifteen percent first became aware at age nine or younger, and 44 percent between 10 and 12. For parents, those figures were 1 percent and 5 percent.

Teens trust their parents on this more than any other source, at 56 percent. They also trust parents a lot on saving money (62%) and being financially responsible (58%).

Both groups want money management taught in school. Sixty-five percent of parents rank it in the top three subjects, ahead of computer science. Half of teens agree.

And the fear is specific. The top worry teens have about starting is losing money on a bad investment, at 59 percent, followed by not knowing what to do, at 42 percent.

Notably, 62 percent of parents said teaching this is harder than teaching their kid to drive.

Parents and teens want different things here

The survey found a clean disagreement that will show up in your house.

Half of parents want to be heavily involved in deciding how much money goes in, and 52 percent want to be informed about portfolio performance. Meanwhile 60 percent of teens want parents only somewhat involved, and 64 percent want parents to have only a little control over decisions.

This is not a problem to solve. It is a negotiation to run once, out loud, before the first trade.

The version that works in most families: the teen picks what to buy, the parent sets the size of the pot and one rule about what is off limits. The teen gets real decisions, which is the only way any of this teaches anything. The parent gets a ceiling on the damage.

What does not work is a parent quietly reversing a decision. Fifty-three percent of teens see investing as a way to bond with their parents. That evaporates the first time the account feels like a test.

The account types, in plain terms

There are three realistic options and they differ in who owns the money.

A custodial account (UGMA or UTMA) is opened by an adult for a minor. There are no contribution limits and no restrictions on what the money is used for. The adult manages it until the child reaches the age of majority, which is 18 to 25 depending on the state.

A teen-owned brokerage account is owned by the teenager directly. Fidelity's Youth Account, for teens 13 to 17, has no minimums, no monthly fees, zero commission on US stocks and ETFs, and a debit card. Schwab launched a Teen Investor joint account in 2026 where both parent and teen can trade and monitor. Robinhood offers custodial UTMA accounts with a gifting link so relatives can contribute cash or shares.

A custodial Roth IRA is available only if the teen has earned income from actual work, capped at what they earned. This is the quietly excellent option for a teen with a summer job.

For a first account, the difference between providers matters less than whether your teen can see the account without asking you.

The custodial detail most parents miss

Two things about UGMA and UTMA accounts that surprise people later.

The money is irrevocably the child's. At the age of majority it transfers to them and they can spend it on anything. Not college, anything. If that outcome would upset you, this is the wrong account and you want a 529 or an account in your own name.

And custodial assets are weighted heavily as student assets in financial aid calculations, which can reduce aid eligibility more than the same money held by a parent would.

Neither of these is a reason to avoid custodial accounts. They are reasons to decide on purpose. A few thousand dollars of birthday money that becomes the teen's at 18 is a fine teaching tool. Forty thousand dollars earmarked for tuition is a different decision.

The first month matters more than the account

Here is the part that determines whether any of this works.

Start with an amount that can go to zero without a family argument. For most households that is between 50 and 500 dollars. The teen should feel it and it should not matter.

Have them write down, before buying anything, why they are buying it and what would make them sell. Two sentences. Highest-return habit in the whole exercise, and almost nobody does it. Six months later you read it together.

Put most of the money in something boring and a small slice in whatever they are excited about. Sixty percent of teens and 61 percent of parents already say they prefer investments that grow slowly over ones that can drop fast, so the boring part is not a hard sell.

Check it monthly, not daily. Daily checking teaches reaction. Monthly teaches patience.

And let a loss happen. A teenager who loses 40 dollars at 15 and understands why got something worth far more than 40 dollars.

Where investing starts to look like gambling

Schwab's head of retail investing named this directly, pointing to the increasingly blurred boundary between investing and gambling.

The data backs the concern. Thirty-two percent of teens say cryptocurrencies are among the investments they know the most about, and 23 percent say meme stocks, which puts both ahead of bonds at 21 percent.

The distinction worth teaching is not "crypto bad, index funds good." Teenagers see through that immediately. It is this: an investment has a reason it should go up that you can state in a sentence. A bet has a hope that it will.

A company earns money and you think it will earn more. That is a reason. "It is going up" is a description. Ask for the sentence every time. If they cannot produce one, the position is a bet, and bets are allowed as long as everybody calls them what they are.

Prediction markets and sports betting apps are the same conversation, and your teen has already seen ads for both.

If your teen would rather earn the money than invest it

Not every teenager lights up at a brokerage app. Some want to make something.

That instinct deserves equal respect, and the survey supports it: both parents and teens said a job is the most likely source of money to invest, at 68 percent and 53 percent.

A teen who earns 400 dollars over a summer learns pricing, customers, and cost in a way no account statement teaches. It also unlocks the Roth.

If they do start something small, get the basics written down rather than kept in their head: what they sell, who buys it, what it costs them, what they charge. A notebook works. A shared doc works. A structured planning tool like Foundra that walks first-time founders through each of those sections works too. The point is that the numbers exist somewhere you can both look at.

Then invest the profit. Earning it first makes the investing part mean something.

Key takeaways

70% of teens ages 13 to 17 are very or extremely interested in investing. Only 14% say they know a lot about it.
Teens trust parents more than any other source (56%), but 64% want parents to have only a little control over decisions. Settle that before the first trade.
Custodial UGMA and UTMA money becomes the child's irrevocably at the age of majority and counts heavily against financial aid.
A custodial Roth IRA is the strongest option for a teen with earned income, capped at what they earned.
Start with an amount that can go to zero. Require two written sentences before any purchase. Review monthly, not daily.
Teach the difference between a reason and a hope. 32% of teens name crypto and 23% name meme stocks among what they know best, both ahead of bonds.
Earning the money first makes the investing lesson stick, and it unlocks the Roth.

Frequently asked questions

What is the youngest age a teen can have their own brokerage account?

Thirteen, through a teen-owned account such as Fidelity's Youth Account. Below that, an adult opens a custodial account and manages it.

How much should we start with?

Enough to feel real and small enough to lose without a fight. For most families that is 50 to 500 dollars. The educational value does not scale much beyond that.

Custodial account or a 529 for college savings?

If the money is for education and you want to keep control, a 529 is the better instrument.

Should a teenager be allowed to buy crypto?

That is a family call. A workable middle is capping speculative positions at a small slice of the account and requiring the same written reasoning as any other purchase. Banning it outright often just moves the activity somewhere you cannot see.

My teen has no earned income. Can they still have a Roth IRA?

No. Roth contributions require earned income and cannot exceed what they earned that year. A part-time job or documented self-employment counts.

What if I do not know much about investing myself?

You are in the majority. Only 46 percent of parents called themselves very comfortable teaching this. Learning alongside your teen works, and they will still trust your input more than anyone else's.

How do I keep them interested past the first month?

Tie it to something they want. A specific purchase, a car, a trip. Thirty percent of teens cited buying something big as a motivation, and abstract compounding does not hold attention the way a goal does.