by Ethan Bell and Braddock Tripoli
“Dad, are we invested in the S&P 500?” He looked at me. “Where did you learn about the S&P 500?” “TikTok” he yelled back. Only a decade ago, that conversation might have sounded foreign, yet today it is increasingly common.
Teenagers can learn about stocks, cryptocurrency and investing without ever opening a textbook. With a thumb swipe, kids are exposed to thousands of creators explaining how to build wealth at a young age or where to put your money. It is time that we must ask: How does the way high school students encounter financial information relate to their financial knowledge, investing behavior and preparedness for managing money in their future?
To investigate this question, a September 2026 survey of 86 students from Valencia, Yorba Linda, Mater Dei and Huntington Beach high schools in Orange County, California examined where teenagers get financial information, how much they trust it, whether they invest, and how well they understand fundamental financial concepts.
The first finding was hard to miss:. When students were asked where they get financial information, with the option to select more than one source, a wide majority of 77.9% chose TikTok. YouTube followed at 61.6%, while 51.2% selected family and 36.0% selected Instagram. Only 14% of respondents selected school courses. This relationship exemplifies the tremendous deficiency in financial education exposure for American students.
Even more striking was how readily respondents trusted financial advice from social media.
When asked about financial advice on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, 66.3% said they “somewhat trust” financial advice from social media and an additional 23.3% said they “fully trust” it. Only 10.4% of respondents said they did not really trust it.
Andrew Ellis, a junior at Mater Dei High School, said he trusts the financial information he finds on social media. When asked whether he trusts financial advice on social media and how he checks the credibility of it, he said, “Yes I do, and I check the amount of followers the person has.”
That trust becomes far more substantial when considering that students may willingly act on investment guidance from strangers online, often without knowing their credibility, qualifications, or underlying intentions of their insights they choose to share.
Yet exposure and trust did not necessarily correspond with understanding foundational monetary concepts. Specifically, when students were asked about index funds and exchange-traded funds, 43.0% had never heard of them, 36.0% had heard of them but could not explain them and only 20.9% reported being able to explain the concepts. Likewise, 41.9% selected the correct definition of a credit score.
These questions cannot measure a student’s entire financial knowledge, but they reveal a notable gap between encountering financial content and understanding some of the concepts behind it.
That gap does not appear to come from a lack of interest, as 33.7% of respondents already invest real money, while another 53.5% want to, meaning 87.2% are either currently investing or want to begin doing so. Among the students who are not presently investing, the predominant barrier was a fear of losing money (38.7%), followed by not knowing where to start (27.4%), not having the money to do so (22.6%), and finding investing to be too complicated (11.3%).
That uncertainty extends beyond the market into their everyday financial lives. Only 22.1% of respondents considered themselves “very prepared” to manage their finances independently after high school.
Further, 37.2% felt somewhat prepared, while 40.7% selected either “not very prepared” or “need help.” These numbers represent students’ perceptions of their preparedness rather than an objective measurement of their abilities.
The survey of 86 students demonstrates the younger generation’s interest in investing given the considerable access to financial information despite uneven financial understanding and confidence. Perhaps the obstacle is no longer getting teenagers interested in money. It is making sure that when a creator on TikTok teaches a teenager about the S&P 500, they also know what it actually means.
In September, 86 students were surveyed about financial information they trust on social media. Students surveyed were from Valencia, Yorba Linda, Mater Dei and Huntington Beach high schools. (Graphic by Ethan Bell)
