In this episode, Sam Taube of NerdWallet tackles what many teachers say is the toughest personal finance topic to teach: investing. Sam shares why he believes helping students embrace the slow-and-steady approach is one of the most powerful lessons you can give them.

“One of the best ways to emphasize the benefits of passive buy-and-hold investing is that it’s much, much less work and it tends to, statistically speaking, yield better results,” Sam says. “It’s one of the few areas in life where being ‘lazy’ can actually make you wealthier.”

Sam and NGPF host Tim Ranzetta discuss concrete classroom strategies, like using stock market simulations to compare diversified index funds versus risky individual stock picks, and showing five-year charts to help students see how FOMO-fueled trends often crash.

“If you look at a five-year chart of GameStop or Dogecoin, you see they spiked and then collapsed,” Sam notes. “The S&P 500, meanwhile, just keeps climbing gradually. It’s a tortoise-and-the-hare situation.”

Listen to the episode to learn more about how to connect investing concepts to math and statistics lessons, debunk day-trading myths, and prepare students to open their first brokerage account with confidence.

Also Check Out: Building Credit the Right Way with Ryan Duitch of Arro Finance

Ryan built Arro to give students and young adults a better path to good credit. Designed for 18–30-year-olds, Arro offers small starting credit lines, gamified financial literacy lessons, and behavioral nudges to build strong habits from day one. 

“I wanted to build something different; not just a card, but a platform that teaches people how to use credit responsibly,” Ryan explains. “We start people with as little as $50 and increase their line as they hit goals, complete education modules, and make on-time payments.”

Ryan also touches on how Arro weaves in behavioral science to turn knowledge into lasting action:

“Education is only 15–20% of the battle,” he says. “Behavior change is the rest. We use nudges, an AI coach, and reinforcement, like showing credit score growth in real time, to build healthier habits.”

He shares how users with no credit score can reach 715+ within months, and how teachers are even using Arro’s lessons with their own children to model good credit behavior.

Listen to the episode here.

Join Us LIVE this Week for a Discussion on Sports Gambling

NGPF's podcasts are produced from the weekly Thursday night Speaker Series talks with experts. Join us tonight (Sept. 18) at 4pm PT/ 7pm ET for a discussion with historian Jonathan D. Cohen, author of Losing Big: America’s Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling. He'll explore how the rapid expansion of legalized gambling has reshaped American culture, policy, and personal finance.

Register here.

About the Author

Hannah Rael

As NGPF's Marketing Communications Manager, Hannah (she/her) helps spread the word about NGPF's mission to improve the financial lives of the next generation of Americans.