VineQuestions about Vine, answered
Straight answers about what Vine is, what it costs, who it is for and what it deliberately does not do. If something here is unclear or looks wrong, email vineteam@vineteach.com.
Is there a free app that teaches kids about investing?
Yes — Vine is free and teaches kids aged 7 to 18+ how money and investing work. It has 107 lessons across 11 sections, and every one of them can be read in full on the web without making an account. Kids practise with simulated money and real market prices, so nothing is ever at risk.
Does Vine use real money?
No. Vine never touches real money. Children get a practice balance and buy shares at real, live market prices, so the numbers move the way the real market moves — but no money goes in, none comes out, and there is nothing to lose. Vine cannot make trades on anyone's behalf.
What age should a child start learning about investing?
Earlier than most people expect — Vine starts at 7. The early lessons are not about the stock market at all; they cover needs versus wants, where money comes from, saving and waiting. Investing concepts arrive once those are solid. Vine writes every lesson in three versions, for roughly 7-9, 10-12 and 13-17, so a seven-year-old and a sixteen-year-old get the same idea told differently.
Is Vine really free, or is there a paid tier?
Free, with nothing held back today. All 107 lessons, the practice portfolio and the whole app are available at no cost, and the public lesson library needs no account at all. There is no advertising inside the app and nothing is sold to children. Vine may charge for something later, but no feature is locked behind a payment right now.
Is Vine safe for children under 13?
Vine is built for it, and here is the honest limit. Under-13 accounts require a parent or guardian's email address before the app opens, the app carries no advertising and no third-party tracking, and a parent can delete the account and its data at any time. We also email that address a one-time confirmation link and record whether it was opened, so a confirmed consent can be told apart from one that was only asserted. The limit: clicking a link proves someone reads that mailbox, not that they are the child's parent.
What does Vine actually teach?
107 lessons covering how money works before they cover markets: earning, saving, budgeting, needs versus wants, then compound interest, inflation, what a share is, why prices move, diversification, risk, index funds, taxes and how to read a business. Growth figures use 7% a year — the long-run US stock market average after inflation — so every number shown is in today's money rather than a flattering one.
Is Vine available in Spanish?
Yes, fully. All 107 lessons exist in Spanish, not just the menus, and the Spanish library is public at vineteach.com in the same way the English one is. A child can switch language at any point and keep their progress.
How is Vine different from a stock market game?
A market game rewards the biggest gamble; Vine does the opposite. Scores in trading games are won by concentrating everything into one volatile pick, which teaches precisely the wrong habit. Vine's lessons reward diversification and time in the market, there are no streaks or daily-loss pressure, and the simulation is built so that reckless strategies genuinely lose.
Can teachers use Vine in a classroom?
Yes, and it needs no purchase or licence. A teacher creates a class code, students join with it, and the teacher sees a roster with each student's progress. Students see only their own work. The public lesson library can also be read on a projector or assigned as a link, with no accounts at all.
Will Vine make my child a good investor?
It will teach them the ideas; nothing can promise the rest. Vine is a practice simulator and a set of lessons, not financial advice, and it does not predict markets or recommend investments. What it can realistically do is make a teenager fluent in compound interest, risk and fees before they have real money at stake — which is the point.
Who makes Vine?
Vine Growth LLC, a small team that includes high-school students who are the age Vine is built for. It is not owned by a bank or a brokerage, and it does not earn commission on trades, because no real trades exist.
Read the lessons yourself
Every lesson is readable without an account, in English and Spanish.