With millions out of work and many having limited incomes or living off of savings due to lockdowns during the coronavirus threat, making smart decisions so that your dollars go farther has become paramount.

Over the last two years, one area credit union has been trying to teach adults and students how to handle money responsibly via a free online financial literacy program called FoolProof.

“The nice thing about it is it's mostly videos, which these days seems to be a very effective way to share information, especially with younger people,” said Barry Shaner, CEO of Directions Credit Union, which is headquartered in Sylvania.

“It has modules for teachers to use as their curriculum because both Ohio and Michigan require some level of financial information literacy. And that's not something that many teachers are really comfortable teaching,” he said.

Across the northwest Ohio region, 487 schools, 843 teachers, and 23,630 students have used FoolProof. Directions partnered with the teaching program and has a link to it on its website, directionscu.org.

FoolProof provides courses for grade schoolers, high schoolers, college students, and regular individuals that cover topics like taxes, financial responsibility, decision-making, planning and money management, being an informed consumer, credit and debt, bankruptcy, investing, retirement, risk management, and insurance.

Mr. Shaner said Directions decided to offer the program as a service to the credit union’s members, but also because financial literacy has become more complex and the opportunity for people to learn how to properly handle money is not something easily acquired.

“The way that used to happen is people would say, ‘I joined the credit union when it was St. Clement Parish, I got my first car loan there and I sat down with Pat who told me how important it was to make my payments on time,’” Mr. Shaner said. “People would tell me how they appreciated that someone took the time to teach them that. A lot of times nowadays, there isn’t someone to sit across a desk from. A lot of banking is done on an app.”

FoolProof, Mr. Shaner said, makes for better credit union members when it comes time to apply for their first mortgage or choosing a credit card.

“We feel like it is making sure our members can understand the financial tools we offer. We want them to make better decisions,” he said. “The more educated they are about the pluses and minuses of financial decisions, the better the member they become.”

Nicole Miller, a sixth through eighth grade teacher at McCord Junior High School in Sylvania, has been using FoolProof for her eighth-grade students and she said it's adaptable and easily meets Ohio’s curriculum for financial literacy.

“No pun intended, but it’s foolproof. It’s so easy. Students can set up accounts and I can monitor their progress. I can see where they are at the end of each module and I can reset the quizzes if I need to,” Ms. Miller said.

“It’s just so easy to use and it seamlessly aligns with all the Ohio curriculum standards for financial literacy.”

By eighth grade, some students do have a little knowledge about finances, Ms. Miller said. “But if they’re not getting that financial literacy now, (FoolProof) is a great introduction to it,” she said.

It gets students thinking about things they don’t ordinarily consider, like why is someone trying to sell them an item, Ms. Miller said.

“Let’s face it, middle schoolers are kind of targeted. They’re told if you get that new iPhone they’ll be the happiest kid,” she said. “And by the time they’re an adult they may be in the habit of making terrible decisions, that’s why it’s so important to plant these seeds now so that when they grow up they become financially responsible.”

Mr. Shaner said financial literacy isn’t just for the young. Older adults and seniors could benefit from FoolProof.

“When my dad retired, he got a pension and it was about 70 percent of his last paycheck and he also had a (cost-of-living adjustment). That thing just doesn't exist anymore,” the CEO said. “We all have 401(k)s now that we manage ourselves and not everybody understands that.”

First Published May 14, 2020, 9:19 p.m.