Last week Northwest Ohio Credit Union invited more than 700 local high schoolers to learn more about money in Finances 101. The event was a crash course in personal finances and credit scores for the teens and also provided them with quite a few surprises about bills. The event reminded me of the popular board game LIFE, only with more consequences!

As students arrived they were handed a checkbook which contained their salary and current debts. From there they traveled to different tables picking out cars, insurance and dealing with other expenses that come with living on your own. There was even a table dedicated to unexpected expenses such as a car breakdown, which forced students to adapt as well as emphasized the need to plan ahead.

Students quickly learned the importance of budgeting and the consequences of not sticking to a budget. After working her way through the "month" one student had to write a bad check just to get her groceries; ending up $300 in the hole. The best news from the event was that many of these teens realized that it is important to spend money not on the things they wanted, but on the things they actually needed!

I think this is a great opportunity to show teenagers what it means to be in charge of your own finances, if only for a few hours. A program like this will go well with the mandatory personal finance classes for Ohio high schoolers set to graduate in 2010. Overall I think compact, hands-on programs like this have real a chance at impacting the future of teenagers everywhere. My personal thanks goes out to Northwest Ohio Credit Union and to the schools who allowed their students to participate. Keep up the good work!

When it comes to borrowing money, credit unions are my favorite place to go because of the quality personal service I receive. In the current credit industry, where the 10th bank this year recently closed, credit unions are faring well and even bragging about it.

BankRate.com looked into how credit unions are prospering while conventional banks are taking hits across the board. It found that the success was linked to credit unions being quicker to share best practices even with those in the same market, and due to the fact that the credit unions faced lower write-offs and delinquencies than traditional banks.

Not only are credit unions doing well in avoiding write-offs, but many of them are boasting increased membership. Further adding to the health of credit unions in a tumultuous environment is that for the first quarter of 2008, as a whole, they issued more loans than they have historically. Analysts place this rise on the willingness of credit unions to utilize their local knowledge and sit down with individuals in order to provide smart lending.

This throwback to the old-fashioned, highly human-involved method of banking may be one part of what protected the credit unions from the current fallout, not to mention a good way for individuals to continue to get loans to get the economy back on track, at least on a small scale.

Late last year we purchased a used Chevy Equinox which was ultimately financed through a local credit union. We have been members of another local credit union for several years, my wife even longer if you count her years as a "kid saver'. We went with the other credit union because it had a better rate and offered GAP at a cheaper price as well. Once we signed all of the paperwork we set up a direct transfer to cover the monthly payments from credit union A to credit union B. Unfortunately sometime in the first month a transfer and a refund got messed up due to an error on each credit union's part.

Trying to explain the bank error over the phone to people at both locations was difficult because on each bank's computers the transaction looked to be by the books. The error was only obvious when you had both accounts in front of you. Thankfully, after I spoke to the credit union we financed our car with, their employee in charge of direct deposits took it upon herself to call up the other credit union and hash out the details. It turns out the wrong account number was used in a few places, and the money was rejected as payment by credit union B but when the money was sent back credit union A put the money in the wrong account leaving our ledger showing a payment that was never received.