Tomorrow starts Today.

• Author: English, Damien B.M.
• Position: The 2008 California Summit on Financial Literacy

The Average 21-year-old will spend more than $2.2 million in their lifetime. The personal savings rate in the United States is 0 percent. In 2007, credit card delinquencies nationwide jumped 26 percent from 2006.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

To combat those staggering statistics and to connect people and resources that can help Californians learn to better manage their finances was the goal of the California Summit on Financial Literacy, held April 23 in Sacramento.

More than 500 people attended the event, hosted by CalCPA Institute and the California Jump$tart Coalition. Educators, students, nonprofits, CPAs, government agency representatives, business people and legislators were among those who took part sessions that focused on coalition building, financial education in California schools, the housing crisis and nonprofit programs that provide services for low-income Californians.

"If you understand money, you will have a better life," said Jim Greenwood, chair of the Califormia Jump$tart Coalition. And, daily, the media dishes up headlines that indicate life isn't so good for some Californians.

For example, total non-mortgage consumer debt is more than $2.5 trillion and on the rise and almost 5 million Californians live below the poverty line.

The day's education empowered participants with the tools and knowledge to affect change. And, according to co-host Jack Gallagher, who shared his emcee duties with his PBS "Money Track" co-host Pam Krueger, "Knowledge gives us the confidence and power to get through these tough economic cycles."

Following are select event highlights. You also can view webcasts of Summit sessions at www.calcpa.org/Content/summit.

Coalition Building: Creating

Success Together

Don Blandin, CEO and president of the Investor Protection Trust, a nonprofit organization devoted to investor education, says, that education is what "prevents a bond that matures in 35 years from being sold to an 85-year-old."

Blandin, who has worked in government in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., spoke about what it takes to build a coalition, and boiled the formula down to five components: 1. Personal relationships are the mortar that holds the structure of the coalition together.

2. Coalitions must be a two-way street of respect. Everyone has equal responsibility, power and status. No one partner should dominate the coalition.

3. Have patience. Quality alliances take a long time to mature. But with patience comes the need to be realistic about...