Financial education a foundation to build on  Getting more
people into the financial mainstream helps build a secure
future, a local advocate says.   Financial literacy -- "An
ability to understand finance. More specifically, it refers to
an individual's ability to make informed judgements and
effective decisions about the use and management of their
money." -- Wikipedia  Today begins a two-day presentation that
includes local stories of reaching bottom and climbing out, as
well as money management education you can take advantage of.
Financial literacy is a fluid, subjective and narrow term and
Noah Leavitt is not a big fan of using it.  It's too black and
white and is not really relevant, said the coordinator of the
Walla Walla Asset Building Coalition.  "There's been a shift or
change of even the language in asset-building groups," Leavitt
noted last week. "We're going from talking about financial
literacy to talking about financial education."  While the focus
of his group and others like it across the s