Asset Builders of America’s Youth Power Academy
Investing in youth potential
Investing in youth potential
By Jonathan Gramling
United by common concerns, Bob Wynn and Richard Entenmann came out of different disciplines
to form an alliance to promote financial literacy.
For many years, Wynn was the director of the minority business development bureau for the Wis.
Dept. of Commerce. He saw the successes as well as the pitfalls that the businesses experienced.
““People often times didn’t really understand financial statements as well as they should if they are going
to be in business, Wynn said during an interview with Entenmann at the Ankora coffeehouse on King
Street. “They had lower amounts of wealth. Some had poor credit scores. And I thought people really
needed to understand what it takes to position themselves to be successful in business. In my mind, there
was a need for a very comprehensive and focused effort to educate both current and future generations
on being more economically astute in terms of their personal and household needs as well as any
business aspirations they have.”
Wynn dreamed up the idea for Asset Builders of America and incorporated it. But Wynn needed
help to make his dream a reality. And along came Entenmann who had recently moved to Madison in
1999 from Washington, D.C. where he had been a lawyer for the Securities and Exchange Commission
in their investor protection program. Entenmann had seen his own share of financial horror stories.
“Part of what I saw in doing that work is that a lot of people had lost a lot of money through just ignorance
of some basic concepts,” Entenmann said. “There is a fair share of fraud out there. But a lot of people
lost money not because of fraud, but because they didn’t know some real basics. I thought it made more
sense to work on the education side to try and address the situation before it happened rather than try to
fix it after the fact, which was very difficult.”
Over the course of the next decade, Wynn and Entenmann have built Asset Builders into a multi-
program organization that provides financial education programming for youth and adults throughout
Wisconsin. Perhaps their most well-known program is the Money Conference, which is a one-day set of
workshops held in Madison every August and in six other cities in Wisconsin including the Menominee
reservation. The Money Conference brings in nationally-known speakers, often times featuring youth who
have made a splash in the financial world, and usually offers sessions in Spanish.
Another popular program is the Millionaires’ Club. “It was first piloted when I did work for the state at
the Dept. of Financial Institutions,” Wynn said. “Our site was the Boys & Girls Club on Taft Street. From
there, we were able to get funding for it in Milwaukee. We have three sites in Milwaukee. One meets
once per week and one meets every other week. We’re teaching kids basic economics, saving and
budgeting. We also help them learn about investing as well. In September, we’ll be setting up two sites in
Madison through the Madison school district. One site for the Millionaire’s Club in Madison will be the
Lussier Community Education Center. We think the second one will be in the Villager Mall in association
with the Financial Education Center and the Boys & Girls Club.”
United by common concerns, Bob Wynn and Richard Entenmann came out of different disciplines
to form an alliance to promote financial literacy.
For many years, Wynn was the director of the minority business development bureau for the Wis.
Dept. of Commerce. He saw the successes as well as the pitfalls that the businesses experienced.
““People often times didn’t really understand financial statements as well as they should if they are going
to be in business, Wynn said during an interview with Entenmann at the Ankora coffeehouse on King
Street. “They had lower amounts of wealth. Some had poor credit scores. And I thought people really
needed to understand what it takes to position themselves to be successful in business. In my mind, there
was a need for a very comprehensive and focused effort to educate both current and future generations
on being more economically astute in terms of their personal and household needs as well as any
business aspirations they have.”
Wynn dreamed up the idea for Asset Builders of America and incorporated it. But Wynn needed
help to make his dream a reality. And along came Entenmann who had recently moved to Madison in
1999 from Washington, D.C. where he had been a lawyer for the Securities and Exchange Commission
in their investor protection program. Entenmann had seen his own share of financial horror stories.
“Part of what I saw in doing that work is that a lot of people had lost a lot of money through just ignorance
of some basic concepts,” Entenmann said. “There is a fair share of fraud out there. But a lot of people
lost money not because of fraud, but because they didn’t know some real basics. I thought it made more
sense to work on the education side to try and address the situation before it happened rather than try to
fix it after the fact, which was very difficult.”
Over the course of the next decade, Wynn and Entenmann have built Asset Builders into a multi-
program organization that provides financial education programming for youth and adults throughout
Wisconsin. Perhaps their most well-known program is the Money Conference, which is a one-day set of
workshops held in Madison every August and in six other cities in Wisconsin including the Menominee
reservation. The Money Conference brings in nationally-known speakers, often times featuring youth who
have made a splash in the financial world, and usually offers sessions in Spanish.
Another popular program is the Millionaires’ Club. “It was first piloted when I did work for the state at
the Dept. of Financial Institutions,” Wynn said. “Our site was the Boys & Girls Club on Taft Street. From
there, we were able to get funding for it in Milwaukee. We have three sites in Milwaukee. One meets
once per week and one meets every other week. We’re teaching kids basic economics, saving and
budgeting. We also help them learn about investing as well. In September, we’ll be setting up two sites in
Madison through the Madison school district. One site for the Millionaire’s Club in Madison will be the
Lussier Community Education Center. We think the second one will be in the Villager Mall in association
with the Financial Education Center and the Boys & Girls Club.”
Top: Asset Builders co-founder Robert Wynn (r) with
Youth Power Academy participant Antonion Rhames
Above: Asset Builders co-founder Richard
Entenmann
Youth Power Academy participant Antonion Rhames
Above: Asset Builders co-founder Richard
Entenmann
One of Asset Builder’s lesser known programs is the Youth Power Academy of Finance which is held for two weeks each June on the Edgewood College
campus. “It’s 10 days of instruction, 8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.,” Entenmann emphasized. “The content is a wide range of materials. It’s economics. Personal finance
including making out a budget, identifying short, medium and long-term goals and working with Excel charts to make projections are taught. We also include
college readiness. We’re right on campus. We have the financial aid staff, the admissions staff and the career counseling staff comes in to do a presentation. We
also take a tour of the college. Again, this is just awareness and getting kids to realize what a college environment is all about. We work on public speaking. The
kids do a closing presentation at the end of the two weeks. They have a choice on either a small business idea they have or on a stock they studied for those two
weeks and whether or not they recommend it for investment. We’re not necessarily training kids to go on to Wall Street. It’s just the regular running of the
household stuff that needs to be conveyed.”
While the program is for free, it has had a problem filling up its class each year. “We were at another event on Saturday and we talked about bringing
economic education to central city residents,” Wynn recalled. “The message was ‘It’s there.’ People just have to go after it. It is sort of interesting to see up front
and close where very good, legitimate information is brought into communities and it is not consumed to the degree that it should.”
Antonio Rhames, a seventh grader from Savannah Oaks, attended Youth Power Academy last year and enjoyed it. “I liked the fact they took the time to
teach us about how to prepare ourselves for the future and how to invest in the stock markets and how to handle our money better,” Rhames said. “Even now, I
feel I have a handle on things. Now that I know how to handle my money better, I came up with a plan to get my own cell phone. I’ll be going this summer.”
For more information about Asset Builders and Youth Power Academy, call Richard Entenmann at 663-6332 or e-mail him at rentenmann@tds.net. An
application form for Youth Power Academy is on the back cover of this paper.
campus. “It’s 10 days of instruction, 8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.,” Entenmann emphasized. “The content is a wide range of materials. It’s economics. Personal finance
including making out a budget, identifying short, medium and long-term goals and working with Excel charts to make projections are taught. We also include
college readiness. We’re right on campus. We have the financial aid staff, the admissions staff and the career counseling staff comes in to do a presentation. We
also take a tour of the college. Again, this is just awareness and getting kids to realize what a college environment is all about. We work on public speaking. The
kids do a closing presentation at the end of the two weeks. They have a choice on either a small business idea they have or on a stock they studied for those two
weeks and whether or not they recommend it for investment. We’re not necessarily training kids to go on to Wall Street. It’s just the regular running of the
household stuff that needs to be conveyed.”
While the program is for free, it has had a problem filling up its class each year. “We were at another event on Saturday and we talked about bringing
economic education to central city residents,” Wynn recalled. “The message was ‘It’s there.’ People just have to go after it. It is sort of interesting to see up front
and close where very good, legitimate information is brought into communities and it is not consumed to the degree that it should.”
Antonio Rhames, a seventh grader from Savannah Oaks, attended Youth Power Academy last year and enjoyed it. “I liked the fact they took the time to
teach us about how to prepare ourselves for the future and how to invest in the stock markets and how to handle our money better,” Rhames said. “Even now, I
feel I have a handle on things. Now that I know how to handle my money better, I came up with a plan to get my own cell phone. I’ll be going this summer.”
For more information about Asset Builders and Youth Power Academy, call Richard Entenmann at 663-6332 or e-mail him at rentenmann@tds.net. An
application form for Youth Power Academy is on the back cover of this paper.