Benjamin Franklin once said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Charlie England, a 4th grader at Peachtree City Elementary, is getting a head start in investing, and he placed 6th nationally in the SIFMA Foundation’s InvestWrite competition.

England competed among thousands of other students around the country to write the best essay about long-term investing and the capital markets in the elementary school division. England and his teacher, April Mobley, were honored by the SIFMA Foundation and the Georgia Council on Economic Education during a presentation this month.

England pored over his research into the financial markets to build an investment portfolio geared for long-term financial success. His approach led to a thrilling achievement in the SIFMA Foundation’s Fall 2022 InvestWrite competition.

England is all in when it comes to research: “These researching techniques are very helpful assets. They really helped me choose stocks, bonds and mutual funds in The Stock Market Game. Currently my team is in first place for elementary schools, which is awesome! When selecting stocks, we use all of the tools we can think of. We learn more about these (and more) tools as we play The Stock Market Game.”

SIFMA Foundation’s InvestWrite national essay competition bridges classroom learning in math, social studies, and language arts with the practical research and knowledge required for saving, investing and long-term planning. It also serves as a culminating activity for The Stock Market Game, a curriculum-based financial education program that challenges students to manage a hypothetical $100,000 online portfolio of stocks, bonds, mutual funds and cash over a semester or school year.