First Generation Investor: A Conversation with Sainey Singateh
by Elizabeth Wheeler
https://www.firstgenerationinvestors.com/
Sainey Singateh recently graduated from Motivation High School in Philadelphia, PA. During his first few years there, he struggled to find subjects that engaged him. Through First Generation Investors, however, Sainey discovered a passion for finance, a community of engaged young people similar to himself, and a desire to take charge of his future. Sainey also achieved a newfound sense of patience with his personal money management that he’ll carry with him into college and beyond. Now an impressive high school graduate, Sainey has been accepted to a number of universities and is currently planning to attend Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, PA. He plans to major in Finance or Computer Science, combining this skill set with his knowledge of business to craft a forward-thinking career. Sainey is an outspoken and motivated student and role model in his school community. Below is our conversation.
How did you find out about FGI?
“It all started off as a program at my high school that my teacher introduced to us. It just sounded too good to be true, so I was eager to join, and when I first went there, I felt like I fit in because I saw they weren’t much older than us”
Has FGI changed the way you think about saving, investing, or personal finance?
“Definitely. Before FGI I took a financial literacy class but was still just starting to realize that it might be for me. When I first started FGI, they taught me a bunch of important skills without actually telling me them. Like to be patient. They did say be patient but they didn’t actually engrave it in my head, it’s just how I am now thanks to the program”
When you say patience what do you mean?
“Patience with everything. Mainly watching your money grow… because it can be volatile. It might go up one day and then just go down, and you just be patient, thinking oh okay yeah it’s gonna go up over time…let me just be patient and wait a little bit”
Have you always been a good student?
“I wouldn’t say I was a bad student but I wasn’t as engaged in school. I wasn’t as focused as I am now and yeah, FGI did play a role in that. I realized I’m running out of time and was like ‘okay get yourself together, what do you want to do in the future?’ FGI did play a role in that”
Did FGI inspire you in a particular school subject or endow you with any new study habits?
“FGI forced me to do research because if I’m putting money into something, I want to make sure I know exactly what’s going on and the ins and outs. I want to be as educated on the topic as I can and FGI encouraged me to carry out research and stuff and other study habits such as taking notes. I haven’t always been a big note-taker, but with FGI it was kinda like stuff that I singled out, that I would find to be the most helpful.”
Have you found a strong community aspect within FGI?
“Oh yeah definitely, even with some kids I went to school with, I wasn’t too familiar with them. Through FGI, I started talking to them more and learned how to communicate better. I’m still learning how to communicate honestly.”
Have you been accepted into any college or university? What are your plans for the future?
“I’ve definitely been accepted to a couple of colleges! At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be studying business and computer science, but now I’m going more along the lines of studying computer science because business is something that you don’t need to go to school to be taught… there’s a lot of things that you can gain on your own time. So I can still minor or double major, but I feel like I should take advantage of using computer science because I feel like you only have this time once. After I graduate with the computer science papers, I want to do coding and hopefully develop my own virtual reality game in the future, that’s just a cool thought that I had. I’m still going to be in the business field one hundred percent. I want to be a businessman and entrepreneur. Obviously, the more skills you have, the better for you, so if I’m a businessman that knows how to, you know, make his own website I can just make a website for my business. It will be in demand, but that’s not my number one reason for studying it, I genuinely want to learn. But I do feel like I can use it to my advantage. I got a good feeling that it’s going to be in demand a little bit later, like down the line when I’m getting out of college and need to start my career.”
Interview with Sainey Singateh on April 8th, 2021. Shirts are available for purchase at https://branditprinting.co/product/fgi-nike-shirt/
