A reading room, not a sales floor.
Permata was founded on the belief that adults who take the time to read carefully about money can manage their own affairs — and their own household — with quiet confidence.
Back to HomeHow Permata came to be.
Permata began in 2019 when a small group of colleagues, each of them past forty, realised that none of them had ever read a book about their own finances with any real attention. They had accumulated CPF balances, inherited some unit trusts, and made a few decisions they were not entirely sure about — but they had never sat down and thought carefully about what they were doing or why.
The founding reader, who had spent three decades working in regional banking across Singapore and Malaysia, offered to lead a small reading group. Six people attended the first session, held one Saturday morning in a room at the Telok Ayer office. By the following month there were twelve. By the end of the year, Permata had become a proper educational organisation with a small but considered curriculum.
The name Permata — meaning gem or jewel in Malay — was chosen with care. The founders wanted something that felt rooted in the region, quiet rather than flashy, and that spoke to the value of something accumulated gradually over time.
Today Permata offers three structured programmes for adults at or approaching the second half of their working lives. The reading group format has never changed. Sessions are unhurried. Questions are welcomed. No one is told what to buy or sell.
Our mission
To give Singapore adults in their forties, fifties and beyond a calm, structured way to understand money — so that they can make their own decisions with care, rather than rely on advice they cannot fully evaluate.
What we are not
We are not a financial adviser, a broker, a fund manager, or an insurance intermediary. We hold no licence to give regulated financial advice. We earn our income from programme fees alone and have no commercial relationship with any financial product provider.
Where we meet
Our office is at 132 Telok Ayer Street, #08-03, Singapore 068601 — a quiet floor above the street, with long shelves of books and a kettle that is always on. Video sessions are conducted online for those who cannot come in person.
Those who lead the sessions.
Raymond Heng
Founder & Lead Reader
Thirty years in regional banking across Singapore and Malaysia, including a decade in private banking. Raymond left institutional finance to focus on financial education for people who had been underserved by the industry.
Lim Wei Shan
Programme Facilitator
A former secondary school teacher who retrained in personal finance after reaching fifty and finding the available resources either too basic or too technical. Wei Shan leads the Household Finance Programme.
Priya Nair
Curriculum & Content
Priya selects and annotates the reading materials for each programme, ensuring the texts are accessible to those without a formal finance background. She also manages the online discussion platform.
How we maintain the quality of our programmes.
Every programme is reviewed annually. Materials are updated when regulations change — particularly for CPF and SRS structures — and readings are refreshed when better texts are published.
Continuing professional development
All Permata facilitators maintain CPD hours each year through the Singapore Institute of Banking and Finance and relevant industry bodies.
Regulatory awareness
We track MAS guidelines and CPF Board circulars carefully. Course materials are updated when rules change so that participants always receive current information.
Participant privacy
We collect only the information necessary to enrol and communicate with participants. We do not share names, contact details or financial situations with any third party.
Curated reading lists
Every recommended text is read in full by the curriculum team before inclusion. We do not recommend books on the basis of publisher relationships or commissions.
Annual programme review
Each programme is reviewed every twelve months by the founding team, drawing on participant feedback and changes in the financial landscape to refine the materials.
Structured participant feedback
We collect written feedback at the conclusion of every cohort. Participants are also invited to a brief debrief session four weeks after completion.
Financial understanding, built carefully over time.
Permata operates in a particular space within Singapore's financial landscape. We are not wealth managers, advisers or product distributors. We are educators — and we believe that the distinction matters enormously for the adults we work with.
Our target participants are people who have reached the age of forty or beyond with working knowledge of their own finances but without the kind of structured understanding that comes from reading carefully and thinking systematically. They may have contributed to their CPF for years without fully understanding the Retirement Sum framework. They may have bought a few unit trusts on the recommendation of a bank relationship manager without understanding what they were buying. They are intelligent, capable adults who simply have not had a calm place to learn.
CPF, Singapore Savings Bonds, SRS, SGS bonds, index funds and exchange-traded funds all have their proper place in a Singapore household's financial life. Understanding each instrument — what it is, how it works, what risks it carries and what it cannot do — is within the reach of any attentive adult reader. Permata's role is to help that reading happen in a structured, unhurried way.
We are proud to serve a demographic that the broader financial industry sometimes overlooks: adults who are past the point of chasing aggressive growth and who want, instead, a portfolio they can understand, manage and live with through the next twenty or thirty years. That is a worthy goal, and one that thoughtful financial education can genuinely support.
Find the programme that suits where you are now.
Write to us. There is no pressure, and no obligation. Tell us a little about your situation and we will suggest where to begin.
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