In their own words.

I joined the Reading Companion after putting it off for about three years. I had bought two unit trusts in 2019 on the advice of my bank's relationship manager and realised fairly quickly I did not understand what I had bought. The companion gave me a proper starting point — not a sales pitch dressed up as education. By the third week I understood the difference between active and passive funds, which sounds basic but I genuinely did not before. Worth every dollar.

April 2025

The Household Finance Programme was exactly what I had been looking for. I am fifty-one years old and had been contributing to CPF for nearly thirty years without really understanding the Retirement Sum framework at all. It sounds embarrassing to admit, but no one had ever explained it to me properly. The course did that in a way that was organised and easy to follow. Raymond answered every question without making anyone feel foolish for asking.

April 2025

I did the Slow Portfolio Workshop with my wife, which was perhaps the best decision we made last year. We had been having different conversations about money for years — I was inclined to do more, she was more cautious — and this gave us a shared vocabulary and a shared framework to work from. One star off only because the fortnightly schedule was occasionally difficult to manage around travel. The content itself was very solid.

March 2025

The thing I appreciated most about Permata is that there was never any attempt to sell me anything. I have been to several financial planning seminars over the years and they all end with a product recommendation. This did not. The reading was demanding — more demanding than I expected — but that turned out to be a good thing. I feel that I actually understand what I am doing now, rather than just following instructions.

April 2025

I enrolled in the Household Finance Programme shortly after I retired, which was an odd time to start — I felt I should have done it twenty years earlier. But the content was relevant even at my stage. I now understand my CPF MediShield Life coverage and my SRS account in a way I simply did not before. The group discussion format meant I also heard questions I had not thought to ask myself.

March 2025

I came to the Reading Companion quite sceptically — I have a busy schedule and was not sure six weeks of reading would move the needle. It did, though. The curated list was genuinely well chosen; these were not obvious titles. I went on to join the Slow Portfolio Workshop the following cohort. The only small criticism is that I would have liked a slightly longer discussion session each week, but that may be a personal preference.

April 2025