2025
Participant Accounts —
What participants have said after completing the courses
A selection of accounts from past participants — in their own words, describing what they came with and what they left understanding.
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In their own words
Zulaikha Ahmad
Petaling Jaya · Programme 2
"I have been receiving my EPF statement every year for the past eighteen years and I genuinely did not understand what Account 1 versus Account 3 meant for me practically. After the second session of the statements course, I finally got it. That alone was worth attending."
April 2025
Rajendran Nair
Shah Alam · Programme 3
"I am 54 and I kept putting off thinking seriously about retirement because I did not know where to start. Ahmad Hakimi walked me through my EPF, my PRS, and my Takaful schedule over five months — at a pace that let me actually absorb what each thing meant. The closing summary he wrote has been the most useful document I have received in years."
March 2025
Lim Hwee Peng
Kuala Lumpur · Programme 1
"The postcard exercise sounds simple — and it is, deliberately — but sitting down to actually write out what I hold, what I owe, and what my intentions are for the next ten years was more clarifying than I expected. I revisited the document three months later and realised some things had already shifted. I think I will keep doing this annually."
April 2025
Noraini Baharuddin
Cheras · Programme 2
"I appreciated that nothing was being sold to us. Every other financial seminar I have ever attended ended with someone explaining a product. Here it just… ended. With a written summary of what we had covered. That was refreshing. I learned more about my Takaful schedule in one session than I had gathered from twelve years of receiving the annual statement."
March 2025
Krishnamurthy Chandran
Bangsar · Programme 3
"My wife and I both attended the pre-retirement engagement separately — she went through the programme six months before I did. She had suggested it after her own experience. I came in somewhat sceptical and left with a written closing summary that I have since shared with my own financial planner as a starting point for our conversations."
May 2025
Siti Wardah
Ampang · Programme 1
"I was slightly nervous about being in a group setting for something as personal as finances. The group turned out to be six people, which felt manageable. The facilitator was careful not to put anyone on the spot. I came away with my postcard, a much clearer sense of where I actually stand, and some questions I had not thought to ask before."
April 2025
Case Studies
Three participant journeys, described in more detail
"I did not understand what my fund factsheet was telling me about charges"
The situation
A 47-year-old HR manager from Subang Jaya had been investing in unit trusts for nine years. She received fund factsheets quarterly but had never been able to understand the total expense ratio or the effect of the sales charge on her actual returns.
What the course addressed
Session four of the statements course covered fund factsheets specifically. The facilitator walked through a sample factsheet line by line, explaining the fee structures, the benchmark comparison tables, and the portfolio allocation disclosures she had previously skipped.
The outcome
She left the session able to read her own factsheets and compare fund charges across her existing holdings for the first time. She subsequently had a more specific and informed conversation with her existing fund distributor — not to change anything immediately, but to ask questions she had not previously known to ask.
"I did not realise I had been paying a 5.5% sales charge until we looked at it together. Not because it was hidden — it was there in the factsheet. I simply had never known what I was looking at."
"I wanted to understand my retirement picture before I spoke to anyone who might try to sell me something"
The situation
A 56-year-old civil engineer from Kuala Lumpur was eight years from his target retirement date. He held significant EPF savings, two Takaful policies, and an ASB account, but had never seen them examined together as a whole picture.
What the engagement covered
Over five months, the private sessions examined his three EPF accounts individually, assessed the likely healthcare cost trajectory for a couple of his age, reviewed the coverage and gaps in his Takaful policies, and discussed different withdrawal sequences across his savings vehicles.
The outcome
The written closing summary gave him a structured view of his retirement position for the first time. He has since made one modest change to his Takaful coverage based on gaps identified in the review, and uses the summary as a reference document in subsequent conversations with his existing advisors.
"I came in with a box of documents I had been collecting for years and leaving unread. I left with a single written summary that explained what all of them, taken together, actually meant for my situation."
"I had never actually sat down and listed what I have and what I owe, all in one place"
The situation
A 43-year-old secondary school teacher from Wangsa Maju had no clear mental picture of her own financial position. She was not in difficulty — she had savings, a home loan, and an EPF account — but she had never written it down.
What the course involved
The three-week introductory course guided her through the process of assembling a personal inventory — identifying her assets, liabilities, recurring outgoings, and financial intentions — and composing the postcard exercise that is the course's central artefact.
The outcome
She left with a written personal document she intends to revisit each year. She also noted that the act of writing had surfaced several questions about her home loan's remaining term and her EPF contributions that she had not consciously formed before the exercise.
"It is strange how writing something down — just three pages — can suddenly make it feel manageable. I do not think I knew what I was carrying until I actually wrote it out."
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