Our Story
How Orinthia Came to Be
Orinthia was founded in Singapore in 2019 by a small group of adult educators and former public sector professionals who had spent decades watching colleagues approach retirement-adjacent decisions without the vocabulary to navigate them confidently.
The observation was specific: it wasn't that people lacked intelligence or interest. They lacked a reading habit around the subject. CPF documentation, SRS scheme guides, annuity product disclosures — these are written in a register that rewards patience and practice. Most people encounter them only at moments of pressure, when there is too much at stake to read slowly.
The founders wanted to change that timing. By establishing a reading circle format — small groups, advance materials, guided conversation — Orinthia creates space to engage with this vocabulary before decisions are on the table. The format borrows from literary reading groups and from the best adult education traditions in Singapore's continuing education landscape.
Our Mission
Vocabulary First. Decisions Later.
Orinthia's mission is to give Singapore adults aged 40 and above the reading fluency to understand the personal finance landscape they inhabit — without steering them toward any particular course of action.
We do not hold a financial advisory licence. We do not receive referral fees. We do not recommend products. Our facilitators are adult educators and curriculum specialists, not financial planners. When participants ask questions that touch on their specific circumstances, they are directed to engage a licenced financial adviser independently.
The distinction matters to us and to the people who attend our sessions. Reading circles exist to build understanding. Advice exists to recommend action. We do only the former.
The People Behind Orinthia
Our Facilitators
Rachel Ng
Lead Facilitator & Programme Director
Rachel spent fifteen years in public sector adult education before founding Orinthia. She leads the CPF Landscape and Pre-Retirement reading circles and wrote the curriculum for both.
David Lim
Programme Facilitator — Document Organisation
David worked for over a decade in records management before shifting to adult education. He developed the Document Organisation Programme and facilitates all four of its evening sessions.
Aishah Karim
Curriculum Specialist & Cohort Coordinator
Aishah manages reading material selection, cohort scheduling, and the private cohort newsletters for the Pre-Retirement Reading Circle. She holds a postgraduate qualification in adult learning design.
Our Standards
How We Maintain Programme Quality
Educator-Led Curriculum
All reading materials and session structures are designed by qualified adult educators, not by financial industry professionals or sales staff.
Group Size Limits
Cohorts are capped at eight to twelve participants. This is not a commercial compromise — it is the upper limit at which discussion remains genuinely collaborative.
Source-Referenced Materials
Reading packs cite original government and scheme documentation. Participants can verify any statement directly at its source. We do not produce interpretive commentary that obscures provenance.
No Advisory Relationship
Orinthia is an educational provider, not a financial advisory firm. Participant enquiries that cross into specific personal finance recommendations are clearly referred to licenced professionals.
Participant Privacy
Personal information is held only for programme administration. Sessions are not recorded. Nothing shared within reading circle discussions leaves the group. Our Privacy Policy details all data handling practices.
Annual Curriculum Review
Materials are reviewed before each programme cycle to reflect changes in CPF policy, SRS rules, MediShield Life updates, and other scheme changes that affect the reading content.
Our Values
What Orinthia Stands For
Adult learning works best when it is voluntary, well-paced, and free of commercial pressure. Singapore has a sophisticated infrastructure for financial planning — CPF, the SRS, MediShield Life, and a well-regulated advisory sector. What many adults lack is not access to that infrastructure, but familiarity with its vocabulary before they need to use it.
Orinthia's reading circles are built around the conviction that this familiarity is worth developing quietly, over time, in good company. The Pre-Retirement Reading Circle, for instance, covers six distinct vocabulary areas across six months — not because the material is complex, but because spacing allows ideas to settle. A participant who reads about drawdown concepts in April and has a chance to discuss them over coffee, then returns to them in a personal context in May, is building something more durable than a one-day seminar could provide.
The Document Organisation Programme exists for a different reason. Paperwork avoidance is common among mid-life adults. The consequences of disorganised financial records become visible at precisely the wrong moments — during estate administration, when applying for aged care support, or when assisting a parent through a medical event. The programme takes a practical, non-judgmental approach: here are the documents, here are structured ways to manage them, here are the questions worth asking a professional.
Orinthia operates from Oxley Tower in the Tanjong Pagar area of Singapore — a location chosen for its accessibility by public transport and its proximity to the working adults and near-retirees who form our participant base. We run programmes year-round with rolling cohort intakes. If you would like to understand which programme suits your current stage, we are happy to have a brief conversation before you commit to anything.
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We'd Be Glad to Hear From You
Whether you have a specific programme in mind or simply want to understand what the sessions are like, feel free to reach out. There is no obligation and no follow-up if you decide the timing isn't right.
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