Orinthia Reading Programmes
Participant experiences

What Participants Say

Honest Accounts from Adults Who Attended Our Reading Circles

The reflections below come from participants across our three programmes. They are shared with permission and have not been edited for tone.

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6

Years in Operation

380+

Programme Participants

4.7

Average Rating (out of 5)

94%

Would Recommend

Participant Reviews

What People Have Shared With Us

LH

Liang Hui Tan

School principal · Bishan

"I'd been receiving CPF statements for twenty-something years and honestly skimming them. After the reading group, I sat down with my most recent one and actually read the whole thing. That sounds like a small thing, but it didn't feel small."

CPF Reading Group · April 2025

RC

Rohit Chandra

Regional manager · Toa Payoh

"The Saturday mornings work well for me because I have the rest of the day to turn ideas over. One thing I'd say is that the sessions are quite text-heavy — which I happen to like, but it's worth knowing going in. The Pre-Retirement Circle is genuinely different from anything else I've found in Singapore."

Pre-Retirement Reading Circle · March 2025

NW

Nancy Wong

HR director · Orchard

"My folder was a disaster. A literal mess of envelopes going back to 2009. After the four evenings with Orinthia I have a system that I can actually maintain. The folder system they provide is well thought through — it maps to how financial institutions actually correspond with you."

Document Organisation Programme · April 2025

SK

Suresh Krishnamurti

Retired civil servant · Clementi

"I was skeptical before I attended. I'm in my late fifties and I've heard many talks about retirement planning. This was different because nobody was trying to sell me anything. Rachel just walked us through the documentation and answered questions. I left knowing more vocabulary and nothing else, which is exactly what I needed."

CPF Reading Group · February 2025

JP

Jennifer Phua

Freelance consultant · Buona Vista

"The SRS session was the one that really landed for me. I'd heard the acronym many times but I'd never sat down and read what it actually involved. Having the group discussion around it meant I came away with a much clearer picture of what questions I'd want to bring to an adviser of my own."

Pre-Retirement Reading Circle · January 2025

AL

Aigerim Lim

Healthcare administrator · Tampines

"I attended with my sister. We'd been meaning to sort our documents for years. What I appreciated most was that David didn't judge the state we were in — plenty of others in the group were in similar situations. The digital naming convention alone saved me hours the following weekend."

Document Organisation Programme · March 2025

Participant Journeys

Three Participant Stories

Starting Point

A 52-year-old accountant who had been contributing to CPF for over two decades arrived at the reading group knowing almost nothing about how her balances would behave past 55. She had received two employer letters about CPF Life in the previous year and had not opened either of them.

The Programme

She joined the CPF Reading Group. Across four sessions, the group read through CPF's own account documentation and the CPF Life scheme guide. She opened those letters at home between sessions two and three and brought specific vocabulary questions to the next discussion.

What Changed

"I'm not an unintelligent person. The problem was that I'd never made time for it. Having four sessions in the calendar forced that time, and the group made it interesting. I know what questions to ask my adviser now, which I didn't before."

Starting Point

A 55-year-old teacher approaching his final working years felt that conversations about retirement with his wife kept stalling at the level of vocabulary. He knew roughly what CPF was, but phrases like "drawdown rate" and "bequest amount" made no sense to him in context.

The Programme

He attended the Pre-Retirement Reading Circle over six months. The annuity vocabulary session in month three was the most useful for him — the facilitator read through two scheme guides side by side, and the group worked through the terms together.

What Changed

"By month four, my wife and I were having different conversations. Not because I had answers, but because we were both asking better questions. We engaged a financial planner in month five, which we'd been meaning to do for two years."

Starting Point

A 47-year-old business owner had kept all her personal finance paperwork in a single filing cabinet drawer that had accumulated without any system for eleven years. She had three insurance policies, a mortgage, and CPF statements she could not easily locate when needed.

The Programme

She joined the Document Organisation Programme. Over four evenings she worked through the programme's filing categories, applied the digital naming conventions to her scanned documents, and built a physical folder system from the materials provided.

What Changed

"It took me about two weekends to apply everything to my actual documents. Longer than I expected, but only because there was more to do than I'd admitted to myself. The system holds. Six months later it still works, which previous attempts have not managed."

Reach Us

Contact Orinthia

Address

138 Robinson Road, #14-08
Oxley Tower, Singapore 068906

Office Hours

Mon–Fri: 9am–5:30pm
Sat: 9am–12:30pm

Professional Standards

Adult Education Forum Recognition

Cited as a model of small-group financial literacy delivery, Singapore 2024

PDPA-Compliant Operations

All participant data handled in accordance with Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act

Qualified Adult Educators

All facilitators hold postgraduate qualifications in adult learning or curriculum design

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If you'd like to know more about any programme before committing, we're happy to have a brief conversation. There is no pressure and no follow-up if the timing isn't right.

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