Participant Experiences
What Participants Have Said
Adults from a wide range of backgrounds and life stages have attended Pelangi programmes. A selection of their reflections is gathered here.
Reviews
From Programme Participants
Tan Kah Wee
Marine Parade, Singapore
I attended the Money Talks group in March and found it useful in a way I did not expect. The facilitator did not assume anything. She started from what each person in the room actually knew, not from what the textbook says we should know. I left the fourth session with a much clearer picture of what my household actually looks like.
Open Verandah Money Talks · April 2025
Siti Mariam bte Rashid
Tampines, Singapore
The Rattan Investor Course took nine weeks but it felt like the right pace. There was time to ask questions between sessions, and by week five I had already started looking at my CPF statements differently. The two facilitators made a real difference — one would explain, the other would notice who still looked confused and address that before moving on.
Rattan Investor Course · March 2025
G. Narayanan
Buona Vista, Singapore
My wife and I did the Quiet Garden Track because we wanted a private conversation about retirement and about my small business. We had three sessions before we started having conversations at home that we had been avoiding for years. The written summary after each session was something I did not expect — it is genuinely useful to have a record of what was discussed.
Quiet Garden Track · April 2025
Lee Chin Hua
Toa Payoh, Singapore
I had tried other financial seminars before and always felt like I was sitting through a product pitch with a thin layer of education on top. Pelangi was different. Nobody mentioned any product at all. The whole four sessions were simply about understanding what you have and how to think about it. That was what I needed.
Open Verandah Money Talks · May 2025
Priya Lakshmi
Clementi, Singapore
The investing course went into more depth than I expected, which I appreciated. By the end I had a reasonable understanding of what index funds actually are, why fees matter so much over twenty years, and how I should be thinking about my portfolio relative to my timeline. Some sessions were more challenging than others but the pace was patient throughout.
Rattan Investor Course · February 2025
Wong Hui Lin
Bishan, Singapore
I enrolled my mother and myself in the Money Talks after she turned sixty-five and neither of us felt confident about what her CPF would actually look like. The sessions answered questions neither of us had been willing to ask out loud before. Very measured, very calm, never once did we feel pressured.
Open Verandah Money Talks · April 2025
Case Studies
Three Household Journeys
The Challenge
A couple in their early fifties had been putting off reviewing their household finances for several years. They had a property, CPF accounts, a small unit trust portfolio from the 1990s and no clear picture of how all of it fitted together. Neither felt confident raising the topic with the other.
The Programme
They enrolled in the Quiet Garden Track and used the six sessions to work through the household balance sheet together for the first time. Conversations covered the property, the old unit trusts, CPF at sixty-five and how to talk to their adult daughter about the household's affairs.
The Outcome
By the end of the programme they had a clear written picture of the household balance sheet, had made a decision about the old unit trusts and had had the conversation with their daughter they had been avoiding. Neither felt the programme told them what to do — but both felt they finally knew what they were deciding between.
The Challenge
A civil servant in his mid-forties had accumulated a CPF balance and some savings but had never invested beyond those. He wanted to understand whether he should be doing more and, if so, what that might look like — without having to rely on a broker whose interests he was unsure about.
The Programme
He enrolled in the Rattan Investor Course. The nine sessions gave him a systematic understanding of investment categories, costs, index funds and Singapore bonds — well enough that he could then have an informed conversation with his bank.
The Outcome
He completed the course and returned to his bank's investment advisor three months later with a clearer brief. He told us he had finally understood the difference between what the advisor was suggesting and what a lower-cost alternative might look like — and that he now felt able to have that conversation directly.
The Challenge
A woman who had recently inherited partial responsibility for her mother's finances felt unprepared. Her mother was in her late seventies, had a small CPF balance and savings she did not fully understand. The daughter wanted to approach the topic carefully without causing alarm.
The Programme
She attended the Open Verandah Money Talks first, to get her own bearings. She then enquired about the Quiet Garden Track for a series of conversations that included practical questions about CPF nomination, healthcare protection and what she needed to understand about her mother's savings.
The Outcome
She described the process as useful in two directions at once — she understood her own household better after the group programme and felt equipped to manage her mother's affairs after the bespoke sessions. The written summaries were particularly useful for keeping track of what had been decided.
Reach Us Directly
If you have a question about a programme before enrolling, we are happy to respond.
Address
168 Beach Road, #21-07
Singapore 189744
At a Glance
Pelangi by the Numbers
7+
Years operating in Singapore
840+
Adults who have attended a programme
4.8/5
Average participant satisfaction score
14
Rattan Investor Course cohorts completed
Adult Learning Recognition
Institute for Adult Learning Singapore, 2024
PDPA Compliant Practice
Data governance reviewed annually
Community Partner
Recognised partner of selected Singapore community clubs since 2021
Your Turn
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