From Past Participants
What People Have Said After Completing a Programme
These are accounts from participants across our three programmes. We have not filtered for only positive responses.
← Back to HomeParticipant Accounts
In Their Own Words
Roslinda Osman
Kuching, Sarawak — April 2025
"I came to the one-day workshop with no background in economics and left feeling like I could actually sit with a DOSM report without shutting the tab after two minutes. The facilitator was careful not to tell us what to do with anything — it was just about reading. That was exactly what I needed."
Reading the Numbers Workshop
Chong Hock Wei
Kuching — March 2025
"The tracking programme changed how I have conversations at home. Before, we would just read headlines and feel unsettled. Now we have a record of our own spending patterns and we can place the news figure next to something real. The printed sheets were clearer than I expected."
Household Cost Tracking Programme
Norizan Abd Razak
Kota Samarahan — January 2025
"I am 58, retired, and I had honestly never read a CPI publication in my life. The Long-Horizon cohort walked at a pace I could follow, and having the same group of people every week made it easier to ask questions. The almanac reader is sitting on my shelf and I do still refer to it."
Long-Horizon Almanac Cohort
Yusri Bakar
Kuching — February 2025
"The programme was useful, though I will say the workbook took me longer to get through than I expected. That said, the facilitator was patient and the session on what the CPI basket leaves out was genuinely new information for me. I would consider the cohort next."
Reading the Numbers Workshop
Theresa Kho
Miri — April 2025
"I drove from Miri for the cohort. I know that sounds extreme but I had attended another financial workshop elsewhere that turned into a sales pitch halfway through, and a friend who had done this one said it was nothing like that. She was right. No pitch, no agenda, just the material."
Long-Horizon Almanac Cohort
Mohd Luqman Johari
Kuching — March 2025
"My wife and I did the tracking programme together. Having the exemplar templates to reference was helpful — we are not naturally organised people. By the fourth session we had three months of data and it changed how we read the monthly news. Slow but worth it."
Household Cost Tracking Programme
Participant Journeys
Three Detailed Accounts
These longer accounts come from participants who agreed to describe their experience in more detail. Names have been retained with permission.
Starting Point
Siti Hajar, a retired school administrator from Kuching, had been reading about rising prices for two years but found that news commentary made her feel anxious without giving her any better understanding of what was actually happening.
What She Did
She attended the one-day workshop, then enrolled in the Long-Horizon cohort six months later. By the fourth week of the cohort she was reading Bank Negara's quarterly reports directly rather than relying on summaries.
What Changed
"I still feel the prices — everyone does. But I understand now that the figure they report is not my figure. I can hold both things at once. That has made the anxiety smaller." — Ten-week cohort participant, January 2025.
Starting Point
A local cooperative society in Kuching booked six places in the Household Cost Tracking Programme for committee members who wanted to be more grounded in actual data when discussing member concerns about cost of living.
What They Did
The six members attended together and used the group dynamic to compare their own household tracking records across the four sessions, noting both commonalities and differences across different household compositions.
What Changed
Committee discussions now reference specific CPI categories rather than general statements about rising prices. Three of the six returned for the Long-Horizon cohort individually in the following intake. Completed February 2025.
Starting Point
Liew Boon Seng, 61, a former technical officer, came to the cohort after a conversation with his licensed financial planner left him feeling he did not understand enough about price trends to ask useful questions.
What He Did
He completed the full ten-week cohort and used the closing workbook to prepare three specific questions for his next meeting with his planner — questions grounded in actual index data rather than general concerns.
What Changed
"My planner said it was the most prepared I had ever come to a meeting. I do not know if that is a compliment to me or a comment on how I used to arrive." — Long-Horizon cohort, March 2025 intake.
By the Numbers
Six Years in Practice
340+
Participants completed a programme
92%
Rated materials as useful post-programme
40%+
Returned for a second programme
14
Long-Horizon cohorts completed since 2020
Professional Recognition
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22 Jalan Padungan93100 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
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Saturday: 9:00 am – 1:00 pm
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