About Marbeth
Reading the Landscape Together, at a Considered Pace
Marbeth was founded in 2011 by a group of educators and financial commentators who noticed something consistent: many Singaporeans approaching their forties and fifties had spent their working lives building savings and managing households — but relatively few felt confident reading a CPF statement, understanding an LPA document, or walking into a conversation with a financial planner without feeling behind.
The name Marbeth draws on a quiet tribute to two founding members' mothers — both of whom, in their late sixties, expressed that they wished someone had simply explained things to them earlier in plain language. That observation became the founding premise: financial literacy should be accessible, unhurried, and framed around the actual landscape Singaporeans inhabit.
From a single reading circle meeting in a shophouse meeting room near Tanjong Pagar, the format grew through word of mouth among professionals, civil servants, and educators who found the deliberate pace suited them far better than seminars or one-off talks. Today, Marbeth runs three structured programmes across the year, each one capped at a small cohort size to preserve the quality of discussion.
The team behind Marbeth holds a firm position: this organisation offers educational reading and discussion. It does not advise. It does not recommend products. Participants leave better equipped to ask sharper questions of the professionals they already work with — or to seek those conversations with greater confidence than before.
Founded
2011
Programmes Run
3 Series
Max Cohort Size
14 Participants
Location
47 Tras Street, #03-12
Singapore 079010
Our Mission
"To make Singapore's financial landscape readable — one small cohort at a time."
We hold to three principles across everything we do: that understanding comes before action, that small groups learn better than large ones, and that the Singapore context matters — so all our materials, scenarios, and vocabulary are drawn from here, not adapted from elsewhere.
The People Behind Marbeth
Our Team
Dr Lim Teck Hwee
Programme Director
Former lecturer in economics at a Singapore polytechnic, Teck Hwee has spent over two decades translating complex policy frameworks into accessible reading material. He leads curriculum development across all three Marbeth programmes.
Sunita Rajendran
Facilitation Lead
With a background in adult education and community development, Sunita designs and leads the discussion facilitation across Marbeth workshops. Her sessions are known for their calm structure and the space they give quieter voices.
Chen Chiew Fong
Materials & Research
Chiew Fong maintains the reading materials for each programme, updating workbooks and glossaries as Singapore's CPF policies, estate planning legislation, and household finance landscape evolves. She has contributed to Marbeth since its third year.
How We Work
Our Educational Standards
No Advisory Boundary
All content is clearly educational. No programme makes financial recommendations. Participants are consistently directed toward qualified professionals for personal decisions.
Annual Content Review
Workbooks and reference guides are reviewed each year against current CPF policy updates, legislative changes, and feedback from past cohorts to maintain accuracy.
Participant Confidentiality
Personal details shared during sessions remain within the room. Participant directories are opt-in. No personal financial information is collected as part of any programme.
Cohort Size Discipline
Cohort limits are held to regardless of demand. Where sessions fill, a waiting list is maintained and participants offered priority placement in the next available cohort.
Written Materials Standard
All workbooks are written in plain English and reviewed for clarity by adult education specialists before each programme year. Jargon is defined within the material, not assumed.
Facilitator Standards
Facilitators hold relevant backgrounds in education or public policy, not financial services. This preserves the educational character of sessions and avoids the format drifting toward sales or advisory territory.
Our Approach to Financial Literacy
Reading First. Understanding Before Action.
Marbeth sits at the intersection of adult education and financial literacy — a deliberately narrow position held with care. The organisation has long observed that Singaporeans at mid-life carry a significant practical interest in understanding their financial landscape but often lack a calm, structured setting in which to build that understanding without commercial pressure.
The CPF system, for instance, is one of the most comprehensive national savings frameworks in the region. Yet many individuals approaching retirement age still find CPF statements difficult to read, SRS contribution windows confusing to plan around, or the interaction between ordinary and special accounts unclear. The Retirement Readiness Reading Series addresses this directly — not through lectures, but through a six-session reading and discussion programme where participants arrive prepared and use classroom time to clarify, question, and connect what they have read.
Similarly, the Household Budget Conversations workshop recognises that mid-life financial decisions rarely happen in isolation. Sending a child to university, supporting an ageing parent, and managing a mortgage refinancing are conversations that couples and families often find difficult to structure. The workshop provides frameworks drawn from local Singapore household contexts — not generic templates adapted from elsewhere.
The Estate and Legacy Planning Literacy Programme addresses a topic that many adults defer for longer than they intend. Wills, LPA documents, advance care directives, and CPF nominations are matters that most Singaporeans aged 45 and above should understand in general terms — not to act without professional guidance, but to approach those conversations from a position of informed literacy rather than uncertainty. Marbeth's eight-session evening programme was designed for precisely this purpose.
Across all three programmes, the Marbeth approach holds to a consistent standard: education, not advice. Reading, not prescription. Discussion, not sales. That clarity of purpose has shaped the organisation since its founding and remains the organising principle behind everything published under the Marbeth name.
Find Out Which Programme Suits You
We are glad to answer questions about any of our reading series or workshops before you enrol. There is no obligation in getting in touch.
Get in Touch