About Us
A small school devoted to long, careful thinking about money.
Intan Tuah was founded with the belief that financial understanding is not something you either have or don't — it is something that grows, steadily, through honest observation and quiet study.
Back to HomeOur Story
Founded in Bangsar Baru with a particular kind of learner in mind.
Intan Tuah began in 2019 as a small reading group held fortnightly at a shophouse in Jalan Telawi. The original participants were neighbours and friends in their late 40s — people with solid careers and household responsibilities, who felt they had never quite learned to read a fund statement without a vague sense of unease.
The group found that what they needed was not tips or shortcuts, but a patient, unhurried space to look at real financial documents together and ask honest questions. From that fortnightly habit, the first course took shape.
Today, Intan Tuah offers three structured programmes — each designed around the same principle that launched the original group: that understanding comes from sitting with something long enough to see it clearly, and that there is no shortcut worth taking.
We are based in Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur. Our participants are mostly Malaysian, mostly in their 40s and 50s, and mostly people who have arrived at a point in life where they would like their relationship with their own finances to feel more considered.
Our Mission
To help Malaysians in their 40s and beyond develop a careful, grounded understanding of their own financial documents and arrangements — so that they can make decisions from a position of knowledge rather than uncertainty.
Our Approach
We use real, publicly available Malaysian financial documents as teaching material. We do not manufacture hypothetical scenarios. We pace our programmes around real lives — 2 to 5 hours per week — and we write in plain prose throughout.
Our Values
Patience over urgency. Clarity over complexity. Honesty about what a course can and cannot teach. We do not make financial decisions for participants — we help them make better-informed ones for themselves.
The Team
The people behind the programmes.
Zaharah Ramli
Founder & Lead Educator
A former corporate treasury analyst with 18 years in Malaysian financial services. Zaharah left institutional work in 2018 to focus on building accessible financial education for people outside the industry.
Khor Yee Ling
Programme Coordinator
Yee Ling manages participant enrolments, pacing schedules, and the printed workbook materials. She joined Intan Tuah in 2021 after a decade in adult education at a Kuala Lumpur polytechnic.
Farouk Ibrahim
Licensed Financial Planner
SC-licensed and fee-only, Farouk leads the one-to-one planner sessions in the Retirement Portfolio programme. He does not earn product commissions and works independently of any fund house.
Our Standards
What we commit to, and how we hold to it.
SC-Licensed Planner Involvement
Where participants work with a financial planner, that planner holds a valid Securities Commission licence and operates on a fee-only basis.
Real Document Policy
All case study documents used in our courses are publicly available. We do not manufacture fictitious financial statements or use invented fund names.
Data Privacy
Participant personal information is held securely and is never shared with third parties for marketing or commercial purposes. We are compliant with Malaysia's PDPA requirements.
Honest Scope
We are clear in all programme materials that our courses are educational, not regulated financial advice. Participants are encouraged to seek independent professional advice for significant financial decisions.
Annual Content Review
Course materials are reviewed each year to reflect changes in Malaysian regulatory requirements, EPF structures, SC fund rules, and publicly available reporting formats.
Participant-Centred Flexibility
If a participant needs more time, we accommodate. Our programmes are structured by weeks, not locked to rigid calendar windows. Learning is the measure, not speed.
Our Expertise
Intan Tuah occupies a specific and deliberate position in Malaysian financial education. Our work is not for young adults building their first budget, nor for finance professionals updating their technical knowledge. It is for people who have reached their 40s with solid life experience and would now like their financial understanding to match it.
The Malaysian financial landscape — EPF contributions, unit trust reporting under Securities Commission regulations, Bursa Malaysia disclosures, Amanah Saham fund structures — is specific and, to an unfamiliar reader, occasionally opaque. Our courses treat that specificity with seriousness. We do not import generic international frameworks when local ones apply.
We operate from Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur, but most of our participants join online from across peninsular Malaysia and from East Malaysia. We welcome enquiries from Malaysians living abroad who retain significant financial interests in Malaysia.
Financial understanding, at any stage, is worth the effort it takes to build. Intan Tuah exists to make that effort productive, orderly, and — as much as possible — absorbing.
Curious about what we offer?
Take a look at our three programmes, or write to us with a question about your particular situation. We are glad to hear from you.