QUIPU & CO — OUR STORY
Keeping faithful records of
one's own financial life
We are a small educational practice in George Town, Penang, working with adults who want to understand their own finances more clearly — without pressure, products, or jargon.
Return to homepageWHO WE ARE
How Quipu & Co came to be
Quipu & Co was founded in George Town by a small group of educators and former financial professionals who had each, in different ways, noticed the same gap: most Malaysians encounter their financial lives as a series of disconnected events — a salary, an EPF statement, an insurance renewal, a property loan — rather than as a coherent picture they can read and reason about.
The name comes from the quipu, an ancient Andean system of knotted cords used to record information — debts, census counts, calendars. We chose it because it captures something we believe in: that keeping records faithfully, in a form you yourself understand, is not a technical skill but a human one. It has been practised in many different forms, in many different cultures, for a very long time.
Our work is not financial advice. We do not hold a license to advise on investments or insurance, and we do not seek one. What we do is teach: how to read your own records, how to categorise your spending honestly, how to understand the shape of your retirement options before you need to act on them, and how to build a household filing system that survives beyond the person who started it.
We work with adults at different stages. Some come to the Saturday workshop having never written down where their money goes. Some come to the Pre-Retirement Reading Programme with a decade of EPF contributions and no clear sense of what their options actually are. Some come as a household, wanting to build something their whole family can maintain.
In every case, we try to follow the same principles: move at the pace of the person in front of us, use plain language, avoid selling anything, and leave decisions with the participant. We are based at a heritage shophouse on Lebuh Pantai in George Town — a place we chose because it reflects the kind of quiet, unhurried atmosphere we try to bring to the work itself.
Our programmes are conducted in English, with Bahasa Malaysia available on request.
THE PEOPLE
Who you will work with
Norzahra Razak
Lead Facilitator
Former senior accounts manager with fourteen years in Malaysian commercial banking. Norzahra leads the Personal Ledger workshops and the Pre-Retirement Reading sessions.
Tan Eng Liang
Engagement Facilitator
Background in adult education and household financial literacy. Eng Liang leads Family Record-Keeping engagements and co-facilitates the Saturday workshops.
Davin Subramaniam
Programme Coordinator
Handles scheduling, materials preparation, and participant correspondence. Davin ensures each engagement runs smoothly from first enquiry to concluding session.
OUR STANDARDS
How we run our programmes
Participant confidentiality
Financial figures and documents shared during any engagement are treated as strictly confidential. Information is not disclosed to third parties and is not retained beyond the engagement without permission.
No conflicts of interest
We do not sell financial products, earn referral fees, or receive commissions from any third party. Our only income is programme fees paid directly by participants.
Accurate, current materials
Workshop and programme materials are reviewed annually and updated when EPF rules, tax thresholds, or PRS regulations change. Participants receive the current version at the time of their session.
Modest group sizes
Saturday workshops are capped to allow the facilitator to attend to questions and adjust pace. We do not fill seats to maximise revenue — the group size is set by what works educationally.
Written programme outlines
Every participant receives a written outline of what their programme covers before they commit. There are no surprises about content or structure.
Feedback after each programme
We ask participants for written feedback at the end of every workshop and engagement. That feedback shapes the next version of the programme.
OUR POSITION
On financial education in Malaysia
Financial literacy in Malaysia tends to be delivered in one of two modes: either as broad public campaigns that cover general principles without addressing the specifics of any individual's situation, or as sales-driven seminars where product recommendations are the underlying purpose. There is relatively little provision for adults who want to sit with someone knowledgeable, go through their actual records, and develop their own understanding at their own pace.
That is the gap Quipu & Co exists to fill. We work at the level of the individual household — the actual bank statements, the actual EPF projection, the actual insurance schedule. We believe that financial clarity is not primarily a matter of motivation or discipline but of having reliable records and understanding what they show. Our work starts there.
GET IN TOUCH
Would any of our programmes be useful to you?
We are happy to have an initial conversation — no obligation — to help you work out whether the timing and the format might suit where you are.
Enquire at your pace