Participant Accounts

What People Say After Completing a Programme

These are accounts from past participants — written in their own words, shared with permission. We have not edited them for enthusiasm.

Back to Home

Reviews

From Past Participants

Sunee Manotham

Chiang Mai · Retired Teacher

I attended the Beginner's Mind programme in April and honestly wasn't sure what to expect. I've avoided financial topics for years because I felt behind. What I found was a room where nobody was in a hurry to get through material — the facilitator genuinely waited for questions and the examples were things I actually recognised from my own banking experience here. I felt less embarrassed about not knowing things by the end of the first session.

May 2025

Richard Hawthorne

Chiang Mai · Expat, UK · Retired

I took the Advisor Conversation workshop after a frustrating experience with a bank representative who had spent forty minutes explaining a product I hadn't asked about. The workshop gave me a checklist and — more importantly — the confidence to use it. My next meeting was markedly different. I asked questions, understood the answers, and left without buying anything I hadn't gone in for. The checklist is still in my notebook.

April 2025

Kanokwan Prateep

Chiang Mai · Civil Servant

The Long Horizon programme changed how I think about the next twenty years rather than just the next twenty months. I had always understood that compounding works but never really sat with what it means in practical terms for a household like mine. The workbook we received is something I've returned to several times since the programme ended. I would recommend starting with the Beginner's Mind programme first if you haven't done that one yet.

May 2025

Mira Vanhanen

Chiang Mai · Finnish Expat · Freelancer

I was somewhat sceptical before attending — I've sat through financial education that turns out to be a sales pitch in disguise. What made this different was that nothing was for sale. The facilitator was there to explain things, not to steer us toward any product or platform. The group was small enough that conversations were real rather than performative. I left with a clearer sense of what questions I still need to answer about my own finances.

April 2025

Wanchai Thongprasom

Chiang Mai · Business Owner

My wife and I attended the Beginner's Mind programme together, which I'd suggest as an option for other couples. It helped us talk about money in a different way — more as a topic with some structure to it rather than a source of vague anxiety. I didn't expect to find the foundational questions that the facilitator opened with each evening so useful. I've been asking those questions of myself since.

May 2025

Anne Lindgren

Chiang Mai · Swedish Expat · Lecturer

The Long Horizon programme suited the way I think about things. Six months is long enough to actually absorb material rather than rushing through it. The monthly sessions gave me time to reflect between meetings and the workbook gave those reflections somewhere to go. My one comment would be that some sessions could have gone deeper into the data — but that is a minor point. The programme is genuinely thoughtful.

April 2025

Case Studies

Three Participant Journeys

Challenge

A 52-year-old Chiang Mai resident had accumulated savings over a career but had never engaged with any investment vehicle. A bank visit had left her with paperwork she couldn't interpret and a product she wasn't sure she had consented to.

Programme

She attended the Beginner's Mind programme in January, then the Advisor Conversation workshop in March. The timeline between the two allowed her to process the first programme before preparing for the specific challenge of future bank interactions.

Outcome

She returned to the bank with her checklist, understood the product she had previously signed, and asked to have it reviewed. She describes the experience as having given her a different relationship with financial institutions — not adversarial, but less passive.

"I now go to the bank knowing what I want to know. That's a change I didn't expect from a four-evening course."

Challenge

A couple in their late forties, one Thai and one Australian, had different inherited approaches to money. The Australian had a pension from a previous employer but no engagement with Thai financial systems; the Thai partner managed household finances but had never formalised her approach.

Programme

Both attended the Beginner's Mind programme together in February. They then enrolled separately in the Long Horizon programme — she in March, he joining the following cohort in April — and shared workbook reflections informally between sessions.

Outcome

The couple describe the programmes as having given them a shared vocabulary for conversations they had previously found difficult to start. The workbooks became a basis for their own household planning discussions across the six months.

"We had never talked about money across more than thirty years apart. The course gave us a language for it."

Challenge

A 58-year-old who had sold a small business found himself with a lump sum and no framework for thinking about what to do with it over the next decade. He had received advice from three different parties and found the recommendations contradictory.

Programme

He attended the Long Horizon programme. He described having some prior knowledge of investing but no framework for evaluating the advice he was receiving relative to his own situation and timeline. The monthly pacing suited his preference for reflection.

Outcome

He came to see the contradictions in the advice he had received as differences in assumption about his time horizon rather than dishonesty. The programme helped him clarify his own assumptions — not what to do, but how to think about the decision on his own terms.

"I stopped looking for someone to tell me the answer and started working out what my own answer actually was."

At a Glance

Nava Wealth in Numbers

Years Running

740+

Participants

4.6

Avg. Rating /5

38%

Return for Second Programme

Contact

Reach Us Directly

Phone

+66 2 397 5841

[email protected]

Address

67 Tha Phae Road, Chang Khlan
Chiang Mai 50100, Thailand

Office Hours

Mon – Fri: 9:00 – 17:00
Sat: 9:00 – 13:00

If you have a question about any programme, or would like to find out when the next cohort runs, the quickest way is to write a short email or call during office hours. We answer enquiries personally.

Send an Enquiry

Join the Next Cohort

There May Be a Place for You in the Next Group

Cohorts fill at their own pace. Write to us to find out when the next session is running and whether it suits your schedule.

Get in Touch