Why Stoneground
The case for reading it
in a room with others.
Most people read their EPF statement alone, quickly, and put it away. Stoneground offers a different experience — careful, supported, and without pressure to act.
Back to HomeCore Advantages
Six things that make a Stoneground session worth attending
Facilitated by educators, not salespeople
Every session is led by someone with a background in adult education or community facilitation. The room is oriented around your understanding, not a product.
Small groups with time for questions
We limit attendance deliberately. A smaller room means your question gets an answer, not a deferral to a FAQ page or a follow-up email.
Only publicly available materials
Nothing in a Stoneground session is proprietary or speculative. We use what the EPF and recognised publishers have already made available to the public.
No data collected from participants
You do not need to share your EPF statement with us. Nothing is copied, photographed, or retained. The session uses your document on your terms.
Transparent, fixed session prices
What you see on the session page is what you pay. No add-ons, no upsells, no follow-up consultation packages. The price covers the session and the materials.
A structure you can return to over time
The quarterly series gives you a recurring engagement with retirement-related reading — four times a year, as your situation evolves and your questions change.
Facilitation grounded in education practice
Stoneground's facilitators are not drawn from the financial services sector. They come from adult learning and community facilitation — fields where the priority is the learner's understanding, not the delivery of a message.
This means sessions are paced differently. There is time to re-read a column, to ask what a term means, and to hear how a fellow participant understood the same section. The facilitator's role is to support that process, not to move through slides on a schedule.
- Adult learning methodology
- Paced for genuine comprehension
- Questions answered in the room
Facilitator approach
— Stoneground facilitator briefing document
Session design
Each session uses a structured discussion guide prepared by the Stoneground team. The guide is updated before each series to reflect any changes in EPF documentation or newly available reading materials.
For the Quarterly Series, the reading is sent in advance so participants arrive prepared rather than encountering the material for the first time.
A session structure that works
Structure makes discussion possible. Without it, a group of adults with different backgrounds and different questions tends toward either silence or chaos. The Stoneground session format has been developed over several years of running small-group sessions in Johor Bahru.
- Printed discussion guide per session
- Reading circulated in advance (Quarterly Series)
- Closing reflection exercise (Annual Retreat)
Participant experience as the measure
We do not measure outcomes by the number of participants who take a particular action after attending. We measure whether people leave with a clearer picture of what their statement says — and whether the session felt worth their time.
Feedback is collected informally at the end of each session and used to refine the format. Stoneground is a small organisation; we can be responsive in ways that larger programmes cannot.
What participants say they take away
- Confidence reading the EPF portal without assistance
- Understanding of what each statement section describes
- A clearer sense of what questions to ask their own advisors
- Familiarity with recommended reading on retirement preparation
Pricing breakdown
All prices include session materials. Retreat price includes off-site venue and meals.
Pricing that reflects the session, nothing more
Stoneground does not have a follow-on product to sell. There is no upsell at the end of a workshop, no recommendation to move funds anywhere, and no referral arrangement with any financial services firm.
The session price covers the facilitator's time, the materials, the venue, and — in the case of the Annual Retreat — the catering and off-site location. That is what you are paying for.
How We Compare
Stoneground versus the alternatives
There are other ways Malaysians learn about their EPF statements. Here is how Stoneground sits alongside them.
| Feature | Typical Approaches | Stoneground |
|---|---|---|
| Session format | Self-directed reading, large webinar, or generic seminar | |
| Personal data required | Often requires account registration or document upload | |
| Advice on what to do | Often implied or directly given | |
| Materials used | Proprietary content, branded tools, or product demonstrations | |
| Follow-up sales contact | Common after registration | |
| Time commitment | Variable — often ongoing or open-ended |
What Sets Us Apart
Four things Stoneground does that most do not
The agricultural framing
Stoneground uses the metaphor of field cultivation to frame retirement preparation — slow, patient, tended over time rather than rushed at the end. This is not decoration. It shapes how sessions are paced and how facilitators approach questions from participants who feel behind.
A planting calendar structure
The Quarterly Reading Series positions sessions within the year like entries on a planting calendar — a predictable rhythm that participants can plan around. Four times a year is enough to maintain engagement without becoming a burden.
The closing reflection exercise
The Annual Retreat ends with each participant writing a short personal reflection note — not to share, but to keep. This is the only element of the day that produces something the participant takes home. It tends to be the part people remember most clearly.
Rooted in Johor Bahru
Stoneground is not a national brand with a local franchise. It is a Johor Bahru organisation. Sessions are run by people who know the local context, and the off-site retreat venue is selected for its accessibility from within the region.
Milestones
Where Stoneground stands today
7
Years running sessions in Johor Bahru
340+
Participants across all session formats
28
Quarterly reading sessions completed
6
Annual Reading Retreats held since founding
Adult Education Network Malaysia
Member since 2019. Stoneground's facilitators participate in the annual practitioner exchange programme.
Johor Community Learning Initiative
Recognised as a participating organisation in the 2023 and 2024 regional community education directory.
Reading group facilitator training
All Stoneground facilitators complete a structured reading group facilitation programme before leading sessions independently.
Take the next step
These advantages only materialise if you attend.
Reserve a place for the next workshop or write to us with a question about which session fits your situation.
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