Participant Feedback
What Participants Say
We ask participants to share their experience at the end of each cohort. Here is a selection of what they have told us.
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Participants
4.8
Average Rating
94%
Completion Rate
8+
Years Running
From Participants
Participant Reviews
Paul Mok
Finance Manager · Quarry Bay
I have worked in finance for twenty years and still found the Currency Basics programme genuinely useful. It is not that the concepts were unfamiliar — it is that I had never had them assembled into a coherent framework before. The HKD peg module alone was worth the fee. Very well-structured, and the pace felt right for the subject matter.
Currency Basics · January 2025
Sandra Yeung
Retired Teacher · Sai Ying Pun
The retirement programme was the most useful thing I have done in the two years since I stopped working. My situation involves property in the UK and savings in three currencies, and no one had ever helped me think about the interactions between them properly. The material on natural currency matching changed the way I think about the order of things.
Retirement Across Borders · March 2025
David Kwong
Senior Engineer · Kowloon Tong
What I appreciated most was what the programme did not do — there were no investment product recommendations, no suggestions that we should take any particular action. Just a clear-eyed look at the mechanics. After six weeks I felt I could have a much more informed conversation with my bank about the structure of my accounts. That was exactly what I needed.
Multi-Currency Savings · February 2025
Rachel Lau
Marketing Director · Wan Chai
I joined the Currency Basics programme after my husband and I bought a flat in Singapore and realised we had no framework for thinking about the SGD exposure we had just taken on. Four weeks later I felt significantly more comfortable. The group was small enough that I could raise our specific situation without it derailing the session for everyone else.
Currency Basics · March 2025
Andrew Tsang
Accountant · Shatin
My parents are in Canada and I send money to them every few months. Before the Multi-Currency Savings programme, I had no real method for deciding when to send or how much to hold back. After the remittance module I had a much clearer sense of the variables and how to weigh them. The programme materials are good enough that I still refer back to them.
Multi-Currency Savings · January 2025
Janet Wong
GP · Pok Fu Lam
The retirement programme was the one I wish I had taken five years ago. I am planning to spend part of my retirement in the UK, where my daughter lives, and part in Hong Kong. The ten-week structure gave me enough time to actually absorb the framework rather than just hear it. Richard and Margaret were excellent — knowledgeable but never condescending.
Retirement Across Borders · February 2025
Case Studies
Three Participant Journeys
These case studies are composites drawn from participant cohorts, shared with their permission. Names and identifying details have been changed.
Case Study 01
The Returning Expat
Challenge
After 12 years in London, this participant had a UK pension, a Hong Kong MPF account, and savings in both GBP and HKD. She had no framework for thinking about how these interacted, or how to plan spending across both places in retirement.
Programme
Currency Strategy for Retirement Across Borders (10 weeks)
Outcome
By the end of the programme she had built a clear picture of her currency liabilities in retirement and identified which assets were naturally matched to which spending. She went on to have more focused conversations with her financial adviser about rebalancing.
The thing I remember most is realising that I already had more natural matching than I thought — I just had not seen it that way before.
Case Study 02
The Property Investor
Challenge
This participant owned residential properties in both Hong Kong and Australia. He had rental income in AUD, a mortgage in HKD, and ongoing maintenance costs in both. He was sending money between the two every few months with no consistent method.
Programme
Multi-Currency Savings and Income (6 weeks)
Outcome
After the remittance and currency exposure modules, he developed a simple, consistent approach for how to time his conversions and how much AUD to hold in his Australian account at any given point. He estimated this reduced his annual transfer costs meaningfully.
I came in thinking I needed to be smarter about the market. I left thinking I needed to be smarter about my own situation — which was a better answer.
Case Study 03
The Pre-Retirement Professional
Challenge
At 54, this participant was planning to retire within five years. He had savings in HKD, USD, and CNH — built up without a deliberate strategy — and was unsure whether the mix made sense for what his retirement would actually look like.
Programme
Currency Basics (4 weeks), followed by Retirement Across Borders (10 weeks)
Outcome
Having built a solid conceptual foundation in the first programme, he progressed to the retirement-focused course and finished with a clear model of his expected retirement spending by currency. He used this as the basis for a detailed conversation with his wealth manager about phasing his drawdown strategy.
Taking the two programmes in sequence made a lot of sense. The basics course meant I was not catching up in weeks two and three of the retirement programme.
Credentials
A Practice Built on Reputation
Recognised CPD Provider
Programme hours count toward continuing professional development for qualifying financial professionals in Hong Kong.
Over 60% Referral Rate
More than six in ten new participants join through direct referrals from prior cohort members.
No Products, No Referral Arrangements
Compass Rose holds no financial advisory licence and accepts no referral arrangements from product providers.
Contact Details
8/F, The Wellington, 198 Wellington Street, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
Mon–Fri: 9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sat: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
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