About tehSmartInvestor

I moved to Singapore for work like a lot of Malaysians do — chasing the salary difference, the career opportunity, the simple fact that the exchange rate makes it feel like a 3× multiplier on your effort. And for a while, I just focused on that. The work. The visa. The apartment. The hawker stalls.

Then I realised I was getting financially dumber every month. My EPF balance was sitting there in Malaysia, quietly compounding, but I had no idea what it was going to amount to. I had Singapore income tax I didn't fully understand. I was sending money home through the bank like a mug, paying 2–3% in spread. I had investments in two currencies and no framework for thinking about them together.

The problem wasn't a lack of information — it was that all the Singapore finance content was written for Singaporeans. CPF this, HDB that. And the Malaysian finance content assumed you still lived in Malaysia. Nobody was writing for the person in the middle: the Malaysian who has an EPF account, pays Singapore taxes, earns SGD, and needs to think about retirement in both countries simultaneously.

So I started writing it myself.

The EPF retirement calculator came first. I couldn't find a single tool online that handled the new 3-account structure (Akaun Persaraan, Sejahtera, Fleksibel introduced in May 2024), let alone one that let you model voluntary contributions or drawdown scenarios. So I built one.

The Singapore income tax estimator followed. IRAS has a calculator, but it's designed to file a return, not to plan. I wanted something where I could ask "what if I put S$35,700 into SRS?" and see the after-tax impact immediately.

Both tools run entirely in your browser. No account, no data sent anywhere. I don't want your data — I just want the tools to be useful.

It's the Malaysian word for tea — teh tarik, specifically. If you've been to a Malaysian kopitiam, you know. It's warm, a little sweet, and pulls the community together. It's also unmistakably Malaysian, which felt right for a blog about the Malaysian experience abroad.

"Smart investor" is aspirational, not a title. I'm not telling you I'm a genius. I'm saying that navigating two countries' financial systems thoughtfully, with real data and honest reflection, is the goal. That's the mission.