Top image: Mei Hui Lim / RICE file photo
It’s strange how much guilt gets baked into the way we think about money. We learn early on that financial prudence is a moral virtue, that wealth equals discipline. Struggling with the bills = You’ve mismanaged somewhere.
Beneath every financial decision is a hidden anxiety that we’re not doing enough. That if we ‘slip up’ (like splurging on something frivolous or taking a pay cut), we’ll somehow fail adulthood.
When did personal finance feel so existential? Today, most of us aren’t trying to get filthy rich; we’re just trying not to fall behind.
Maybe that’s why money has become such a mirror of our times. Every generation sees it differently through lens shaped by unique hopes and realities. We’re all products of the economy we grew up in, the policies we lived under, and the stories we were told about what success means.
For our parents, success meant stability—paying off that HDB loan early, saving enough for their child’s enrichment classes, maybe splurging once a year for a big holiday (Japan, probably). For millennials, it became about escape: the dream of financial freedom, or at least enough flexibility to take a career break without the guilt. Gen Z, meanwhile, is entering a rough job market where wages feel stagnant, and ‘making it’ feels less about owning property than staying afloat.
Different goals, same unease. Each generation is still asking the same question in its own way: What does it mean to live well?
Maybe that’s what financial wellness really means—not just a healthy bank account, but a healthier relationship with how we live, save, and spend. The way we talk about money reveals a lot about who we are. And perhaps the first step forward is learning to discuss it better.
The Price of Tomorrow
This sentiment forms the heart of The Price of Tomorrow—a financial wellness festival for authentic conversations about money across generations. Presented by OCBC Bank in conjunction with The Financial Coconut and RICE Media, it’s less about teaching financial hacks and more about hearing from different generations on what it really means to not just plan well, but live well.
We’re not here to sell you the typical Singaporean dreams of early retirement or passive income (though those are still valid!). What we’re exploring is how the idea of financial wellness keeps being redefined—how the old rules of personal finance might not quite fit anymore, and the new ones still feel untested.
That’s what The Price of Tomorrow is really about: what we trade today for the kind of life we want tomorrow. It’s a chance to hear how others are getting by, figuring things out, and (sometimes) failing along the way, too.
What can a millennial caught between their parents’ hospital bills and their kid’s school fees learn from a caregiver who’s already weathered that storm? How does childhood scarcity shape the way we spend as adults? How do you teach kids growing up in a cashless world about the value of money? And what happens when family ties turn tense over inheritance plans?
These are the kinds of questions we want to ask about financial wellness—all derived from the messy, real lives we’re all trying to sort out. These questions don’t have easy answers, and maybe they’re not supposed to.
And let’s be real, no one’s cracked the code either. So why not talk it out and learn something new along the way?
This is what the festival’s built for: live conversations, hands-on workshops, and activities that get families talking about money differently. Because the price of tomorrow isn’t just measured in dollars; it’s in the choices we make today, and the life we think is worth paying for.
Book your spot here
When Singapore’s millennials are caught between ageing parents, young kids, and the rising cost of living, who takes care of the caregivers?
Join us for a raw conversation about the people holding it all together—and how they’re reshaping what it means to save, spend, and care.
Book your spot here
What really shapes the way we think about money? Is it childhood lessons, peer pressure, or the scars of past mistakes?
In this live podcast, we bring together two powerful voices: someone who’s lost it all and had to rebuild from ground zero, and a trauma expert who reveals how our earliest experiences and emotional wounds can silently control our financial choices.
Book your spot here
The Price of Tomorrow presented by OCBC is a financial wellness festival that brings these perspectives together to explore what’s timeless about financial fundamentals, and what’s shifting in how Singaporeans earn, spend, save, and plan across generations.
Expect live panel discussions, interactive workshops, and hands-on activities that bring families together to swap stories, challenge old habits, and reimagine what financial wellness could look like—for themselves and for Singapore’s future.
