Sarah Chew covers Southeast Asia’s technology, fintech, digital policy, and AI adoption landscape for RECATOOLS. Her work focuses on how regulation, platform shifts, and emerging technologies affect businesses, consumers, and digital markets across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

169
Articles
ASEAN Tech
Primary beat
May 2026
Writing since
~1124 min
Total reading
All 169 ASEAN Tech 97 Finance 65 Business 4 AI & ML 3

Articles · Finance Showing 61–65 of 65

A glass jar labelled savings filled with coins next to a calculator, with loose coins scattered in front
Finance

The FIRE Number: The 25x Rule Neither Founding Paper Contains (2026)

25x appears in neither Bengen 1994 nor the Trinity study — it is 1 ÷ 4%. What the papers really tested, MMM's actual assumptions, and how CPF and EPF size "enough" differently.

23 Jul 2026 · 15 min read
An hourglass and stacked coins on wood.
Finance

The 4% Rule: Where Retirement's Most Famous Number Comes From (2026)

What Bengen 1994 and the Trinity study actually tested, how the 4% rule gets misused, and why CPF LIFE and EPF change the maths in SG and MY.

22 Jul 2026 · 13 min read
A calculator on financial paperwork — checking the tool before trusting its answer
Finance

How to Pick a Personal-Finance Calculator You Can Trust (2026)

A calculator is only as good as its tables and assumptions. The five failure modes to spot, plus a 60-second check to run before you trust any answer.

15 Jul 2026 · 9 min read
A spread of dollar banknotes.
Finance

Klarna Applies to Become a US Bank — Not Act Like One — With a Utah Charter Bid

Klarna filed on 6 July for a Utah industrial bank charter to bring its US banking in-house and reduce its reliance on partner banks. It is an application, not an approval — and the charter route it chose is politically contested.

11 Jul 2026 · 6 min read
Stock market trading figures displayed on a monitor.
Finance

Honeywell Spin-off Solstice to Buy Element Solutions for $14.5B, Betting on the Materials Layer of the AI Boom

Solstice Advanced Materials, the specialty-chemicals business spun off from Honeywell in October 2025, has agreed to acquire Element Solutions in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $14.5 billion including net debt, the two companies announced on 6 July 2026. The combination is aimed at the AI-driven boom in demand for semiconductor and data-centre chemicals — the cooling and thermal-management materials and advanced electronic materials that sit beneath the AI hardware build-out. Element shareholders would receive $10.00 in cash plus 0.500 Solstice shares per share (an implied ~$50.10, about a 15% premium) and end up owning roughly 44% of the combined company; the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027. Solstice shares fell sharply on the news.

8 Jul 2026 · 8 min read
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