Bengaluru-based Shilla Shree, 47, is wiser today when it comes to managing her money. Life taught her tough lessons. Before she separated from her husband in 2003, when she was 34 years old, she had investments in real estate and jewellery. By her own admission, she had bought jewellery of stones “of almost every colour”. But after her divorce, when she tried to sell these to rebuild her money box, she was in for a shock. “I tried to sell but I got back just about 40% of the total value. Most of the weight was of the coloured stones, and that didn’t fetch me anything,” she said. “That’s when I realised that investing in jewellery is a waste of money,” she added.
Today, Shree is a different woman. Her money box may still not conform with popular standards—she invests in mutual funds but largely in debt and liquid funds and avoids equity funds; and she continues to invest in real estate—but she is financially independent. She runs her own executive search firm called Search Partners, which caters to top level positions across industries.
