Her first brush with the stock market wasn’t smooth due to the Harshad Mehta scam. She and her husband, Sandeep Shaligram (60), suffered massive losses in the infamous Harshad Mehta scam.
“The Harshad Mehta boom motivated a lot of young couples like us to invest in stocks, but the scam and the subsequent crash in the market left a bitter taste. Indian markets lacked regulatory arrangements the way we have now to protect retail investors. I got back into markets once some regulatory reforms fell in place,” said Shaligram.
The second stint
Shaligram re-entered the markets in the early 2000s. The second stint, that continues till date, made Shaligram an expert. She now singlehandedly manages her family’s portfolio.
Shaligram knew she had to take calculated risks. This time, she started off with mutual funds before taking an exposure in individual stocks.
“My salary had just increased. I needed to make some investments to save taxes. I invested in an ELSS fund in 2000,” she said. She could not have limited herself to mutual funds.
“Numbers, balance sheets and business models fascinate me. I love to explore growth stories, that is, a small company having a potential to turn big,” she said.
Catching multibaggers
Her big win: Reliance Industries (RIL) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) stocks, in which she invested in 2008, turned multibaggers over time.
How did she learn stock-picking? It was all self-study. She would read a lot of books and business dailies and watch interviews of renowned stock market investors.
“It took a lot of time to understand that trading and investing are two different things. I focussed more on investing for the long term.”
One book that really helped was All I Want To Know Where I Will Die So I Won’t Go There: Buffett & Munger – A Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense, she said. The book by Peter Bevelin talks about avoiding mistakes in the stock market and correcting those faster should one make them.
Shaligram has now managed to generate over 50% CAGR in her equity portfolio. “It has fallen to 25% amid ongoing market correction,” she said.
Also Read: Markets are correcting. It’s time to consider contrarian investing.
Investment strategy
Shaligram moved to Papua New Guinea in 2016 after her husband took an early retirement from the army and landed a corporate job there. She works at a hospital as a full-time psycho-social counsellor. While they initially made investment decisions together, she now singlehandedly manages the portfolio.
Shaligram prefers to diversify her investments rather than pursue goal-based investing. The couple bought their first house in their hometown, Indore, in the early 1990s.
“We bought it as an investment. It was closer to the university, so we knew earning rental income would not be a challenge. We paid some lumpsum and took a loan. The house was financed with the rental income,” she said.
Shaligram has also parked some amount in fixed deposits, post office schemes and portfolio management services (PMSes).
“I am aware PMSes charge high commissions, but I have still invested in it for diversification. I have invested in MFs such as Parag Parikh Flexi Cap and Motilal Oswal AMC. I have held HDFC Top 100 Fund for the last 20 years. I sold most of my old MF schemes in 2023 to reinvest the corpus in Kotak Flexi Cap Fund,” she said.
One of the key money lessons she has learnt: knowing the difference between savings and investments. “Your savings cannot be in the stock market. It has to be liquid. Stock market is for your investments, not for your savings that you may need in the short term,” she said.
Her portfolio consists of 50% equities, 10% FDs and gold, and 40% land and homes.
Also Read: How India’s youngest pension fund gamed a falling market to outdo its older rivals
Lessons from mistakes
Like any investor, Shaligram has had her share of missteps. The couple bought an under-construction luxury apartment in Indore in 2008 for ₹1.5 crore. The builder has not completed the project yet.
“I do not know how the builder overshot the budget and could not deliver flats. The project is into litigation. It has now got a RERA number. We hope it would get ready in the next five years,” she said.
Another mistake: buying investment-linked insurance policies. “I was unaware that returns in such products were too poor and life cover too little. I discovered it when my children were already grown up,” she said.
While she never bought a term insurance plan for herself, she made sure her sons did. “My husband had a pure life cover being in the army, which still continues,” she said.
Shaligram isn’t afraid of making mistakes. “I tell my children, sometimes you lose money not because your decision was wrong, but because external factors did not support you. Accept your loss and move on,” she said.
Looking ahead
Shaligram does not believe in FIRE (financial independence, retire early). What excites her about retirement is she would get time to trade in markets.
“I want to try my hands at positional trading. So far, I focussed on investing for the long term. I will set aside a corpus and would trade once I am no longer into a full-time job,” she said.
While the couple does not have a retirement corpus in mind, Shaligram said consolidating all investments and selling off land will be their priority. “We know we will still be earning once we retire, so we are not concerned about cash flows. We hope to generate at least ₹50 lakh a year from investments and income,” he said.
Shaligram knows she is different. “It was uncommon during those days for a wife or a mother to make money decisions at home. We made sure our sons had a separate bank account when they were just 9 and 10. They would go to the bank with us, deposit their savings and track their passbook for interest credit. They learned budgeting and other important money concepts much earlier in life. While they enjoy life, they do not waste money. They indulge but do not squander,” she said.
Shaligram is passing on her financial acumen to women in her family. “The other day my daughter-in-law told me how I inspired her to maintain an excel and track her expenses and investments. She was never interested in investments before, but now does it regularly,” she said.
Expert take
Mrin Agarwal, founder-director of Finsafe India, says in her column for Mint, “Juggling multiple responsibilities often makes it challenging for women to save effectively. However, just like any strong structure needs a solid foundation, wealth-building begins with disciplined saving. Relying on luck is not a strategy—consistent savings create financial security and long-term growth.”
