Helping you navigate career shifts, financial clarity & life redesign — with depth, strategy, and heart

🟢 About Shirley Druyeh
I’m a Quantity Surveyor, financial educator, and writer based in Sydney. I help people navigate complex transitions — from career reinvention to financial clarity — with practical tools, emotional depth, and strategic thinking.
💬 Why I Do This

I didn’t set out to build a business or teach personal finance. My first career was in law — then I moved into construction, eventually becoming a Quantity Surveyor with over 16 years’ experience on major infrastructure and tech projects across the UK and Australia.
Along the way, I began using the same cost control principles I applied on billion-dollar projects — like forecasting, value engineering, and risk analysis — to my personal finances. Long before I became a homeowner or faced burnout, those QS skills helped me build financial clarity and resilience in my own life.
But over time, I began to notice a gap. Even with systems and structure in place, I’d built a life that was “on track” but not always aligned. Navigating career pressure, PMDD, burnout, and starting over — more than once — made me realise how much of modern life asks us to operate out of sync with our values.
Now, I share what I’ve learned to help others build a financially clear, emotionally grounded, and values-aligned path forward — especially those navigating transitions, rebuilding after burnout, or designing work that actually fits.
📚 What You’ll Find Here
This space is for people building something more aligned — whether that’s a better relationship with money, a career that fits, or a life you don’t have to recover from.
💡 Financial Clarity
Smart, practical guidance to help you take control of your money — using Quantity Surveying principles like value engineering, forecasting, and risk planning.
From budgeting and tax to homeownership and spending swaps, this is finance made accessible.

→ Seek Financial Clarity here
🏗 QS + Consulting
For consultants, project professionals, and those navigating the construction industry — resources from 16+ years of experience across major sports, infrastructure, data centres, and transport projects in both the UK and Australia.

Includes cost tools, freelance support, variation systems, and commercial insights.

→ View my QS Portfolio
→ Explore QS Resource
🔁 Lifestyle Design
Real-world strategies for career transitions, burnout recovery, identity shifts, and living in sync with your values.
Includes content on PMDD, expat life, creative reinvention, and building a system that supports who you're becoming.
→ Start Your Lifestyle Design Journey

📬 Join the Newsletter: Money & Meaning
Money & Meaning is my weekly email for people designing a life and business with intention.
Each issue includes practical tools, thought-provoking insights, personal reflections, and behind-the-scenes lessons on building a financially clear, emotionally grounded, and values-aligned path forward.

If you’re navigating career shifts, rethinking how you work and spend, or just want more clarity in your decisions — this is for you.

→ Subscribe to Money & Meaning
🌍 Beyond Quantity Surveying
I’m passionate about personal finance, relocation, homeownership, addressing the housing crisis, and combating modern slavery.
→ Explore more insights on the Blog
🤝 Let’s Connect
I bring calm, strategy, and financial clarity to complex moments — whether you're managing a project, relocating, purchasing a home, or redesigning your life.