This investment banker became a YouTuber, now earns 4 times her salary

When you stop chasing money and chase your dreams with full conviction, success and money chase you automatically, they say. Nischa Shah is a living example of that. The investment banker quit her job with a six-figure pay package in London one and a half years ago to become a full-time YouTuber, and today, she is earning four times her salary.

But this success did not come overnight, Shah told CNBC in an interview. She first took to YouTubing as a side hustle in December 2021, creating content about personal finance and self-development.

Unfulfilling job

At that time, she had been in banking for a decade. And the next year, she became an associate director at Crédit Agricole, with a pay package of over £200,000 (Rs 2.17 crore). However, she was not happy with her career, realising that it was not “fulfilling”, “challenging” or “intellectually stimulating” enough.

“I wanted to find a way to help other people whilst getting paid for it and what I was doing in banking was helping corporations, sovereign governments,” she told CNBC in the interview.

A gamble

Finally, she quit her highly-paying job in January 2023 — two months before she was due to receive a six-figure bonus. Stunning as it may sound, Shah’s gamble paid off.

She now earns over $1 million (Rs 8.35 crore) by monetizing her YouTube videos, partnering with brands, selling courses and products, and delivering corporate talks.

“I’m making a lot more than I was in banking. As a result of not chasing money anymore and just chasing what I’m good at, my passion, and what I really enjoy, it’s managed to surpass everything that I had before,” she told CNBC.

The first 1,000

It took her 11 months simply to garner 1,000 subscribers and only another two months to get to 100,000. That’s because by June 2022, she had decided to post twice a week, every week. And in September, one of her videos — on a day in her life as an investment banker — went viral, earning her 50,000 subscribers in one month and raking in £3,000 (Rs 3.25 lakh).

Shah advises people to use their day job, with a stable income, to help boost their side hustle. She started off by investing in a £1,000 (Rs 1.08 lakh) camera. And before she quit her job, she made sure to have an emergency fund to support her for at least nine months.

A buffer

She also admitted that had she waited to make a lot of money from YouTube and then quit her job, it would have taken her much longer to find success. “It was really important that I just went all in, and I had my emergency fund as a buffer, and it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity….”

Shah now has over 1 million subscribers on YouTube and her videos receive 1 lakh to 90 lakh views each. Her videos cover topics such as “7 Passive Income Ideas” and “How to invest your first $1000”. Her audience includes women, young adults, and people who possibly never had financial education.

“When I talk to the camera, I think of it as I’m just talking to me when I was 22 or 23,” she told CNBC. And Shah finds it fulfilling to finally be able to help people who need her.