22-year-old graduate earning £105k a year after leaving university debt-free | Personal Finance | Finance

Gabriella Carter, 22, has been able to live debt-free in New York City since graduating college thanks to winning $2million (£1.5million) in scholarships.

The Princeton graduate is the founder of Growing with Gabby, a business that assists students in accessing university scholarships.

In 2022, Ms Carter’s side hustle was successful and made just over $87,000 (£69,111.93) for the year.

Combined with $45,000 (£35,747.55) from her corporate job and around $1,000 (£794.39) in earned interest, the entrepreneur’s earnings came to $133,000 (£105,653.87) last year.

In light of this, the 22-year-old is planning to expand Growing with Gabby and is now creating content for NBC University through its Creator Accelerator program.

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For 2023, the businesswoman is expecting Growing with Gabby to bring in $300,000 (£238,317).

Speaking to CNBC, Ms Carter shared where her financial prowess came from and how it helps her today.

She explained: “One thing I really used to do a lot with my dad was watch the Suze Orman Show.

“Even though I didn’t necessarily know all the financial terms, it made me really privy to debt and how it can impact your life and the different ways that you could use money to invest and increase your quality of life.”

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Born in Jamaica, Ms Carter spent more of her childhood in London before moving with her family to Florida.

Both an impressive student and dedicated athlete, she looked into applying for scholarships to mitigate the cost of going to college.

Ms Carter added: “Once I figured out that there’s free money out there that other people could give to me because they believed in me and my dreams so that I could go to school for free, I jumped on it and applied to every opportunity that I saw.”

By the end of all her applications, she had secured 35 different scholarship awards coming to over $2million (£1.5million).

This was more than enough money for her to graduate debt-free and with over $100,000 (£79,439) in savings.

While studying at Princeton, Ms Carter posted her experience with applying for scholarships on YouTube.

She garnered an audience and the beginnings of Growing with Gabby began, with her foreign her brand on Instagram.

The side hustler said: “I didn’t even know people were really making money like that from posting online until I was approached with an opportunity from a major retailer and they paid me $2,500 to share about a scholarship opportunity that they had.

“Once that happened, I was like, ‘OK, I see the value in the information that I’m offering.’”

Last year, Ms Carter graduated into a nine-to-five finance job which paid a starting salary of $90,000 (£71,495.10).

Realising her side hustle was becoming more lucrative than her primary career, the budding entrepreneur quit her job to focus on Growing with Gabby full-time.

She shared: “Quitting my job was liberating, but very scary as well, especially since I’m pretty young and very early in my corporate career.

“But I realized the uniqueness of my business, the opportunity to scale and the rare opportunity that I have with NBC, so that gave me a lot more confidence.

“For me, abundance is having financial freedom. That doesn’t mean I have to be a billionaire or the richest person, but it means that I don’t have to wake up and work every day or do something I don’t want to do for the sake of having enough money.”