Leaving a well-paid corporate job is a dream many professionals discuss but few actually pursue. For Nischa Shah, the decision meant walking away from a career in investment banking that paid more than £200,000 a year and forgoing a six-figure bonus that was only weeks away.
Today, that gamble appears to have paid off.
In an interview with in 2024, the London-based personal finance creator said she now earns more than $1 million annually through YouTube, online courses, brand partnerships and corporate speaking engagements.
The journey, however, began with a growing sense that despite professional success, something was missing.
Why She Left Investment Banking
According to CNBC Make It, Shah spent around a decade working in banking before becoming an associate director at Crédit Agricole in 2022.
Despite earning a six-figure income, she said she felt increasingly disconnected from her work.
“It was about nine years into the corporate journey where I had this revelation that this isn’t fulfilling me, it’s not really challenging me, and it’s not intellectually stimulating,” she said.
“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.”
Shah told CNBC Make It that she eventually entered what she described as a “rock bottom phase” and began reassessing her future.
Part of that reflection involved using a Law of Attraction planner, which encourages users to identify goals and aspirations through structured prompts.
“I was thinking I want to change the course of my life,” she said.
“This Law of Attraction planner had prompts or questions like ‘What would you do if money was not an issue?’”
Discovering A Passion For Financial Education
According to CNBC Make It, Shah realised she was passionate about helping ordinary people understand money.
She recalled helping her parents avoid a tax bill of around £40,000 after spotting information their accountant had overlooked during a property sale.
“Just having a knowledge in personal finance can have such a huge impact on the money that’s going into your pocket,” she said.
That experience reinforced her belief that financial literacy could meaningfully improve people’s lives.
Around the same time, she began experimenting with YouTube content focused on personal finance and self-development.
The Side Hustle That Changed Everything
Shah launched her YouTube channel in December 2021 as a side project while continuing her banking career.
Initially, progress was slow.
“It took me 11 months to get to 1,000 subscribers,” she told CNBC Make It.
Everything changed in 2022 when she committed to posting consistently.
According to CNBC Make It, Shah began uploading two videos every week. In September that year, a video documenting a day in her life as an investment banker gained traction.
The channel reportedly gained 50,000 subscribers in a single month and generated £3,000 in earnings.
“So it took me 11 months to get to 1,000 subscribers, and then two months to get to 100,000 which was crazy,” Shah said.
“It’s just literally the power of compounding in a nutshell, not knowing when that lucky break is going to be.”
Today, Shah has 2.2 million YouTube subscribers and her videos regularly attract hundreds of thousands — and sometimes millions — of views.
Why Her Content Resonated
Shah believes many viewers are looking for practical financial guidance that is easy to understand.
Her content covers topics such as investing, passive income and wealth-building strategies.
“When I talk to the camera, I think of it as I’m just talking to me when I was 22-years-old or 23-years-old,” she said.
“There are many people younger in their careers who are at a point where they have started making money, but they just want to get better with it.”
“They just want to know ‘What do I do with my savings? How do I grow wealth? How do I set myself up so I can quit a job that I don’t like?’”
According to CNBC Make It, Shah also saw an opportunity to counter the growing amount of questionable financial advice circulating on social media.
“There’s incorrect advice being given on TikTok and Instagram, and it’s sad because giving the wrong advice on shampoo or lip gloss will cost someone like £7, but giving the wrong advice about finance could cost someone their life savings.”
Why She Didn’t Quit Immediately
Despite eventually leaving banking, Shah says she does not recommend abandoning a stable income source too early.
According to CNBC Make It, she used her corporate salary to fund her side hustle and invested in equipment, including a £1,000 camera.
“If you don’t come from a family which is well-to-do, it’s really important to have a steady income coming in,” she explained.
She believes having a day job allowed her to experiment without the pressure of needing immediate financial returns.
“If you’ve got income coming in from your day job, but you’re also building a business on the side, you’re working from a place of creativity, rather than from a place of ‘I need to make sure I pay the bills and I need to make sure I make ends meet’,” she said.
The Leap Of Faith
Before resigning, Shah built an emergency fund that could support her for at least nine months.
According to CNBC Make It, she left her investment banking role in January despite knowing a substantial bonus payment was due only two months later.
Today, she says her income has surpassed what she earned in banking.
“I’m making a lot more than I was in banking,” she said.
“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.”
Looking back, Shah believes there was no perfect moment to make the leap.
“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 and I thought: ‘I’m at a crossroads. I’ve done what I known for the last nine years and that hasn’t made me happy … so now is the point for me to take my life in my own hands and just go for it.’”