A woman who quit her $300,000-a-year corporate job to become a YouTuber has explained why she prefers to be a content creator, despite taking an 84 per cent pay cut.
Nischa Shah, 30, of San Diego, California, spent nearly a decade rising through the ranks as an investment banker.
But earlier this year, she decided to leave the corporate world behind after realizing that the high-paying position was “not fulfilling for her” and that her “motivations” had become “driven by a paycheck.”
He now runs a YouTube channel teaching others about ‘personal finance’ and ‘how to use money to live an authentic life’, and although he earns much less, he finds the career change ‘liberating’.
A woman who quit her $300,000-a-year corporate job to become a YouTuber has explained why she prefers to be a content creator, despite taking an 84 per cent pay cut.
Nischa Shah, 30, from San Diego, California, spent nearly a decade rising through the ranks as an investment banker, but earlier this year she decided to leave the corporate world behind.
He recently shared his journey in an essay for news week – in hopes of inspiring others to stop “striving for a prestigious job” to conform to “social expectations” and instead do what truly makes them happy.
While speaking with the publication, Nischa explained that he has spent the past nine years “climbing the corporate ladder in investment banking, earning promotions, taking on additional responsibilities, and negotiating for higher salaries and higher bonuses.”
He described his first years at the bank as “fun, intellectually stimulating and full of learning opportunities.”
But over time, he said, the excitement was “replaced by a feeling of stagnation and misalignment,” which began to “take a heavy toll on his mental health.”
“I realized that the corporate world, at its core, owes you nothing more than a paycheck,” he explained.
“Although at one point I found myself on the lucky side of things, the fear of the tables constantly turning played in the back of my mind.”
The former banker recalls that once, early in her career, her “mentor, who had dedicated almost two decades to the industry,” was fired, and Nischa was immediately offered her position.
‘One night, while we were both working late, his phone rang. After a brief conversation, she left her desk and never returned,” she wrote.
The decision came after she realized that the high-paying position was “not satisfying for her” and that her “motivations” had become “driven by a paycheck.”
And although he earns much less money, he finds the career change “liberating.”
‘Moments later, my manager called me and told me I had been promoted and explained that my new role would be very similar to hers and would cover the same clients.
“The revelation that HR had fired her, at the same time I was being promoted, was jarring and made my supposed moment of celebration seem depressing.”
He said the incident was eye-opening and described it as a “pivotal moment that would forever change his perspective on his professional career.”
“The saying ‘you are only as good as the hours you can put in’ became more true than ever,” he added.
“I had a lack of control over my own time, which led me to the conclusion that true financial independence was unattainable because my financial life was controlled by someone else.”
Nischa said he eventually began to realize that he was no longer “passionate about helping CEOs of large corporations or participating in billion-dollar transactions,” but instead longed to “inspire and motivate others.”
That led her to begin her Youtube channel in 2021, in which he taught his viewers everything he had learned about finance during his years at the bank.
It was an instant hit and now has over 993,000 subscribers. She also created your own expense tracker to help followers budget their money.
Earlier this year, he officially left his job to focus on growing his new business.
“Living up to society’s expectations and striving for a prestigious job and salary simply because it’s what most people crave didn’t satisfy me,” he continued.
‘It has been the best decision I have ever made to work on something that is (mine). The freedom, flexibility, and ownership I have makes me feel excited in a way I never felt when I was working my day job.
‘Being able to help people get from where they are to where they want to be, and at the same time get paid for it, is something I will never take for granted. Nothing beats it.’
The banker-turned-influencer explained that her income was reduced by approximately 84 percent, but she has no regrets.
“My income is (no longer) directly related to the hours I work (anymore), but rather to the impact I make, which is liberating,” he gushed.
She shared her journey with Newsweek, hoping to inspire others to stop “striving for a prestigious job” to fit into “social expectations” and do what makes them happy.
‘I accepted what I really loved and got out of my comfort zone. My passion for a greater purpose became my sole goal, leaving no room for concern for the opinions of others.
“My path may not be right for everyone, but I hope that by sharing my experience I can inspire others and give them the courage to pursue dreams they may have delayed or doubted.”
In a separate interview with Business Insider The YouTube star explained that she made sure to “prepare herself financially” before leaving her six-figure banking job.
He talked about some of the ways he made sure he could manage despite the pay cut, which included investing his earnings in the stock market and building a real estate portfolio.
‘Diversify, start early and be consistent with it. That’s the recipe for getting where you want when you retire,” she shared when asked what his advice was for others.
But she’s also honest about how she had to make some “lifestyle changes” to make her lower salary work.
“I had to make some changes in my lifestyle, something that needs to be done,” he said. ‘Maybe it might be going out less, it might be cutting back on the social calendar, it might mean living at home so you can invest more money into this passion project if you really want to leave the corporate world.
‘(But) I thought, there’s nothing more fun than making videos, so it didn’t even seem like a difficult decision to turn down social plans.
“I’d rather have worked on this than doing 97 percent of the things people would consider ‘fun.’ It wasn’t hard to motivate myself to do it.”