Rather than sticking to a steady 9-to-5, Grace Ryu decided to explore several side hustles and now makes over £77,000 per year.
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Like many students, she’d struggled to afford university.
Rather than just sticking to one job while she studied, the Texan saw this as an opportunity to try out various roles including being a ranch hand at a bull farm and working in a restaurant.
While studying for her degree in recreation, park and tourism sciences at Texas A&M University, the savvy young woman already had multiple streams of income.
After graduating in December 2021, she thought she’d settle into a nine-to-five in tourism and hospitality, so she picked up more restaurant shifts.
However, the new graduate didn’t stay put for long.
Eager to get some more downtime, Grace quit to become a live-in nanny for a family in New York during the summer of 2022.
She explained: “I decided to become a full-time nanny so I could live in New York for a while.
“But after two months, I decided to come home to Texas – and I still work seasonally as a part-time nanny for that family.
“I wanted to try other things out – and pursue a career related to my major.”
Having returned home, she then took a job in tech sales and even was promoted to account manager in January 2023.
She still felt restless though.
Over the eight months she worked at the firm, she built multiple streams of income on the side – none of which required her degree.
“I became a dogwalker, and started creating content,” she said. “I got very ambitious about all these different things, and decided the best time to try them would be while I’m still young,” revealed the now 23-year-old.
There was a major downside though.
Continuing, she told press: “Balancing all these different things wasn’t working for me, though – and I was starting to feel burnt out.”
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In March 2023, she then quit her job to become a full time freelancer.
As she now has nine side hustles, Grace considers herself a User Generated Content (UGC) creator, influencer, TikTok partner, affiliate marketer, picnic planner, babysitter, dog walker, and digital product seller.
The driven young woman will even rent out her parents’ house in Houston to make extra income.
She said: “I’m currently living rent-free at my parents’ house – they moved to Korea and left it to me.
“I now rent it out seasonally on AirBnB.
“I make $8k (£6424.40) a month – I invest some of it…and I’d love to be a proper homeowner by the age of 27.”
All these streams of income give her an impressive $96k (£77092.80) per year – and she uses the majority of the money to travel and fund her ‘shopping addiction’.
She has, however, started planning for the future with the hopes of becoming a mum and potentially, opening a business.
“I’d love to be a mum, and it would be much easier to do that without the traditional nine-to-five,” she added.
“I also eventually want to become some kind of business owner, which is why I want so many passive streams of income.”
Do I need to pay tax on my side hustle income?
MANY people feeling strapped for cash are boosting their bank balance with a side hustle.
The good news is, there are plenty of simple ways to earn some additional income – but you need to know the rules.
When you’re employed the company you work for takes the tax from your earnings and pays HMRC so you don’t have to.
But anyone earning extra cash, for example from selling things online or dog walking, may have to do it themselves.
Stephen Moor, head of employment at law firm Ashfords, said: “Caution should be taken if you’re earning an additional income, as this is likely to be taxable.
“The side hustle could be treated as taxable trading income, which can include providing services or selling products.”
You can make profit of up to £1,000 a year tax-free via the trading allowance, but over this and you’ll usually need to pay tax.
Stephen added: “You need to register for a self-assessment at HMRC to ensure you are paying the correct amount of tax.
“The applicable tax bands and the amount of tax you need to pay will depend on your income.”
If you fail to file a tax return you could end up with a surprise bill from HMRC later on asking you to pay the tax you owe – plus extra fees on top.