"I'm a mega side-hustler - I make $96k a year from TikTok, petsitting and nannying"
- 10 days ago
A graduate says she’ll “never settle into a full-time job” because she racks up $96k a year from her side hustles - including TikTok, picnic planning, pet-sitting and nannying.
Grace Ryu, 23, quit her full-time job in March 2023 after missing out on a “work-life balance”.
She started trying out freelance work in any industry that took her fancy, like events, content creation and childcare.
Her parents let her live rent-free in their old house since they moved to Korea in October 2023 - allowing Grace to fund her “shopping addiction”, travel and put money into savings.
Grace, a freelancer from Houston, Texas, said: “I want so many different passive streams of income because there’s still so much I want to try - I’ll never go back to a nine-to-five.
“It’s really easy to feel burnt out in a full-time job - I loved working in hospitality and tech sales, but I had no work-life balance.
“I find it much more fun being able to work from wherever I want - but don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely a hustle.”
Grace studied for a major in recreation, park and tourism sciences at Texas A&M University - graduating in December 2021.
She worked a number of jobs while she was studying - including being a ranch hand at a bull farm and working in a restaurant.
Thinking she might settle into a nine-to-five in tourism and hospitality, she picked up more restaurant shifts after uni.
But realising she wanted more downtime - she quit to become a live-in nanny for a family in New York, in summer 2022.
She said: “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.”
In August 2022, Grace took a job in tech sales - even getting promoted to account manager in January 2023.
She worked there for a total of eight months, deciding to build up streams of income on the side.
“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.
“Balancing all these different things wasn’t working for me, though - and I was starting to feel burnt out.
“The beauty of working lots of different side hustles is I can do a different job from one day to the next - I love the variety of it.”
In March 2023, Grace started earning income from nine freelance jobs - and she now considers herself a User Generated Content (UGC) creator, influencer, TikTok partner, affiliate marketer, picnic planner, babysitter, dog walker, AirBnB arbiter and digital product seller.
This gives her a total of $96k (£77092.80) per year - and she uses the majority of the money to travel.
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.
Grace Ryu, 23, quit her full-time job in March 2023 after missing out on a “work-life balance”.
She started trying out freelance work in any industry that took her fancy, like events, content creation and childcare.
Her parents let her live rent-free in their old house since they moved to Korea in October 2023 - allowing Grace to fund her “shopping addiction”, travel and put money into savings.
Grace, a freelancer from Houston, Texas, said: “I want so many different passive streams of income because there’s still so much I want to try - I’ll never go back to a nine-to-five.
“It’s really easy to feel burnt out in a full-time job - I loved working in hospitality and tech sales, but I had no work-life balance.
“I find it much more fun being able to work from wherever I want - but don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely a hustle.”
Grace studied for a major in recreation, park and tourism sciences at Texas A&M University - graduating in December 2021.
She worked a number of jobs while she was studying - including being a ranch hand at a bull farm and working in a restaurant.
Thinking she might settle into a nine-to-five in tourism and hospitality, she picked up more restaurant shifts after uni.
But realising she wanted more downtime - she quit to become a live-in nanny for a family in New York, in summer 2022.
She said: “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.”
In August 2022, Grace took a job in tech sales - even getting promoted to account manager in January 2023.
She worked there for a total of eight months, deciding to build up streams of income on the side.
“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.
“Balancing all these different things wasn’t working for me, though - and I was starting to feel burnt out.
“The beauty of working lots of different side hustles is I can do a different job from one day to the next - I love the variety of it.”
In March 2023, Grace started earning income from nine freelance jobs - and she now considers herself a User Generated Content (UGC) creator, influencer, TikTok partner, affiliate marketer, picnic planner, babysitter, dog walker, AirBnB arbiter and digital product seller.
This gives her a total of $96k (£77092.80) per year - and she uses the majority of the money to travel.
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.