Woman, 22, has already saved £106,000 on a £35,000 salary | Personal Finance | Finance

A 22 year old has disclosed precisely how she accumulated £106,000 in savings despite earning just £35,000 a year from her primary job. Rather than pursuing university, Gabriella Goddard embarked on a degree apprenticeship in management consulting at the age of 18 — immediately channelling 60% of her £1,400 monthly wage into a cash ISA.

During her second year, her salary rose to £1,600 per month, prompting Gabriella to invest £1,000 of it — splitting the sum equally between a cash ISA and a Trading 212 stocks and shares ISA. Alongside her apprenticeship, she launched a content creation business managing social media accounts for small firms and securing brand deals on her own social media pages, which now generates approximately £5,000 a month.

She revealed that she sacrificed countless evenings and weekends throughout her teens and early twenties to build her side hustle alongside her apprenticeship. She now holds £70,000 in investments with Trading 212, £13,000 in an emergency fund and £23,000 in her workplace pension.

The management consultant, who earns £35,000, lives with her parents in Bath, Somerset, paying £200 a month in rent, and sets aside an average of £1,000 each month into savings accounts and stocks. She is focused on growing her investment portfolio and currently has no intentions of using the money to purchase a property.

She said: “I learned about investing through social media – I was bored during Covid, so I started doing some research. I asked for books on investing for my birthday and Christmas.

“At first, I was putting £500 into my savings and £500 into my investment account, then I got a little bit excited by it and started investing way more. I wouldn’t recommend that, but because I was living at home and had an emergency fund. I had a bit of a safety net.

“In December 2024 I started a side hustle alongside my apprenticeship, I spent lots of evenings and weekends working on it. I worked myself to the max.

“I’m not a financial adviser, but if you’re in the position to start investing, firstly, do your own research, then don’t overthink it and just put in a little bit and learn as you go.

“This money definitely wasn’t handed to me. A lot of people assume I’m just a posh girl from Bath whose had everything given to her, but there’s been a lot of hard work and sacrifice.

“I’m not just a money-hungry girl – I just happened to have worked hard and accumulate this money and it’s going well so far. Touch wood.”

Gabriella has been in employment since the age of 15, with her first role at a garden centre earning her £4 an hour. She credits this experience with instilling in her the value of budgeting from an early age and, despite achieving AAA at A-level, it shaped her choice to pursue an apprenticeship over university — working four days a week while studying for one.

“I was so bored of education and the money and lack of student debt was enticing,” she said. During her first year, Gabriella earned £18,500 annually, which she described as feeling like a considerable sum for an 18 year old.

“It seemed like a lot to me, especially coming from £4 an hour, it took a few months for me to learn how to budget,” she said. Several months into her apprenticeship, Gabriella set herself a stringent budget, with a target of saving 60% of her income.

From her £1,600 monthly wage, she contributed £200 in rent to her parents and £350 towards other outgoings such as her car and phone bill. She then deposited approximately £800 a month into a cash ISA.

During the second year of her apprenticeship, Gabriella’s salary increased to £23,000 and she began putting her money into investments after discovering the concept on social media. She allocated £500 a month into her cash ISA, alongside £500 a month into her Trading 212 stocks and shares ISA, and watched her wealth steadily grow.

Once Gabriella had accumulated £10,000 in a fixed cash ISA — sufficient to serve as an emergency fund covering three months’ worth of expenditure — she began channelling ever greater sums into investments, eventually committing £1,000 a month via Trading 212, while contributing far less to her cash ISA.

In her final year, her salary climbed to £35,000 a year, or £2,100 a month, and in December 2024 Gabriella opted to launch a content creation business as a side venture alongside her apprenticeship. She managed Instagram accounts for two small businesses, bringing in around £1,000 a month, until mounting pressure forced her to scale back.

“It was basically another full-time job,” she said. “I was working all the time, it wasn’t healthy.” She now dedicates her time to her own channel, earning approximately £5,000 monthly through brand partnerships on TikTok. Gabriella currently holds £70,000 in investments, comprising £47,000 of her own contributions and £23,000 in returns.

“It changes all the time, the market is all over the place at the minute,” she said. She also maintains roughly £13,000 in her savings account, alongside £23,000 in her workplace pension, bringing her total net worth to £106,000.

She revealed that she’s repeatedly questioned about whether she’ll use her funds to purchase a property, but has no immediate plans to do so, as “the housing market isn’t as profitable as it used to be”.

“I don’t want to completely wipe out my investments and savings for a house I probably couldn’t even afford furniture for,” she said.

She’s encouraging other young people not to fear investing and to set aside a modest amount of disposable income each month and “learn as you go”.

Gabriella’s budget

Salary per month – £2,100

Income from content creation – £5,000

Other expenses (food, car, etc.) – £900

£800 – £1,000 invested in Trading 212

£200 put into workplace pension