Voice of London

In a news cycle dominated by penny pinching tips and £1 meals, some young people are taking charge of their financial situations, but not in the way you may think.

Meet Callum Carver: an impressive 19-year-old financial influencer aiming to change the way young people handle their money. The content creator runs multiple social media accounts (he has nearly 400K TikTok followers) alongside consultation businesses, making him a rare type of financially literate young adult.

Carver is one of many TikTok finance influencers, those that are taking advantage of the cost of living crisis by looking into alternative ways of surviving the recession.

He describes himself as “just a guy trying to learn finance and self-development and teaching others how to do the same”, and he has done just that. Carver has made it his business to educate his following, primarily young people, on aspects of the financial world that aren’t traditionally taught.

From investing to side hustles to financial philosophy, his content is extensive and ridiculously open book. He doesn’t gatekeep his knowledge, in fact, he will tell you EXACTLY how he got to where he is.

Growing wealth: step by step

To start, he read books. His reading list is substantial, but he credits his success to his self-taught financial literacy. The way he sees it, the best investment you can make is one in yourself, and education is the best way to do just that.

“Investing in yourself creates a completely undefined return of investment, which can be fantastic. I would always just say focus on education, focus on teaching yourself things that you want to pursue,” he said. “Once you do that, you can take the knowledge that you’ve learned, and put it in practice.”

Through his reading and research, Carver “fell in love” with the things that aren’t traditionally taught. He discovered something called affiliate marketing, which is essentially promoting a company’s product, as the first of many digital income streams.

From there, he dove straight into the world of social media management, working for local businesses and using the experience to start an online social media consulting company. As he personally grew his knowledge, his business grew tenfold.

Carver said: “I originally morphed into this business model to take advantage of the recession. The more business you have, the more cash flow I have to invest.”

With the markets in such a volatile state, Carver, like many investors, sees this as the perfect time to buy into certain stocks. In the end, he is a business owner and is “very, very committed to continue to grow my business and continue to see where it goes”.

Where is he now?

Carver is on path to make his first million by the time he is 23. He has multiple streams of income and has become a mentor for others choosing to go down a similar path. Through his SMIP (Social Media Influencer Pooling) Academy, results have flourished with the most flattering kind of testimony: screenshots of bank statements with four figure deposits.

He is obsessed with “hustle culture” and insists that however exhausting it may seem, it is nowhere near the physical and mental toll of a 9 to 5. When asked whether he would ever work for someone again, Carver didn’t hesitate- no.

He said: “The traditional way of working for someone else, not being in control of your own time, your own money scares me because it’s your life and if you’re working for someone else who is in control, that’s somewhat terrifying.”

Carver is confident yet humble. A teacher, but still a student; his mindset is infectious. He knows that he has much to learn and that circumstances almost certainly may change, but he is riding this wave until the end and bringing us all along with him.

Find Callum’s social media here, along with numerous financial resources and links to his services.

Words: Cerah Handsaker | Subbing: Yana Trup