She Delivered for DoorDash on Top of a Full-Time Job — Five Years Earned Her $72,000
3 min read · RealCase summary
Shonnita Leslie, a 40-year-old university program manager in Houston, Texas, finished her bachelor's in sociology and a master's in education in 2009 with roughly $101,000 in student loans. According to CNBC Make It, her combined income across her full-time job, delivery work, and freelance writing was about $65,000 when the story was published in 2024.
In 2018 she started delivering for DoorDash part-time, buying a certified pre-owned car to do it. She earned $6,324 from deliveries that first year and about $18,000 in 2019, and at her busiest she was driving around 30 hours a week on top of her day job. The early DoorDash money went toward paying off the car loan; after that, she pointed it at her loans.
In 2022, $60,000 of her federal loans were forgiven through Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which she said left her 'completely relieved.' That still left about $40,000 in private loans that didn't qualify. Across 2018 to 2023 her DoorDash earnings totaled about $72,000, and by 2024 her remaining student loan balance was down to around $18,000.
She has since scaled back to about five hours of deliveries a week, sold the car in 2023 and switched to an electric bike. Her February 2024 budget showed a $238 monthly student loan payment and $400 a month going to retirement savings, with about $96,000 already in her 403(b) and Roth IRA. She also runs a freelance writing business, Noir in Color, covering personal finance and side hustles.
Key takeaways
- ›Earned $6,324 from DoorDash in 2018 and about $18,000 in 2019
- ›About $72,000 total from DoorDash between 2018 and 2023
- ›Student debt went from about $101,000 to about $18,000 (helped by $60,000 of PSLF forgiveness in 2022)
- ›Drove up to about 30 hours a week at peak; about 5 hours a week now
Original source
Read the original (CNBC Make It via NBC Miami)
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