James May says that "Without any inherited wealth and with only his fellowship for subsistence into his forties, Young long supported himself through literature, writing dedications and poems aimed at preferment, tragedies for benefit nights, and popular poems self-published with copyrights later sold for profit." In other words, he benefited from the patronage system, the professional stage, and the copyright system of publication for money. For the second half of his life, his primary income seems to have been from a pension from Goerge I (?200 p.a. from 1726 on) and a living in the gift of his college, (?300 p.a.). He died rich--DNB listing of wealth at death around ?14,000