Liberal making money studying (8)
I believe the answer is:
learning
'studying' is the definition.
('learn' can be a synonym of 'study')
'liberal making money' is the wordplay.
'liberal' becomes 'l' (abbreviation).
'making money' becomes 'earning' (I've seen this before).
'l'+'earning'='LEARNING'
(Other definitions for learning that I've seen before include "(Knowledge from) study" , "Acquired knowledge" , "A little of it is said to be a dangerous thing" , "Lore" , "Discovering, finding out" .)