Why High Earners Stay Broke, with Rose Han

Afford Anything

Paula Pant | Cumulus Podcast Network

Investing, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.6 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2025

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

#652: What if you did everything “right”, earned the degree, landed the six-figure job, and still felt broke? That’s exactly where Rose Han found herself. Fresh out of NYU with a finance degree and a Wall Street paycheck, she had a negative net worth, mounting stress, and a sinking feeling that traditional success wasn’t the path to freedom. In this conversation, Rose shares how she broke out of that cycle and built a seven-figure business that gives her time, independence, and peace of mind. We explore how she reframed her relationship with money, learned to scale her income, and built a life that aligns with her values. Key Takeaways When a “side hustle” becomes just a second job How your uniqueness is your greatest asset The slow season that led to a million-dollar leap Resources and Links Rose Han on YouTube Add a Zero by Rose Han Chapters Note: Timestamps will vary on individual listening devices based on dynamic advertising segments. The provided timestamps are approximate and may be several minutes off due to changing ad lengths. (0:00) Rose Han’s story begins: doing everything right yet still ending up broke (5:45) The Cancun moment that sparked Rose’s financial awakening (9:12) Discovering the three types of income and why some buy freedom while others don’t (13:45) How Rose Han built her “Add a Zero” framework for lasting wealth (21:30) From employee mindset to entrepreneur mindset (25:15) The three levels of leverage and how to scale your income (28:55) Why not every side hustle creates freedom (31:45) Overcoming the fear of selling (39:16) How to build a business while working full-time (47:10) Rose’s real estate lessons and the myth of passive income (53:55) Knowing when to walk away from an investment (1:10:15) What financial freedom really means and how to find your own version Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Rose Hahn did everything right. She got an NYU finance degree. She got a six-figure Wall Street job, and yet she still had a negative net worth. We're talking student loans and credit card debt. The conversation that I'm about to have with her dissects why these conventional success markers failed. Why it failed her and why it failed so many people who
0:22.8	quote unquote do everything right and still end up feeling behind. We'll also talk about how she
0:29.4	pulled out of it. Today, Rose Hahn has over a million subscribers on her YouTube channel,
0:34.3	where she teaches about investing in options trading. She also recently authored a book
0:38.4	called Add a Zero, all about getting to that next level of wealth. And the conversation we're
0:43.9	about to have really establishes the foundation. So if you've ever struggled to explain the
0:49.6	principles, the foundational principles of basic money management to your friends or family, particularly
0:56.5	to anyone who's just starting their journey, this episode is your playbook because she breaks
1:01.5	down her path from a negative net worth to seven figures.
1:05.6	And she does it in accessible, easy-to-approach language that anyone can understand and that you can use
1:12.6	when you're mentoring and teaching others. Welcome to the Afford Anything podcast, the show that
1:17.5	knows you can afford anything, not everything. This show covers five pillars, financial
1:21.8	psychology, increasing your income, investing, real estate, and entrepreneurship. It's double
1:25.5	eye fire. And in today's episode,
1:31.1	we're going to focus on two out of those five letters. We're primarily going to focus on the letter E, entrepreneurship, and we're going to focus a little bit on the letter I for investing.
1:36.2	Enjoy. Welcome, Rose. Hi, Paula. So excited to be on here after following you for so many years.
1:42.5	Oh, thank you. Thank you. I'm honored.
1:45.2	Rose, when you graduated from college, you went to NYU, got a finance degree, got a job that
1:52.1	paid $100,000, pretty much straight out of school. I think a lot of people in their early 20s would love to
1:58.0	have that kind of an income. But you had a negative net worth and it was
2:02.6	staying low for a while. Can you talk about that time? Yeah. So one of the things that we don't
2:08.6	learn is what to do with the money that you make and how to keep what you make. So even though I had
	...

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