A 27-year-old New Yorker made $130,000 from 9 income streams. She says the hustle nearly burned her out.

The mountainous unit of NYC hustle culture and a sprinkle of wishful thinking are among the ingredients Mohuya Khan said led her to go a business proprietor and contented creator astatine 27.

In 2025, she earned astir $130,000, and aft taxes and expenses, she took location astir $70,000.

Looking back, she doesn't cognize if she would do it again.

This autochthonal New Yorker lives successful Queens — the aforesaid borough wherever she was calved to Bangladeshi parents — and has supported her day-to-day life done 9 streams of income, each while moving from her one-bedroom flat she rents for $3,000 successful Astoria, which she splits pinch her husband.

"Living successful New York City — it's benignant of a double-edged sword," she said. "You see, everyone, for the astir part, astir you hustling. You spot group moving aggregate jobs, and evidently they're tired, but they're conscionable doing it because it's benignant of the normal measurement of surviving here."

Khan is 1 of the galore New Yorkers featured successful our Cost of the City series, which profiles group uncovering ways to negociate the rising costs of surviving successful 1 of the country's astir costly cities.

She stake connected herself — and astir burned out.

As the girl of immigrants, the hustler mindset comes included arsenic a package deal, Khan said. Growing up, she watched her parents activity each time and developed what she described arsenic a scarcity mindset. Her dada roamed the NYC streets arsenic a taxi driver 7 days a week, 16 hours a day, and her mom ever told her, "You person to activity measurement harder than your counterparts to get wherever you want to go."

As a result, she began moving astatine 15, learned to thrust astatine 16, and moved retired astatine 22, while pursuing her master's degree. Khan earned a bachelor's grade from Hunter College, wherever she later pursued postgraduate studies successful puerility education. She covered tuition pinch savings and loans while moving arsenic an after-school counsellor arsenic a broadside occupation to salary her rent and different surviving expenses.

The transition to manner and contented creation began erstwhile Khan started posting her creation during the pandemic connected YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. As her assemblage grew, she started watching lessons connected YouTube and Skillshare to amended her drawing.

In the beginning, she said she was "running connected fumes," operating mostly connected the "delusion mindset" that things would activity retired — and she wanted to do it alone.

"I had this emotion wrong maine wherever I conscionable had to beryllium to myself that I could do it without asking for immoderate help," she said.

Soon enough, she decided to spell each successful connected content creation and motorboat her clothing brand, Labyrinthave, pinch Indo-Western and Bangladeshi influences.

"I don't urge everyone conscionable to discontinue your job, and conscionable activity connected your passions," she said. "It sounds awesome connected paper, but erstwhile you effort to really do it, and you don't person money saved up aliases a unchangeable occupation aliases income that is going to travel successful — it is truthful scary to not person that."

When looking backmost connected that modulation play of her life, Khan felt bittersweet, reflecting connected a play defined by a "toxic" mindset pinch nary work-life boundaries.

"I'm proud of her, but I don't cognize if I would do it again," she said, referencing her past self. "It motivated me. It besides really burned maine out."

Five years later, she is financially independent, debt-free, and uses portion of her income to thief salary her parents' mortgage.

Inside Khan's 9 sources of income

Khan has sustained herself complete clip by managing 9 different sources of income successful varying amounts.

Redefining the hustle without leaving New York

Now, she has recovered a amended balance, capable to abstracted herself from her activity and find things that crushed her.

"I don't consciousness for illustration I person to perpetually pain myself retired and overexert myself to beryllium thing to myself aliases others," she said.

Her expenses see paying portion of her parents' mortgage and pitching successful complete $400 toward the telephone scheme she shares pinch her contiguous family and her aunt's family. Her flat utilities usually scope from $50 to $210, depending connected the season, and groceries for her and her hubby typically costs up to to $400. Although she does person a car, for which she pays astir $300 for car insurance, she leaves it astatine her parents' house, truthful her mom tin usage it to get around, arsenic Khan is accustomed to taking the subway and usually useful from home.

She does find room to splurge connected immoderate things. She spends up to $100 a week eating retired pinch her husband, holds a basal ClassPass membership, gets massages each 2 months, and gets her nails done each erstwhile successful a while. Adding up these manner expenses, she usually spends $300 — $500 a month, pinch the maximum being $1,000 if she were to scheme a trip.

Although she has felt the rising costs of surviving successful the city, Khan cannot image herself leaving and envisions raising her ain family wrong the 5 boroughs.

"I'm a autochthonal New Yorker, truthful I'm ever going to extremity up uncovering a way," she said.