Native New Yorker Mohuya Khan, 27, in her apartment in Astoria, Queens.
Lucia Vazquez for BI
The mountainous pressure of NYC hustle culture and a sprinkle of delusion are among the ingredients Mohuya Khan said led her to become a business owner and content creator at 27.In 2025, she earned around $130,000, and after taxes and expenses, she took home around $70,000.Looking back, she doesn't know if she would do it again.This native New Yorker lives in Queens — the same borough where she was born to Bangladeshi parents — and has supported her day-to-day life through nine streams of income, all while working from her one-bedroom apartment she rents for $3,000 in Astoria, which she splits with her husband."Living in New York City — it's kind of a double-edged sword," she said. "You see, everyone, for the most part, around you hustling. You see people working multiple jobs, and obviously they're tired, but they're just doing it because it's kind of the normal way of living here."Khan is one of the many New Yorkers featured in our Cost of the City series, which profiles people finding ways to manage the rising cost of living in one of the country's most expensive cities.She bet on herself — and nearly burned out.As the daughter of immigrants, the hustler mindset comes included as a package deal, Khan said. Growing up, she watched her parents work every day and developed what she described as a scarcity mindset. Her dad roamed the NYC streets as a taxi driver seven days a week, 16 hours a day, and her mom always told her, "You have to work way harder than your counterparts to get where you want to go."
