She was carrying about a $5,000 balance on her credit card. The rest was student loans.
“I felt a lot of shame, and just overwhelmed about this debt, like it’s never going to go away,” she told Business Insider. The easier thing to do in the moment was to avoid her financial situation, rather than tackle it head-on.
It took Han about two years to feel ready to face her loans. The turning point was a vacation to Cancún that she couldn’t afford and financed through her credit card. She said she felt too stressed and guilty about her finances to enjoy the trip.
Upon returning, “I got really serious about managing my money and paying off this debt,” she said. “I looked at this debt as the impetus to get really savvy with money. I tried to view it as a gift rather than a curse — like, I will make something good out of this by getting so good with money.”
She read finance books, took classes, and sought out mentors. Then, she made a couple of serious changes: She increased her income, starting by negotiating a raise at work and eventually by creating additional revenue streams through freelance work. Next, she reined in her spending.
“The other piece of it is actually having your expenses under control, so that when you do make more, all that can go toward debt and not just lifestyle creep,” she said. “So I got really mindful about my spending.”
She prioritized paying down her high-interest credit card debt, and then started investing while simultaneously chipping away at her student loans.
Han, who is debt-free and worth seven figures between her stock and real estate portfolios, said that her wealth began to snowball as she created more revenue streams and had more money to funnel into investments.
Her first side hustle was freelance bookkeeping on Upwork. She also hosted free personal finance meet-ups, which evolved into a profitable financial literacy business that she now runs full-time. Further, Han generates revenue from her two online courses, brand deals, affiliate links, and book sales. She’s also built a YouTube following of nearly 1 million subscribers and gets paid from ads.
In her 2025 book, “Add a Zero,” Han details the “financial waterfall” framework she used to go from major debt to self-made millionaire.
Rose Han
Han’s 10-part strategy begins with an emergency fund. Even before you start tackling high-interest debt, she advises setting aside at least $2,000 in a high-yield savings account.
That’s because “emergency expenses are the leading cause of credit card debt,” she writes in “Add a Zero.” “It’s not lattes, Uber Eats, or online shopping. It’s the urgent-care visit that’s not covered by insurance, the blown car engine, or the emergency vet expense that throws a wrench into your finances.”
Having a cash cushion will help you stay out of the red. You’ll eventually add to this fund in a later tier, but $2,000 should cover most emergencies and prevent you from digging yourself deeper in debt.
Next, pay off any credit card debt, as it tends to be the most expensive type. The average credit card interest rate in the US is pushing 25%.
Don’t worry about other, lower-interest debt, such as student loans, car notes, and mortgages, yet.
“Simply continue making the required minimum payments for now. These debts are much lower-priority than credit card debt,” said Han. As a general rule, “if the interest rate is in the single digits, it can wait.”
She added: “Think of it like triaging in an emergency room — you take care of the most critical cases first. Credit card debt is your financial emergency.”
Once you’ve eliminated your high-interest debt, you can dip your toe into investing, which is the key to building wealth. One of the simplest ways to put your money to work is to contribute to a 401(k) plan if your company offers one. Many companies offer a 401(k) match, and you’ll want to contribute enough to take full advantage of this essentially free money.
Han then advises shifting gears and beefing up the emergency fund you already started. Once you’ve built that up, you can start utilizing tax-advantaged retirement accounts, such as a Roth IRA, which offers tax-free growth, and an HSA, which provides a triple-tax advantage.
Rose Han achieved financial independence at 32. She found that early retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.Courtesy of Rose Han
As soon as your retirement accounts are funded, pay down any remaining non-mortgage debt (car loans or student loans) and then start contributing to a taxable brokerage account. Han, who prefers to buy index funds and ETFs instead of individual stocks, owns the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF (VTI), the Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund ETF (VXUS), and the Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF (VNQ).
“Taxable accounts come later, after maximizing all your tax-advantaged accounts,” she explained. “Why pay more taxes than you have to?”
This is also a good time to start saving for future purchases, such as a home or your kid’s education. These savings goals shouldn’t be prioritized over retirement savings, she emphasized: “You can borrow for a house or for college, but you can’t borrow for retirement.”
The final tier of the waterfall is paying off your mortgage early if you own a home. Han doesn’t own a home but bought long-term rental properties to diversify her portfolio.
The tiers of the financial waterfall are important. By following the order Han laid out, “you save every dollar as tax-efficiently as possible,” she explained. “Think of it like a game of tax-advantage Tetris — you want to fill up the most tax-efficient accounts first before moving to less advantageous options. This is how the rich keep more of what they earn: not just by making more (though that helps), but also by being strategic about where they put their money.”
