Guest: Hans Boateng, The Investing Tutor

Episode Introduction

What if wealth wasn’t about accumulation but stewardship?

In this episode of The Hook, I talk with Dr. Hans Boateng, founder of The Investing Tutor and creator of The Royals, a luxury travel company that curates cultural experiences across the world. Hans shares his story of immigrating from Ghana to the U.S., rebuilding from the bottom 10%, and creating a business that teaches underrepresented communities how to build generational wealth.

We talk about money as ministry, consistency as a superpower, and how disruption often leads us to our true calling.

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Sarah: Welcome to The Hook with Sarah Larsen. I’m your host, Sarah Larsen, and I’m really excited to introduce today’s guest, Dr. Hans Boateng, with The Investing Tutor. Please tell us about what you do, Hans.

Hans: Thank you so much for having me, Sarah. I’m just so excited to be here. I launched the first investment tutoring business in the U.S., which is The Investing Tutor. I also run The Royals, which is a luxury travel company that curates cultural experiences across the world for our members, who are Royals.

From Chauffeurs to Buses

Sarah: I saw the video of your trip back in December to Ghana with The Royals, and it just looks like so much fun. I can’t wait to get into that a little bit more. We’re going to start with where you grew up, and what was your experience?

Hans: I was born and raised in Ghana, West Africa. I like to share this story of growing up in an upper-middle-class family in Ghana, because when we got to the U.S., we went from upper-middle-class to bottom 10%.

My dad grew up in a village in Ghana, so he wasn’t in the city. The only reason he was able to make it to the city was that he was one of the two students in the village that got a scholarship to go study in Germany. He went to Germany for college, and the host family that took him in, the gentleman’s name was Hans.

Sarah: Oh. That’s where you got your name?

Hans: Yeah, that’s how I got my name. I share that story because, because of that break, it allowed my dad to then get a really good job in Ghana. We were an upper-middle-class family, and what that means in Ghana is you literally eat cereal for breakfast. When you are going to school, you have a driver. Most people don’t even imagine that when they think of Africa, West Africa, but that was my upbringing. Life was pretty much the same as it is here.

Our family immigrated to the U.S. when I was about 17 or 18. Prior to coming to the U.S., I had watched movies like Home Alone and other college movies where you see college parties, beaches, and all those things. The assumption was, “America is like beaches and islands and college parties and fraternities and all of these things.”

I was dropped off in Bronx, New York, and we went from upper-middle-class to pretty much close to poverty, bottom 10%. The reason wasn’t because our family lost money; it’s because of the currency. When you go from the Ghana cedi to the U.S. dollar, the exchange rate back then was four to one. If you had a thousand Ghana cedis, which is a lot, when you get to the U.S. and convert the money to U.S. dollars, you’re losing 75% of your purchasing power. That was what pushed us to the bottom 10% as it relates to income.

I remember going to Manhattan one day, looking around—tall skyscrapers, all these individuals, and the plush vehicles. I said to myself, “How does a person become successful? How do they make it in the U.S.?” It was something that was always at the back of my mind.

Sarah: How old were you when you came to the U.S.?

Hans: About 17 or 18.

Sarah: About 18. Ready to launch into that college career.

Hans: College career. My mom wanted me to be a doctor. That was something that she really, really wanted.

Sarah: Understandable. When you look at that transition and that exchange of money, and that’s a career that can help you monetarily, was that the hope, or was it more just she wanted you to be a doctor?

Hans: Many people don’t realize this, but when you’re born into an immigrant household that does not necessarily invest money for the future, a child is essentially your retirement plan.

Sarah: Oh, I love that.

Hans: You want the return on investment, if you will. When you are looking at the different careers, you’re like, “What would pay the most?” So, from a parent standpoint, it is, “My child should become a doctor, an engineer, or a lawyer.”

The Moment Money Stopped Making Sense

Sarah: Okay. Tell me about meeting your mentor and how you progressed from there.

Hans: I met this gentleman. Prior to that, I remember most of my relatives would be saying to me, “Hans, if you want to be successful in America, go to school, get a good job, work very hard, and if you do these things, you’d be successful.” But the fascinating thing was, I was looking at those individuals, and I didn’t see success. I didn’t see wealth. I didn’t see prosperity in their lives. So, I felt like there must be a missing piece, because I don’t see that reflected in your life, and you’re giving me this advice.

I remember stumbling upon this gentleman. He took a liking to me and encouraged me to read this book, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. The subtitle of the book is, What The Rich and Wealthy Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Don’t.

The number one thing that I learned from the book is: focus on acquiring assets. If I could just summarize the whole book in one sentence, it’s: focus on acquiring assets. Rich and wealthy people acquire assets. Back then, most individuals in my family were focused on hourly pay. If they were being paid $20, “How can I get $30, or $35, or $40?” Rich and wealthy people don’t focus on that. They are focused on equity or ownership. So, stock options, real estate, a business—they want assets, something that either produces or generates money, or something that grows and compounds money over time.Once I understood that, I was like, “Whoa, that is amazing.”

One of the questions Robert Kiyosaki asked in his book was, “After you’ve worked for someone your entire life, how much can you sell your position or your role for?” That’s when you realize not a dime. That’s when you realize the difference between an asset. Your job makes you money, but you, as an individual, have to show up to be able to earn that money. For me, it was a switch in mindset, and it inspired me to begin to read everything I could find on the topic of money.

From Pharmacist to Founder

Sarah: Let me ask you, when you came to the U.S., and you saw that differential in income and became in that lower 10%… One of the things that I like to talk about is disruption and how that affects our identity. A disruption can be good or bad. It can be, “Hey, I chose to move to the United States and find an opportunity for growth.” It can also be the loss of a job or the loss of a career. How did that affect your mental state? Was it a challenge to do that? And if so, how did you overcome that?

Hans: Specifically, the coming to the U.S. If you’re looking at it from the standpoint of someone coming from West Africa, most individuals look up to the U.S. It is the country that everyone aspires to want to come to.

Sarah: It’s the country of opportunity. Is that what you’re seeing?

Hans: Absolutely. So, there is this excitement about coming. Yes, I know you’re leaving behind friends. You’re leaving behind, for me, 18 years of my life, but you are so enamored and excited, and there’s this hope and optimism that it makes it easy. With regards to growth opportunities or different disruptive moments in my life, this was the most welcome disruption, if you will.

Sarah: That’s good to know. Because, like I said, it can be either direction. So, you read Rich Dad Poor Dad. What next?

Hans: I became… I would use the word addicted to understanding money, wealth, the economy, business, and entrepreneurship. It led me on this path where over a seven-to-ten-year period, I read over 400 books on the topic of money, building wealth, investing, entrepreneurship, and over 40,000 financial articles, journals, and blogs. I remember going to pharmacy school and I spent more time studying money than I did even pharmacy.

That was the next transition. I graduated pharmacy school and got an opportunity to pursue an MBA—a Path of Distinction MBA program at William and Mary. So, I came and did that. It was two years, and when I graduated, I remember at that time I had learned so much about money and the economy.

A colleague, a friend, came over to me and was like, “Hans, what is a stock?” Or, “Hans, I’m working for an employer. They have a 401k, but I’m not going to sign up for that because they are trying to take more of my paycheck.” I was looking at the individual and I was confused, because I said to myself, “If this professional doesn’t know what a stock is, does not know the value of a 401k, then it makes sense why a majority of immigrants and underrepresented groups and individuals don’t have wealth. It’s because we don’t understand or we don’t know.”

In that moment, I was like, “Hmm, this is interesting. Let me see if in the U.S. there is a tutor who teaches about investing. There has to be an investing tutor.” So, I went to Google, searched “investing tutor.” The search query came back, and there wasn’t a single investing tutor in the country. Wow.

The Cost of Following a Calling

Hans: In that moment, I felt a calling that, “Hey, this is what you’re supposed to do.” So, I started to lean into this calling on a part-time basis. A major disruption is coming. I would go to work as a pharmacist from, let’s say, 8:00 AM till about 4:30. I’d get home from 5:00 to 6:30, kind of eat, and then from 6:30 to midnight, just work on The Investing Tutor. That was my schedule.

My wife, Tiff, comes home at about 7:00 from the hospital. Believe it or not, and I didn’t even realize this, but for a year, we never had dinner. For one year, we never had dinner because I was working seven days a week, and it was just constantly. The days that I’m off, it’s like The Investing Tutor.

I’ll come back to the story, but I remember a year into this, Tiff was like, “I think you might need to reevaluate, or shift your time around, because as a family, you cannot do this.”

Coming back, I was working part-time. It was amazing, getting a full-time pharmacist paycheck, and then you’re doing this business on the side, which is also bringing in money. So, I was very comfortable. I think that God was like, “No. You are meant to do this business thing, but if I am to leave you, you are not going to pursue this the way that you should.”

I think he shook things up at my work, and all of a sudden, a director who had hired me and brought me into clinical pharmacy changed against me. When my wife and I purchased a new home, all of a sudden everything changed. This person started scrutinizing my work, looking for errors. They couldn’t find anything, so they set me up. She ended up firing me. It went up to the VP of the hospital. The VP brought me back.

It was just seven months of turmoil. You go to bed, and you just feel your heart racing because it’s like, “Is this person going to jeopardize my pharmacist license? Are they going to impact my income?” It was just on and on for seven months.

I requested a transfer so I could go to a different hospital, and they promised me the transfer was coming. When the time came to move, they said, “Hans, we’re sorry. Someone else took the position. But you know what, just go to our website. Any role that you see as a pharmacist that’s available, you can have it.”

I never went to the website. In that moment, I had been disrespected because you promised me this role. In that moment, it was clear to me that if—and I want anyone listening to this to think through it—this business is earning about 10% to 15% of what I’m earning as a pharmacist. What if I was committing 100% of my time to it?

When I left pharmacy, I went all into the business. Now you understand why I didn’t have dinner with Tiff for a year, because it was a make-it-or-break-it moment. It’s either this thing survives, or you don’t have any money. I like to say, for Tiff, the thing that she wouldn’t be happy with is when at the end of the month, we’re supposed to pay the bills, and I’m like, “I don’t have my share.” Because of that, I was just hyper-focused.

I remember coming home after I discovered that I wasn’t getting that pharmacist role. Major disruptive moment in my life. Tiff is there, and I tell her what had happened, and she’s like, “So what are you going to do? Where are you applying to next?” And I was like, “I’m going to do this business.” Tears just dropped down her face. She was just so sad, but I knew that that was what I was supposed to do. From that moment, I woke up at 7:00 or 8:00 AM and I would work till midnight. I did that for a full year non-stop to grow The Investing Tutor.

Sarah: That’s an incredible investment in yourself. You left pharmacy and knew that you were going to devote all of your time to your new business, The Investing Tutor. Did you feel a shift there in identity as far as, “Oh, I’m no longer a pharmacist,” or were you so focused on growing the business that you really didn’t think about that?

Hans: My mom wanted me to be a doctor. So, I looked at different healthcare professions that have the title “doctor,” and I wanted to find the one that best matches me as an individual. The reason I picked pharmacy was because the pharmacist is someone who just interacts with people. They are at a CVS or Walgreens, and you can just speak with them. They build relationships with individuals. For me, it was the people that attracted me to pharmacy, not the job. All I had to do was memorize medications and talk with people, help them at the point of their life where they need someone.

A pharmacist is way more accessible than even a doctor. In Ghana, where I was born, if a person is ill and they don’t have money to go to a doctor—because if you go to the doctor, the doctor diagnoses you and sends you to a pharmacy—most people bypass the hospital, especially if you’re not extremely ill. You just go straight to the pharmacist. They are so intelligent; they’re able to diagnose you. In Ghana, there are no laws against it, and they sell medications. Almost all medications are over the counter in Ghana, so it’s quite different from the U.S. I shared that to say my mom wanted me to be a pharmacist. I wasn’t tied to the profession.

Finding Financial Freedom

Sarah: You went from a profession where you were helping people, and that was the thing that you were passionate about, to a business that again, you’re helping people, and that’s what you’re passionate about. It’s brilliant.

Hans: Thank you so much. I felt this business, The Investing Tutor, was going to, from my standpoint, transform an entire group. Initially, when I started, I said, “I want to teach everyone how to invest,” which is the beginner’s naivete, if you will. Later, it dawned on me that I have to focus.

My target audience became underrepresented groups and immigrants and women and millennials, individuals who had fallen through the cracks. The financial system is not focused on them. For women, they’ll say, “Leave it for your husband.” I started noticing that because I was authentic, I was true, and very high integrity. Many women, often when there’s a divorce or a loved one or a partner passes away, people try and take advantage of them because they don’t know, they don’t understand money, investing, all of these things.

I had the opportunity to work with so many women, and helping them—some of them were starting their business new, some of them had gone through a divorce—just them knowing that they could learn and understand it gave them the self-confidence, which was absolutely beneficial.

My mom even tried convincing me, “Hans, what are you doing? You’re leaving your pharmacy job.” Tiff even called my parents to try and get them to convince me because she knows that in African culture, parents have a heavy weight as it relates to the direction of their child. The only saving grace was my dad. He said, “Hans, I worked for one company for 33 years. If I could go back, I’d start my own business.”

Sarah: Oh, I love that. He overrode Mom’s pressure to stay in pharmacy.

Hans: Absolutely. He told me that one-on-one. That was life-changing. Little did I know, when he was speaking with his friends, he was so concerned. “Oh my gosh, my son has left his pharmacist job, and can someone talk to him?” Apparently, when he sees how inspired I am, he couldn’t gather up the courage to say, “Don’t pursue your dream.” But fast forward, they have been blown away.

This just came to my mind: about two years ago, I bought my mom a brand-new car as a gift for Easter, Mother’s Day, or something. I remember just her in that moment. She was like, “Wow, many individuals are pharmacists and X, Y, Z. They haven’t purchased a brand-new car for their mom, especially so early in their career.” Because the car was sent to Ghana, so it’s not like you can finance it; it has to be fully paid off. My mom said, “Ever since you were a kid, you just always were pushing yourself.” She said she never doubted me, but she was just scared.

Sarah: Now, do your parents still live in Ghana?

Hans: Yes, they do. They moved back after we went through college. They were like, “Now you are old enough. You’ve graduated college, you’re going to master’s programs. You’re dating, you’re in relationships. You can navigate it. We’re going to go back home.”

Sarah: And at what point did you meet Tiffany? Does she just go by Tiff?

Hans: Yes. I met her at UB, University of Buffalo. At that time, the only city that I knew was New York. So, I searched “best pharmacy program in New York,” and it was University of Buffalo. I went there, and that’s where I met Tiff. We started dating, and I like to say my life changed. Another disruptive moment in my life was dating Tiff.

You can track this via my Facebook posts. Up until it said, “In a relationship with Tiff,” it was all rap lyrics. “I have more miles than American Airlines.” Just consistent rap lyrics after rap lyrics, and then it says, “In a relationship.” And I started quoting Aristotle. I mean, there’s literal proof on Facebook of incomplete sentences, rap lyrics—Lil Wayne and Dr. Dre. There’s nothing wrong with that, because I still listen to that music, but it’s just so profound the impact that the right person has on your life. I saw that visually, and it was transformative.

Not to mention, Tiff also was helpful in allowing me to even understand money more because her dad was a financial advisor. She had a credit card when she was 15 that her dad created for her but didn’t give it to her, so she was building credit from the age of 15. When I met Tiff, I viewed a credit card as, “The bank is asking for the minimum payments. That’s why it says minimum due.” Tiff freaked out. She’s like, “No, that is not.” I was like, “But that is what they are asking for.” She was a huge part of my life as it relates to even understanding and learning money during my journey.

Sarah: That’s awesome. And how long have you guys been married now?

Hans: We’ve been married for seven years. Calculating from the time we started dating, it’s about 13 years. I actually posted this picture on Facebook for Valentine’s. It’s a picture of a little boy, who’s probably about four, in a blue shirt, and a white girl, and they are kissing—little kids kissing. I posted it, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, Tiff, or I call her Beauty, I’m so happy we’ve been together for 32 years.” Below that, I clarify that Tiff and I found this picture online when we were in college, and we said, “Oh my gosh, this is us. We’ve been together since we were a kid.” It was just amazing looking back at that moment.

Sarah: I know she’s a big supporter of what you’re doing now. How did things go in that first year that you were really focusing so heavily into your work?

Hans: The first year was all business. If there’s something that I can share here, it is: your number one focus in business is to get individuals to know about you. That is the most important thing. The way that I went about that was by leveraging social media and podcasts. It was getting the word out.

In 2016, when I launched The Investing Tutor, you didn’t truly see investment content on social media. It was people sharing their vacations and their clothes. Especially in the immigrant community, all of a sudden, I come along, and I’m sharing about stocks, 401ks, this company just listed a stock. I was just sharing about that, and it’s fascinating to see the evolution. Now, the cool thing to do in the finance industry is to share content via social media.

Yes, that first year was head-down work, very hard. Focus. Put out a ton of value. What I mean by value is let individuals know that you are an expert or knowledgeable in that industry. Let them know about what you’re offering. Let them know about your business. It’s just consistency—putting out content, showing up day in, day out.

I built The Investing Tutor. I average about 100,000-plus views on a weekly basis with my content. I have worked with over 10,000 individuals. I even have individuals outside of the underrepresented groups and communities that just come because they see someone who is genuinely wanting to help people.

Sarah: You’re very relatable.

Hans: Oh, thank you.

Sarah: I think that is, and you do want to genuinely help people. It doesn’t matter who that person is. That makes a lot of sense. I know that social media has changed a little bit since that 2016 timeframe, when you could more naturally grow. I think social media presence is a little stranger these days with all the algorithms that decide this is what people should be seeing. It’s great that you got your start at that time.

Hans: Thank you. I understand that there are algorithms and all these things, but what I would share for anyone listening is, for example, YouTube Shorts is a new, up-and-coming platform. Someone who is leveraging YouTube Shorts now would be the equivalent of back then when I was starting. Or, Twitter was recently acquired by Elon Musk. It’s going through another evolution of growth or a new phase of its business, and who knows the growth that can come.

Sarah: Now is the time to get into Twitter.

Hans: Exactly. So, just show up. Don’t pay attention to the algorithm. Focus on showing up every day and putting out content. Nowadays, I think that because of ChatGPT, which is a whole long conversation by itself, individuals should not be limited in the ability to create content.

The Future of Wealth

Sarah: You mentioned that as we were preparing for this conversation, using AI for a variety of things. Absolutely, that’s something that can help with content creation, providing some inspiration, a little boost, a little step up to get out there. I love the explanation of getting in on these things that are new when they are new because even though those platforms aren’t new, those are new opportunities for growth. That’s really brilliant.

The other thing I wanted to say is the consistency with putting out content. That is absolutely something that everybody needs to think about. It doesn’t matter how many people are seeing it from day to day, but just being consistent eventually will grow.

Hans: Consistency is so key because I’m going through a moment of my life where I almost feel like I’m restarting my business, The Investing Tutor. That’s because last year I launched The Royals, the luxury travel business. To make that work, I had to sacrifice The Investing Tutor for almost a year. What do I mean by that? I wasn’t actively going out and seeking customers, and I was posting much less about investing.

My focus was now shifted to digital assets and how to leverage that technology, which is crypto and blockchain, to build this luxury travel company, because I used that technology to build it. My focus on social media was, “Get this digital asset, and it’s going to be your membership, your digital membership to become a Royal.”

The Royals NFT was about $200 for the base membership. For individuals who literally wanted the red carpet, the VIP airport experience when they land in Ghana, the chauffeur with the luxury car at the airport waiting for them, that was a $2,000 price point. We had 200 of the $2K membership NFTs, and then we had 2,800 of the $200 NFTs.

We put out there, “With that, you can come to Ghana. We’ll curate a phenomenal experience for you.” We had about 400 individuals in Ghana this December for our Royal experience. It was a five-to-seven-day experience where we had a beach cocktail. We had an Accra city tour, which is a city of Ghana. We had a Cape Coast Castle tour, which is an actual slave castle, and you could walk through the dungeons and see and smell and take in that moment of, “Wow, this is what it feels like being in this dark room.” It’s really moving.

The Royals went to a rainforest and all of these experiences, and it led up to the Royal Gala, which I describe as like an Oscars or a Grammy’s, which is African-inspired. It’s a seven-hour event where it’s like, “Can we have a person experience Ghanaian culture in that seven hours, from Broadway to fashion show, to music, to a private concert with the best artists in Ghana performing right in front of them?”

It was mind-blowing. Can you imagine seeing Jay-Z and Beyoncé literally just standing five feet from you, singing and performing? People lost their minds. It was just so, so, so incredible to see that dream come to reality. So, I committed everything within that year to making sure Royals was successful. I sacrificed The Investing Tutor for that period of time.

This year, I look back, and because you brought up the word consistency, it’s so important to be consistent with everything. So, this year, I’m starting The Investing Tutor back up. I actually launched the first of its kind subscription service. It’s called Generational Wealth Plus. What I’m doing now is I’m giving individuals access to everything within The Investing Tutor—all of my programs, all of my investment reports, all of my Zoom live calls. There’s a text message platform also, where individuals get the text messages on what’s going on. “Inflation just came out at 6.4%. What does that mean? How does it impact your retirement?” It’s breaking down all of these things.

An individual gets all of this within Generational Wealth Plus, which means now my business is simplified. I don’t have to be selling multiple things. I’m offering just one thing, and an individual gets everything.

Sarah: I love that idea. That’s great. Memberships are becoming such a big part of online business culture, and that sounds like an amazing opportunity. Our listeners are definitely going to need to check that out. Where do they find you on the internet?

Hans: If an individual were to go to Google and just search, literally, Investing Tutor, there’s only one that will pop up: theinvestingtutor.com, which is my website. They’ll be able to connect with me. On social media, they can search either Investing Tutor or they can search Dr. Hans.

Key Takeaways

• Money follows mindset. Financial success starts with the belief that you’re capable of building wealth, and the education to sustain it.
  
• Teach what you’ve mastered. Every lesson learned through hardship becomes your curriculum for others.
  
• Faith funds vision. When your mission serves people, provision finds its way.
  
• Consistency compounds. Whether you’re posting on social media or saving for retirement, small daily actions create lasting momentum.

About Dr. Hans

Dr. Hans Boateng—known online as The Investing Tutor—is the first investment tutor in the U.S., teaching professionals, immigrants, and underrepresented communities how to build generational wealth.

Born and raised in Ghana, Hans immigrated to the U.S. at 18, earned his Doctorate in Pharmacy, and later left that career to launch his financial education company. Today, he’s also the founder of The Royals, a luxury travel and culture brand merging community, education, and global experiences.

Connect with Dr. Hans: theinvestingtutor.com | Instagram

Energetic Reflection

This episode carries the energy of stewardship — the vibration of building wealth with purpose. Hans reminds us that faith and finance aren’t opposites; they’re intertwined. When you learn to manage your resources through wisdom and generosity, you multiply impact.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or scaling what you’ve built, this story is your permission to think bigger, steward better, and keep showing up.

If this conversation inspired you, join my Reiki-infused newsletter, where I share stories and energetic insight for creative entrepreneurs who want to grow in alignment.