"2025 was...fine? In personal finance land, the S&P 500 is up about 17% this year, interest rates for borrowers have come down, and everyone seems cautiously optimistic in a way that still indicates this pit in our stomachs that it's all going to come crashing down. Layoffs have slowed, and dinner-party conversations are drifting back toward "so what are you working on?" instead of "are you okay?""
"Against that backdrop, my own year unfolded. It was rich in accomplishments and box-checking. So much went right. I won't bore you with the details of how many years of hard work it took to get to this point because what I have learned in my 37 years on this earth is that hard work is table stakes. Achieving things you set out to accomplish takes a lot of work, and our brains often make us forget the pain it took to get there."
"I'm most proud of the sheer amount of words I wrote this year. 52 Substack essays with an average length of 2,000 words, plus a big old non-fiction book. By my estimates, I wrote more than 250,000 words this year. I wrote in airport lounges, by pretty European lakes, but mostly in my home office in Brooklyn, staring past my giant monitor at my husband's Peloton bike."
2025 featured cautious economic optimism: the S&P 500 rose about 17%, borrowing rates eased, layoffs slowed, and social conversations shifted back to work. Personal achievements included 52 Substack essays averaging 2,000 words, a non-fiction book, and roughly 250,000 words written across travel and home settings. Goals aimed for 10,000 weekly readers reached about 4,400 by year-end. Growth depended on hiring help and producing consistent, high-quality content, often daily. A psychological shift from self-loathing to decisiveness supported sustained effort. Video emerged as an effective format for audience engagement.
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