Financial Feminist - 266. 9 Ways to Feel More Hopeful in 2026

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

As we close out 2025, I know so many of us are ending the year exhausted, overwhelmed, and craving even the smallest spark of hope — and that’s exactly what today’s episode is here to give you. From the power of local community events to the healing magic of nature, art, or activism, this episode will give you simple, actionable ways to end 2025 feeling more hopeful (without the toxic positivity or wellness fluff). I’m sharing the real, tangible practices that have helped me reconnect with joy in a year that felt painfully heavy.  Visit ⁠https://herfirst100k.com/ffpod⁠ to stay up to date and find any resources mentioned on our show! 00:00 Intro 01:20 Shifting to Hope: Why It Matters 01:47 Tip 1: Go to a Community Event 02:59 Tip 2: Read a Fun Book 04:17 Tip 3: See Women Play Sports 06:39 Tip 4: Get Into Nature 08:14 Tip 5: Protest, Rally, or Activism from Home 10:49 Tip 6: Experience Art & Live Performances 12:21 Tip 7: Run for Something & Local Political Engagement 13:56 Tip 8: Do Something Alone 15:41 Tip 9: Volunteer & Give Back 17:00 Closing Thoughts: Hope, Community, and Looking Ahead Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you're flying Emirates business class, sipping your favorite cocktail at our onboard lounge, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform designed to help you stand out and succeed online. So whether you're just starting out or scaling your business, Squarespace gives you everything you need to claim your domain, showcase your offerings with a professional website, grow your brand, paid all in one place. From their drag and drop templates to their email campaign tools to the

ability to accept payments, you can do all of this right in Squarespace. Head on over to Squarespace.com for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, go to Squarespace.com slash ff pod to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. This is me handing you a warm cup of tea, a blankie, and sitting you down in front of a fire and saying, I know this year's been hard. Let's make it a little bit better. Hi, financial feminists. Welcome back to the show. My name is Tori, and I am a multimillionaire money expert. I've helped five million women be better with money. But today, I was going to say I'm your mom, but this year sucked. This year sucked. I, I think. I, I think the world's felt very heavy. This year has felt very long. And everything feels urgent. The sky is falling. Climate change. Donald Trump. Everything feels bad. But I don't want to talk about that today. I want to talk about all of the ways that I am finding hope, like concrete feelings of hope, because we need a lot more of that.

we need a lot more of that going into 2026. And it is so easy to get to the end of a difficult period of time and feel like there was nothing good about it. Okay, there was nothing exciting or easy or simple or comforting about it. And the truth is, that's not true. There's a lot that is happening right now that is really lovely and really beautiful and also things that you can concretely do to make yourself feel better and not feel better in a wellness bullshit way, but like things that you can do to remind you of our humanity and to remind you that people are good actually. So we're giving you specific doable things that you can experience to create more hope, to create more connection and more possibility. And this is

is a little different than what we might have done on this show before. Kristen, who's our podcast producer and I have been talking. Like, we were originally going to do like a journal prompt for the end of this year or like reflection. And like, I'm tired of self-development right now. Like, I just want to be. And I imagine you feel the same way where you need things to make you feel better, but aren't like real housewives. Like, aren't in a way that like checks you out. out, but instead is just reaffirming how beautiful the world actually is. So let's talk about some of these. These are concrete things that I have done that I highly recommend to you to make you feel better, to make you feel more hopeful to have you have more connection. The first,

I need you to go to a community event. Okay? This sparks hope because connection is going to be isolation. You're being around other humans. You are helping regulate your nervous system. You're just seeing other people, right? But there's something about a local event, a community event, where you're like, other people care about me and I care about other people and we care about each other. I'm talking about farmers markets, okay? Honestly, there is nothing more hopeful than a farmer's market. Like, it is small businesses doing something that is very laborious to take care of other people, growing food, making a candle. Like, we love a good farmer's market. It is so communal and so lovely to just see people who care trying to take care of other people. This can

also be like craft fairs. There's something going on literally in my hometown in Tacoma as we're recording this. I got videos on TikTok for it. It's like a vintage fair. Like someone's rented out a warehouse. There's going to be a bunch of vintage clothes and furniture happening this weekend. Those are the kind of things where we're gathered around people who care about others and who are interested in making your life better. So one of the things you can do this week, this month, especially as we go into the holidays, is find one of those community events. You might not have year-round farmers markets in your town, but maybe you have a Christmas market. Or maybe you have, you definitely probably have a craft fair because, you know, people are looking for holiday gifts.

You can find these specific things. Maybe it's a Christmas parade. Maybe it is a mutual aid gathering, right? There are so many opportunities, whether you live in a big city or a small local town, to reinvest in your community, to show up and to see people take care of each other. my second thing that you can do concretely to feel more hope right now. I want you to read a book. That's it. I want you to read a book, but I want you to read a book that's fun, okay? Really, it's probably not a nonfiction book, okay? This is probably fiction. Pleasure reading is a radical act, okay? It not only makes you smarter, but it makes you more empathetic. It helps you understand more about the world around you. it helps you understand about different people and different cultures. And it's also just the best

form of entertainment. I was watching Hank and John Green the other day. John said something so thoughtful and interesting, which is that books have still the most entertainment capacity for the least amount of money. Like right now, going to see a movie, $20, but just the ticket, right, before you buy the popcorn and everything else. You can buy, especially, at a thrifted bookstore or a secondhand bookstore, you can buy a book for like $10 to $15 and get hours of entertainment out of it, right? As opposed to like a two-hour movie, you can read a book for hours and hours and hours and hours, right? My books of choice are smut, okay? Fantasy smut? We're talking about dragons and we're talking about vampires and

werewolves and fay, okay? My other one is thrillers. Love a good murder. Love to figure out who did it. It was probably the husband. Those are my two big genres. Thrillers, especially when I'm like trying to get back into reading, okay? Read something that is fun, that is just because you enjoy doing it, not because it's going to better your life in some way, okay? We're talking romance, mystery, fantasy, graphic novels, cookbooks, right? Things that bring you joy, that bring you pleasure that help you learn more about the world around you without feeling like homework. So you can read 10 pages of a book tonight. This is often how I spend my evenings. I am right in the middle of the Third Crescent City book. I shouldn't even say in the middle. I'm on page 690 out of

800. We're getting to the end. And if you've read Sarah J. Mass, you know that it is going to be a crazy finish. Okay. These are the things I love to do. I love going and reading a book, whether that's at a restaurant or it's at home, curl up with a good book, just do it because it's pleasure, okay? Just do it because it makes you feel good. One of my favorites on this list is number three. I want you to go see women play sports. I want you to go to a women's sporting event. Guys, God, I cry every time. I have been to so many, especially this year, women's soccer games. Okay. If you are in L.A., you might know that I actually was like the grandmaster for an Angel City FC game, which is L.A.'s professional team, soccer professional team for women.

And oh my God, it was so cool. There is something so incredible about watching women who are so fucking good go out and just dominate. That is so helpful. Watching women be absolutely capital E excellent and watching and meeting people who support women's sports. Like, there, I don't know if there's ever been a better time to be a women's sports fan. And if you can't afford to go to a game, whether that is soccer, hockey, we're getting a woman's professional hockey team here in Seattle, basketball, their softball and baseball leagues. I mean, women play every fucking sport, okay? whether you go in person or you find a sports bar that shows women playing sports,

I want you to do that. There is so much power in concretely supporting women's sports because not only are, we have a record-breaking attendance and viewership, 2024, 2025, we're record-breaking attendance and viewership for women's sports. there are so much inspiration in these arenas because, again, you get to watch women be so good at what they do and you get to see the other people that support them and how incredible this movement of women's equality in sports truly is. So find a woman's sports team in your area.

If you're in a big city, this is going to be easy. But you might not be able to name them. And this is not your fault. This is patriarchy, okay? You can probably name your closest NFL team. You can probably name your closest NBA team. You might not be able to name your W team, your WNBA team. You might not be able to, you might not know if there's even an NWSL league in your town or in your city.

So that's the first thing. And then if you are not going to sporting events, I want you to buy a ticket, okay? There's some tickets that are actually like under 20 bucks. You can go watch an incredible athletic event and support women and support the organizations that support women for not a lot of money. And if you can't do that, stream your game from home, okay? This is an absolute hope machine, okay? I get so much hope being involved in these women's sports organizations and supporting

them, not only with our platform at her first under K, but just personally. I absolutely love it. I think it's the best environment. If you haven't experienced it, you really should. This independent podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. You know me. I've used and loved Squarespace for a very long time. And one of my favorite things about Squarespace is it makes it so easy to build a website.

I recently helped my partner launch a business and we literally built his entire website on Squarespace using one of their beautiful templates in a weekend. Like we dreamt up the business on a Friday and he was launched by Monday. So whether you're just starting out or scaling your business, Squarespace gives you everything you need to claim your domain, showcase your offerings with a professional website, grow your brand, and get paid all in one place. One of the best things about Squarespace is those easy-to-use templates, their drag-and-drop, and also any customers that come to his website can check out through Squarespace. You don't need like another third-party platform. And especially

for him, he's starting a business on a budget, loves that he doesn't have to use like another platform to do payment processing. There's also an email campaign tool with Squarespace. So again, saving you money, you don't have to use yet another email campaign tool. all of it's happening inside Squarespace. Head on over to Squarespace.com slash FFPod, and when you're ready to launch your brand new website, use code FFPod to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Number four, I need you to get your ass into the woods or to the beach.

I need you to just get your ass into nature. I live in Washington State. I literally have the ocean right outside my door. like literally right outside my door, and I have real forests and mountains 45 minutes away. That is an incredible gift. Some people don't have that geographically, but you have something, you have a park, you have a trail, you have something in nature to ground you and to remind you that there are bigger things other than our problems as humans.

There are bigger things than politics. There are bigger things than our disagreements and our divides. All of this is going to sound like a cliche, but it's fine. There's something about getting out in nature, looking at the stars, climbing a mountain, being in a forest, looking at the ocean, that reminds us of why we need to maintain our hope, why we need to respect our land, respect nature, and there's just something so incredibly comforting and validating about that. The Japanese have this term called forest bathing, and if you haven't heard of it, it's incredible. Basically, it's this like proven thing of even just 10 minutes of getting out into the woods bathing in the forest decreases your blood pressure, decreases your stress, helps regulate your nervous system because that environment allows you a sense of peace and

calm. I forget this a lot. I forget. I forget. how peaceful I find the woods or peaceful I find the mountains. And then I get back in them and I go, I should be doing more of this. And then I forget. Okay. So you can concretely say today, you know what, I am going to figure out a way to get myself on a hike this weekend. Or if there's a beach near me, you know what, I'm going to drive there after work. And it might be dark by the time you get there. So, I don't know, safety concerns. But. a way to get your ass in nature in the next week. Go into your local park. Go into your local trail. Doesn't have to be a two-hour drive, but we need to be reminded of nature, of forces outside

of our petty little human problems. Number five, you're going to go to a protest. You're going to go to a rally. It's very easy to be disillusioned with politics right now. It's very easy to feel like Nothing you do or say matters, and everything's fucked, so why try? And I was at a No King's protest recently. It was, again, I'm going to sound like a broken record. It was so validating. It was so hopeful. I think I cried the whole time. You just get reminded that other people care as much as you do. You get reminded that other people have the same concerns and the same worries and the same stake in all of this that you do. And you get to use your voice and come together with other people to say, this isn't okay to me. This is not something I want to tolerate. This is

not the kind of thing I want to stand for. And again, it's just so hopeful. Right now in this moment, it's so easy to look at everybody who disagrees with you or everybody who is trying to prevent good legislation and prevent good candidates and prevent progress. But there are way more people than you think who are out there fighting the good fight and who you've probably never met. They're doing incredible work on the ground. They're doing grassroots activism. And you just showing up for a couple hours on a Saturday morning is so incredibly impactful.

Now, I will say on record, and it's something. that is difficult to admit out loud, but protests are sometimes not my thing, candidly. I get very overwhelmed by a big group of people, but specifically a big group of people where there's maybe another group across the street who is yelling at that other group of people, like a group of people with another group of people who don't like each other. That stresses me out a lot. It is very easy for my anxious brain to freak out and decide, oh my gosh, this isn't safe or something's going to happen. And there's good reason for that because there's unfortunately been many, many protests, usually not the protesters' fault,

that have become violent. So if you are someone who's like, I don't know if I can handle a protest, great. There are ways to protest from the comfort of your own home. There are so many ways that you can be an activist without having to go out and protest if you're not comfortable with that. So I'll give you a couple examples. One, you can phone bank. You can phone bank and call on behalf of a candidate or on behalf of a particular legislation. You can also call the people who are currently in power and express either support or, I was going to say anger, but support your disinterest in whatever they're doing. These have been proven to be actions that actually move the needle to elect the kind of candidates

we want to see, elect the kind of policies we want to see, but also communicating your dissatisfaction or satisfaction with your lawmakers is incredibly powerful. It's an incredibly powerful tool. I would recommend downloading the Five Calls app that is an easy free way for you to get connected directly to your legislators in your area about the issues that matter to you. That is one easy way that you can protest without leaving your house. Another thing is voting with your dollars. Always, always, always. We talk about this a lot in my book on this show, your money means so much, okay? And you're like, I'm just one person. It's just, yeah, but you're one person in a bunch of different people, okay? It is the swim down part of

finding Nemo. Remember when all of the fish have to swim down in order to break the neck, right? And they're like, swim down, swim down. And Nemo goes around and he tells everybody to swim down, right? One fish, you're right. Not going to make a big impact. But all of those fish together swimming down, set them all free. So, vote with your dollars. This year for Christmas, buy gifts from local mom and pop, women-owned, LGBTQ-owned organizations. They need your money. Don't shop on Amazon. Don't shop at Walmart if you can help it. There's other things you can do, okay? There's other concrete things you can do with your money, okay? Protest, go to a rally. if you're not comfortable with that, find a way to protest within your four walls at home.

Number six, in line with go to a women's sporting event, go to an artistic event, okay? You knew I was going to say this. I have a theater degree. You think you were going to get out of this conversation without me telling you to, like, go to a play? It wasn't going to happen, okay? Whatever that art looks like. A couple examples. Art Museum. So incredible. So good at reminding us that, that again, there's something to live for, there's something to hope for. There's beautiful people creating beautiful, powerful art that just is so, again, life-affirming. Broadway musicals or plays, find the one that's touring through your city. Find your local theater who really could use your support. Every theater right now is struggling. They would really love for you to come see

their production of the Christmas Carol. They would really love for you to come see their production of the sound of music or the importance of being earnest. They would really, really love that. See the Broadway musical that's coming into your town on tour and or see the plays and the musicals that are happening locally in your area. And finally, go to a concert. I've told this story before on the show.

I have seen Leslie Odom, Jr. of Hamilton fame five times, four times in concert. Probably the most life-affirming thing I've done in a long time. first of all this man's voice is like fucking butter and he is so talented but i am just again reminded that music has the power to bring people together it has the power to be just so healing and so lovely and everybody's singing christmas carols alongside of him in the auditorium and like oh do you remember how supportive the heiress tour felt like if you went or if you at least saw the videos, right? The exchanging of bracelets. When I went, I literally like exchanged friendship

bracelets with girls who were like seven years old. Remember when you watched like Hamilton for the first time? If you either saw it or you saw it on Disney Plus, like those things feel so communal because art is beautiful. It's communal. It's an incredible experience. Find an art museum, find a play, find a concert, find a art experience that you can partake in. something's so hopeful about that experience. Number seven, I'm going to give you a very specific website to go to, okay? You're going to run for something.net, okay? Run for something.net. It is run, pun intended, by previous guest of the show, Amanda Lippman. Oh, run for something is so incredible, guys. Run for something helps elect progressive candidates, some of whom have no experience running

for office, most of whom are not politicians, okay? They are just people who deeply care about their communities. They have had an incredible year, but especially an incredible last few months. So one of the things that happened is nearly 1,200 people signed up to explore a run for office after the government shutdown. 1,200 people said, you know what, I'm actually interested and running for my local office. And since 2017, they've elected over a thousand candidates across 48 states. They are doing incredible work.

Whether you can donate, great, just read about the work that they're doing. And maybe even consider running for office yourself. Running for office, as Amanda talked about previously, we will link the episode. Honestly, that should be its own point. If you want hope, you go listen to Amanda Lippman's episode that she did on Financial Feminist.

But the powerful thing about all of the people running for office is that most people think, oh, I'm going to need, I don't know, hundreds of thousands of dollars and campaigning and all of this experience, so many people can run for local office and run a campaign that costs under $5,000. If you want to see actual change that is happening in our political system and support that actual change to give you hope, it is at runfor something.net. Amanda and her team are doing incredible work. I felt so hopeful when I recorded that episode. And it's honestly, yeah, I go back and listen to an episode of my own podcast.

But when I feel shit, when I feel so angry about our politics, I go back and listen to that episode. And people like her, people like the people she is supporting, just give me so much hope for the future. It's almost 20 to 26. and if you're still paying rent without Bilt, well, we can't have that. Built is the loyalty program for renters that rewards you for your biggest monthly expense, which is probably rent. With Bilt, every rent payment earns you points that can be used towards flights, hotels, Lyft rides, Amazon purchases, and so much more.

And when you pay rent through Bilt, you unlock access to exclusive benefits from a network of more than 45,000 merchants. So you just link your credit cards, you spend at your local favorite spots, and you earn Bilt points on top of your regular card rewards. We love Built at her first 100K. My C-O has built, has had it for years, and absolutely loves it. It's one of the best ways that you can make your rent work harder for you, especially when you hear all of those people tell you renting's just throwing away money. It's like, no, it's not. I'm getting points. Join the loyalty program for renters at joinbilt.com slash ff pod. That's j-o-in-b-b-l-t.com slash f-fpod.

And make sure to use our URL so they know we sent you. It's simple. Paying rent is better with built. Earn rewards and finally get something back for being a renter. Two more. Two more concrete things you can do to feel more hopeful into the rest of this year and into 2026. I want you to do something alone. Okay. I talked about this recently on Instagram. I just got back from two weeks in Europe. I was there to speak at an incredible global women's event in Paris. By the way, I spoke 20 minutes after fucking Amal Clooney. No big deal. But I did a week in Bath, England, before, to live out my Jane Austen dreams. And I did all of that travel by myself. None of my coworkers, not my partner, not a friend.

I did that travel solo. I'm not asking you to get on a plane and go to the other side of the world by yourself if you don't want to or if you can't afford it. But I'm asking you to do things that might feel uncomfortable by yourself. I'll give you a couple of examples. I want you to go to a movie by yourself. Maybe go see Wicked by yourself. I want you to go to that art museum or that play or that concert we just mentioned by yourself. I maybe want you to go to that sporting event we just talked about by yourself, okay? If you don't feel comfortable, doing a big event yet, oh, I can't go to a concert by myself. Go to dinner or a coffee shop by yourself, okay? Bring your book, bring your smutty little book you're reading, okay? But it's so

important to be comfortable in your own thoughts and in your own body. And the best way I have built my own self-trust, the best way that I have built that sense of self-preservation and validation in my own body is by doing things alone and realizing that I can solve problems for myself. I don't have to rely on anybody else. I don't have to worry about somebody else coming to my aid. Okay. And you also will start to discover the more you do things by yourself that you will make incredibly joyful connections with other people. When I was in Bath, my last evening I was there, I ended up talking to these two French women. I speak enough French to get by. And one of them spoke English to her French mother to help me translate a little bit. But it was, yeah, a mom and

her daughter who were traveling England and who were about to go to back to France. And I was going to Paris the next day. And so we ended up talking. And they were so nice. They were so lovely. And like, we didn't exchange numbers. I'm never going to see these two women again, statistically. But there was something so magical about, oh, these two people that I'm going to have a conversation with for 10 minutes, I just made this incredibly validating human connection with somebody. It's harder to do when you're with other people. It's just harder to do, right? But these are the kind of experiences that can happen. You'll have people do very selfless things to show up for you. Okay. You'll have just interact.

with people at a bar or at that coffee shop and doing things alone not only leads you open to these interactions, but also builds your own sense of self-trust. And that self-trust allows you to show up more calm, to show up more centered, to show up more secure in every aspect of your life. My final tip for you, volunteer. Give your time. Give your mom. Give your mom. money if you can't give your time, but show up and volunteer for an organization you believe in. That is an incredible way to immediately feel helpful. I know people who every single Thanksgiving volunteer, they do that for a reason. They do that because they want to give back, but also it gives them the sense of shared human experience. Again, this sense of humanity, this sense of

hopefulness, the sense that people are taking care of others. You can do that. If you are saying, I'm too busy to volunteer, you're not. You're not. It might just be once a month or it might be twice a year, right? But find an organization that you want to support. Maybe that is an animal shelter. Maybe that is a houseless or homeless shelter. Maybe that is a shelter for women experiencing domestic violence. Maybe that is the food bank. There are so many places in your local community that need your support. That theater we just talked about, that local theater, they need ushers. They need ushers. They need people taking tickets. Perfect. There's your volunteer opportunity, right? There are plenty of places that you can get connected to volunteer. And that can be as

regular or irregular as your schedule allows. But get out there, volunteer your time, donate some money, give back to your local community. It's going to make you more hopeful and help other people feel more hopeful to. It's very easy on this show and just in our everyday lives to feel like, oh, okay, I need to develop myself more and I need to do more. It just felt disingenuous to get to the end of a year that I know was hard for so many people, where, so many people feel lonely and feel very disconnected from their communities and from people who care and people who give a shit about somebody other than themselves. And I want to give you very specific, concrete things that I do when I need more hope in my life, that I do when I need

to feel recommitted to my humanity and connected with other people who care as much as I do. So if that is you, I hope this episode helped you. it would mean the world for us for you to share this episode. Share it on your social media, share it with a friend. I know we all feel this way. Okay. Everybody I'm talking to feels this way at the end of the year. You feel ragged. You feel run down. You're trying to just feel better. These are all things you can do to help your community, to help yourself to feel more hope this holiday season. So thank you for being here, financial feminists. I know I say that to the end of every single episode, but I truly mean it. We appreciate your support of our work. We appreciate you sharing

this episode. We are now an independent podcast, so your share means more than ever. And thank you for taking your financial education seriously. Thank you for giving a shit about other people. And I hope you have a great, restful, joyful, hopeful holiday season. We'll see you back here in 26. Thank you for listening to Financial Feminists, produced by her first 100K. If you love this show and want to keep supporting feminist media, please subscribe or follow us on your preferred podcasting platform or on YouTube. Your support helps us continue to bring this content to you for free. If you're looking for resources, tools, and education, including all of the resources mentioned in this episode, head to her first hundredk.com slash sfod.