Welcome to 2026: Life Beyond the Map

I’ve taken the past couple of weeks off to spend time with family and reflect. I spent the closing days of the year in a deliberate pause, stepping back to acknowledge the accomplishments of 2025. People often greet each new year with a hopeful, though potentially fragile, tradition: the resolution. At its core, it’s an attempt to bargain with the future – an effort to alter how our future selves will behave.

Last year, I initiated a series of fundamental changes to my daily habits with the goal of improving long-term health. My commitment grew from a radical recalibration in how I perceive the reality of aging.

This curiosity triggered a deep dive that was immediately visible in my digital library, as a surge of new titles on longevity filled my Kindle and Audible accounts. Among them was Outlive, where Peter Attia presents a distinction that adds sophistication to our understanding of aging. He argues that longevity is a composite of two separate variables: lifespan (how long you live) and healthspan (how well you live). Bluntly stated, for a significant number of people, the final decade of life is shadowed by sickness or disability.

Armed with this insight, I dedicated 2025 to Food, Fitness, and Finance. I took up running, doubled down on mobility, and treated the kitchen as a laboratory for vitality. It was a successful season of discovery – a proof of concept for what happens when we refuse to accept a loss of capability as inevitable.

Methods: How I Operate

This year, while I continue the path toward wellness, my primary focus shifts toward processes. These are the systems I live within every day. 2026 is about “pulling back the rug” on the habits that hinder progress and redesigning them for the life I want to lead now.

Choosing these starting points requires care, prioritizing areas where small modifications offer a tremendous impact or where the activities themselves are most cherished. In certain spaces, like meal prep, efficiency is the objective. In others, such as writing, speed is not the priority. Instead, the focus is on carving out ample time for the endeavor and fiercely protecting it.

Even “inner systems” – the cognitive processes that dictate how I think about my own thinking – are now on the table for review. As James Clear notes, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” Ultimately, refining what’s already there has become more important to me than simply pushing harder or adding to the pile.

Money: How I Allocate

Alongside the focus on process, my husband and I are at a significant turning point in how we direct our income. For a long time, our priority was clarity and conviction. We wanted to reach financial independence on a specific timeline. Saving was not incidental: it was the point.

Over time, that strategy became natural. Nearly automatic. Dare I say, easy. Our efforts have done exactly what they were meant to do: create momentum, provide security, and expand our options. We’re now ready to gradually reduce our investment contributions, allowing our portfolio to “coast” toward its destination.

This marks the beginning of our shift from accumulation to application. We’re reallocating that capital into “travel as practice” – learning to spend dynamically, based on market conditions, mirroring the flexibility we’ll use in retirement.

My Message: How I Share

The final shift, for 2026, involves how I’ll be sharing this transition. I’m leaning away from general financial literacy and into the interpretation and utilization of wealth. I want to explore the psychology and mindset required to use money as a tool for life design, protecting our most precious resource: time.

I plan to combine data with personal stories, drawing parallels between the world of finance and the worlds of wellness, philosophy, and human behavior. I’m intentionally writing for both of us now. This work is a core part of my own integration process – a way to refine what I’ve learned and uncover truths tucked just beneath my conscious awareness. Simultaneously, I’m leaving a trail for you: switchbacks to avoid my missteps and unintended detours, steps you could follow, and (most importantly) validation of what’s actually possible. My work will be more reflective – a place to test new ideas and rectify my lived experiences with my academic knowledge.

A portion of what I notice will be published here on the blog. A few thoughts will remain behind the scenes to marinate. Other insights are being written as chapters for a book I’m currently working on. My intent is to move from simply providing information to offering a nuanced perspective on what it means to live with intentionality and integrity.

An Invitation: Learning Together

As an anchor for this year of reflection, I’ll be hosting a book club in the Catching Up to FI Facebook community. I want to create a space where we can reconnect our financial journey with our core values. It’s less about consuming content than creating space for clarity.

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
by Greg McKeown (Feb 22)

The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
by Brené Brown (Apr 12)

The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness
by Robert Waldinger & Marc Schulz (Jun 14)

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
by Oliver Burkeman (Sep 20)

Greenlights
by Matthew McConaughey (Nov 15)

I hope you’ll join us for this journey. Visit Catching Up to FI for more information.

From Planning to Pathfinding

Whether it’s how I move my body, the way I manage my time, or finding ways to utilize the resources we’ve spent years accumulating – 2026 is about intentionality. I’m putting any remnants of a “more is better” mindset to bed and firmly rooting myself in a “better is better” philosophy. More is a burden, whilst better is a design choice.

Whereas 2025 was my year of Food, Fitness, and Finance, 2026 is dedicated to Methods, Money, and My Message. It’s easy to confuse the map with the mountain. 2026 is about looking up from the paper, feeling the crisp air on my face, and finding my True North. It’s the difference between studying the route and becoming my own compass.

We have the boots, the water, and the desire to discover. Now, we simply need to take the first step and see where the trail leads!

Subscribe to continue to connect and explore together.