If this year felt heavier than you expected, you’re not alone — and today’s episode is your permission to exhale.
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.
Tori’s tips:
Go to a community event
Hope grows when you reconnect with your community — and you must intentionally seek it. Put yourself back in proximity to other humans who care. Farmer’s markets, craft fairs, Christmas markets, mutual-aid gatherings — these are nervous-system-soothing environments where you remember that people are good and community still exists. When you witness others creating, helping, and showing up, it reinforces that connection hasn’t disappeared…it’s simply been harder to access.
Read a book
If the year has burned you out, forcing more “productive” reading won’t fix it. Choosing fun, joyful books — fantasy, romance, thrillers, graphic novels — reminds you that stories are healing, affordable, and deeply human. Ending 2025 with more hope starts with giving yourself permission to engage in pleasure without guilt.
Go see women play sports
Women’s sports are having a historic moment, and witnessing excellence, especially women’s excellence, is inherently hopeful. Whether you attend a game, stream from home, or cheer from a sports bar, supporting women athletes connects you to a powerful, growing movement that embodies equality, joy, and collective momentum.
Get into nature
Nature resets your entire system. Forest bathing, stargazing, sitting near water, walking a trail, or simply stepping into a quiet park can interrupt spiraling thoughts and reconnect you with something bigger than the chaos of the world. Nature reminds you that life continues, cycles reset, and hope is built into the environment itself.
Go to a protest, or get involved in activism
Whether it’s joining a protest, organizing, or phone banking, taking action anchors you in purpose, and the belief that your presence still matters. Check out runforsomething.net to learn about progressive local candidates, support them, donate, or consider running for office yourself. Ending the year hopeful requires feeling powerful again, not powerless.
Attend an artistic event
Attending a play or concert, supporting local artists, or doing something solo like a movie or dinner, participation pulls you out of passive worry.
Do something alone
Travel solo, go to a movie, dinner or a coffee shop alone. Reconnect with yourself and learn (or relearn) how to enjoy your own company, and trust yourself.
Volunteer your time or donate your money
At shelters, food banks, animal rescues, local theaters (ushering), or any community organization in need.
Notable quotes
“We need to be reminded of forces bigger than our petty little human problems.”
“There is something so incredible about watching women who are so fucking good go out and just dominate.”
“Doing things alone is the best way I’ve built self-trust — it’s where I learned I can solve problems for myself.”
Episode at-a-glance
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
Visit herfirst100k.com/ffpod to stay up to date and find any resources mentioned on our show!
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Transcript:
Tori Dunlap:
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 feminist. 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 no. This year sucked. This year sucked. 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. 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 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 a little different than what we might’ve done on this show before. Kristen, who’s our podcast producer and I have been talking. We were originally going to do a journal prompt for the end of this year or reflection.
And I’m tired of self-development right now. 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, aren’t in a way that checks you 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. This sparks hope because connection is going to beat isolation. You’re being around other humans. You are helping regulate your nervous system. You’re just seeing other people. 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 farmer’s markets. Okay? Honestly, there is nothing more hopeful than a farmer’s market. It is small businesses doing something that is very laborious to take care of other people, growing food, making a candle. 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. 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 farmer’s markets in your town, but maybe you have a Christmas market or maybe you have… You definitely probably have a craft fair because 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. 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. This is probably fiction. Pleasure reading is a radical act. 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. Right now, going to see a movie, $20, but just the ticket 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 $10 to $15 and get hours of entertainment out of it. As opposed to a two-hour movie, you can read a book for hours and hours and hours and hours. My books of choice are smut, okay? Fantasy smut. We’re talking about dragons and we’re talking about vampires and werewolves and fae.
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 trying to get back into reading. 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. Maas, you know that it is going to be a crazy finish.
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. If you are in LA, you might know that I actually was the grand master for an Angel City FC game, which is LA’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 Excellent and watching and meeting people who support women’s sports. 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 women’s professional hockey team here in Seattle. Basketball, there’s 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 having record-breaking attendance and viewership, 2024, 2025, we’re record-breaking attendance and viewership for women’s sports, but also there is 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 and 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 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 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 100K, but just personally. I absolutely love it. I think it’s the best environment. If you haven’t experienced it, you really should.
Number four, I need you to get your ass into the woods or to the beach. I need you to just get your into nature. I live in Washington State. I literally have the ocean right outside my door, 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 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 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 find 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, so why try? And I was at a No King’s protest recently. 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 protestor’s 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. And you’re like, “I’m just one person. It’s just…” Yeah, but you’re one person and a bunch of different people. Okay? It is the swim down part of finding email. 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. 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, BIPOC 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 go to a play? It wasn’t going to happen. Okay? Whatever that art looks like. Couple examples. Art museum. So incredible. So good at reminding us 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 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. Do you remember how supportive the Era’s tour felt? If you went or if you at least saw the videos, the exchanging of bracelets. When I went, I literally exchanged friendship bracelets with girls who were like seven years old. Remember when you watched Hamilton for the first time? If you either saw it or you saw it on Disney Plus, 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 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 runforsomething.net. Okay? Runforsomething.net. It is run, pun intended, by previous guest of the show, Amanda Lipman. 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. 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 shut down. 1,200 people said, “You know what? I’m actually interested in 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 runforsomething.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.
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 at my Jane Austin 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 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, that farmer’s market 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. 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. 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 a mom and her daughter who were traveling England and who were about to go 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 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. You’ll have just interactions 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 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, this 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 too. 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 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 at 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 2026.
Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist a Her First $100K podcast. For more information about Financial Feminist, Her First $100K, our guests and episode show notes, visit financialfeministpodcast.com. If you’re confused about your personal finances and you’re wondering where to start, go to herfirst100k.com/quiz for a free personalized money plan.
Financial Feminist is hosted by me, Tori Dunlap. Produced by Kristen Fields and Tamisha Grant. Research by Sarah Sciortino. Audio and video engineering by Alyssa Midcalf. Marketing and Operations by Karina Patel and Amanda Leffew. Special thanks to our team at Her First 100K, Kailyn Sprinkle, Masha Bakhmetyeva, Sasha Bonar, Rae Wong, Elizabeth McCumber, Daryl Ann Ingman, Shelby Duclos, Meghan Walker, and Jess Hawks. Promotional graphics by Mary Stratton, photography by Sarah Wolfe, and theme music by Jonah Cohen Sound. A huge thanks to the entire Her First 100K community for supporting our show.
Tori Dunlap
Tori Dunlap is an internationally-recognized money and career expert. After saving $100,000 at age 25, Tori quit her corporate job in marketing and founded Her First $100K to fight financial inequality by giving women actionable resources to better their money. She has helped over five million women negotiate salaries, pay off debt, build savings, and invest.
Tori’s work has been featured on Good Morning America, the New York Times, BBC, TIME, PEOPLE, CNN, New York Magazine, Forbes, CNBC, BuzzFeed, and more.
With a dedicated following of over 2.1 million on Instagram and 2.4 million on TikTok —and multiple instances of her story going viral—Tori’s unique take on financial advice has made her the go-to voice for ambitious millennial women. CNBC called Tori “the voice of financial confidence for women.”
An honors graduate of the University of Portland, Tori currently lives in Seattle, where she enjoys eating fried chicken, going to barre classes, and attempting to naturally work John Mulaney bits into conversation.
