266. 9 Ways to Feel More Hopeful in 2026

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0:32Tiffany Aliche:We've loved Squarespace and they were their first investment we ever made in our business. And if you need a website, you need Squarespace. Head on over to squarespace.com slash FFpod for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use FFpod to save 10 % off your first purchase of a website or domain. We do quarterly leadership retreats at Her First 100K where we lock in for full days of strategy. And listen, if you've ever been in an eight-hour meeting about the future of your business, you already know you're not remembering everything. You think you are, you're not. And the frustrating part is the best, most important decisions, they happen in those rooms.

1:07Tiffany Aliche:I used to walk out feeling good and then two days later be like, wait, what did we actually decide? So I stopped relying on my brain alone. Now I use the Plod Note Pin S. It clips on and with one press captures everything, of course, with everyone's consent. And afterward, I don't have to piece things together. I get a clean breakdown of what actually mattered, what we decided, and what happens next. And if I need to find something later, I don't have to scroll through anything. I just ask a question and it pulls the exact answer in seconds. Or I can send the full summary to my team so we're all working from the same page.

1:38Tiffany Aliche:No more 10 p.m. Slack messages like, wait, are we aligned on this? Because now we actually are. And honestly, it's the difference between sitting in on a conversation and actually being present in it. It's got 98 % transcription accuracy and works in person, over the phone, and on Zoom. Go to plaud.ai and use code FFpod for 10 % off. That's P-L-A-U-D dot AI slash FFpod. 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.

2:26Tiffany Aliche:Hi, financial feminists. Welcome back to the show. My name is Tori and I am a multimillionaire money expert. I've helped 5 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.

3:17Tiffany Aliche: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.

4:11Tiffany Aliche:And this is a little different than what we might have done on the 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. 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 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.

4:59Tiffany Aliche:The first, I need you to go to a community event. Okay? 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, 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 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.

5:45Tiffany Aliche: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.

6:28Tiffany Aliche:You might not have your 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 people are looking for holiday gifts. You can find these specific things. Maybe it's 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?

7:11Tiffany Aliche: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. Just the ticket, right?

7:52Tiffany Aliche: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 fae, 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 trying to get back into reading, okay?

8:33Read something that is fun, that is just because you

8:37Tiffany Aliche: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. book 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'm 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 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.

9:26Tiffany Aliche: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 LA, you might know that I actually was like 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.

10:15Tiffany Aliche:That is so helpful. Watching women be absolutely capital E 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 Because not only are we having record-breaking attendance and viewership, 2024, 2025, we're record-breaking attendance and viewership for women's sports.

11:14Tiffany Aliche: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. Okay. So find a woman's sports team in your area. Okay. If you're in a big city, this is going to be easy. Okay. 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.

11:57Tiffany Aliche: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.

12:38Tiffany Aliche:I think it's the best environment. If you haven't experienced it, you really should.

12:46Okay.

12:47Tiffany Aliche:Look, the economy is a lot right now. We all know this. And if you're a small business owner like me, you feel it. I feel it. I know you feel it too. You can't control interest rates or tariffs, but you can control how efficiently your business operates. And this is where Gusto comes in. I've used Gusto for, oh my gosh, seven, eight years. I was using Gusto as a employee at the last nine to five I was a member of, an employee of. And then now we've used it at HFK since we started hiring people. So it's been over five years of using Gusto as a business owner. Gusto is online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses.

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15:20Tiffany Aliche: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.

16:06Tiffany Aliche: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.

16:59Tiffany Aliche: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.

17:51Tiffany Aliche: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 kings protest recently it was again I'm gonna 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.

18:43Tiffany Aliche: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.

19:27Tiffany Aliche: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.

20:10Tiffany Aliche: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.

21:05Tiffany Aliche: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. And 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?

21:45Tiffany Aliche: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, 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.

22:22Tiffany Aliche: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, 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.

23:01Tiffany Aliche: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.

23:35Tiffany Aliche: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 exchanged friendship bracelets with girls who were seven years old.

24:24Tiffany Aliche: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 an art experience that you can partake in. something so helpful 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 Littman. Oh, Run for Something is so incredible, guys.

25:08Tiffany Aliche: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 in running for my local office. And since 2017, they've elected over a thousand candidates across 48 states. They are doing incredible work.

25:51Tiffany Aliche: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 Littman'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 in campaigning and all of this experience. So many people can run for local office and run a campaign that costs under$5 ,000.