For the personal finance community, personal development often centers on budgeting, optimizing investments, and achieving financial independence. However, J.D., the founder of the prominent personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly, is shifting his focus inward for an entirely different kind of investment. In a candid update to his readers, J.D. announced that he is designating 2023 as the “Year of Me,” a deliberate and necessary period dedicated to his own mental and physical health after a challenging season of grief and burnout.
Writing to his audience, J.D. explained that the fog of grief is finally lifting, a full two months after the death of his mother. The prolonged period of mourning prompted a deep soul-searching process alongside his partner, Kim. Through this introspection, J.D. arrived at a stark realization: after years of pushing his own needs to the periphery, he needs to make himself a priority.
The concept of dedicating extended periods of time to specific themes is not entirely new to J.D. More than a decade ago, he regularly themed his years and months, a practice he found both enjoyable and remarkably fruitful. Whether he directed his energy toward fitness, writing, or dating, devoting a distinct span of time to a single objective consistently yielded positive results. Over time, however, this habit fell by the wayside as other responsibilities and distractions took precedence.
"I’ve spent too long putting myself second. Or third. Or ninth," J.D. wrote, noting that his new aim is to place himself first for the foreseeable future. While acknowledging that this shift feels uncomfortable, potentially even running the risk of perceived selfishness, he recognizes that neglecting his own well-being has gone on for too long. By reclaiming his health and mental focus, J.D. believes he will ultimately become a better person for those around him, including his readers.
2023 — The Year of Me
For regular readers of Get Rich Slowly, the shift in focus is primarily internal and unlikely to disrupt the core content of the site. If anything, J.D. anticipates that this renewed self-focus will generate fresh insights and experiences to share with his audience, while finally bringing closure to the long-awaited site redesign.
However, as part of this conscious pivot toward self-care, J.D. is deliberately removing the pressure of a strict publishing or production schedule. He intends to write organically—sharing thoughts when inspiration strikes and avoiding forced content creation. This flexible approach allows him to prioritize internal healing over external metrics.
This philosophy was reinforced during a recent road trip to California for Thanksgiving, where J.D. and Kim listened to the audiobook The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. The book, which explores the psychological worldview of Alfred Adler, introduced the couple to counterintuitive perspectives on happiness, interpersonal relationships, and personal agency. Written in the style of a Socratic dialogue, the book provided ample material for reflection, and J.D. noted that he plans to revisit the text in digital format to extract its core wisdom, hinting at a potential full review or summary on the blog in the future.
A Values-Driven Life
The foundation of J.D.’s new chapter is deeply rooted in intentionality and value alignment. Highlighting a passage from Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People via his Readwise app, J.D. reflected on the distinction between proactive and reactive living.
The highlighted quote emphasizes that the ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of a proactive person, whereas reactive individuals are driven by fleeting feelings, environmental conditions, and external circumstances. J.D. admitted that he had temporarily lost the ability to control his impulses while drifting away from his core values.
To course-correct, J.D. has already begun taking concrete steps to eliminate digital distractions and curb reactive habits, such as uninstalling distracting applications like Reddit and Hearthstone from his iPad. By reining in these impulses, he aims to realign his daily actions with carefully considered, internalized values.
As the "Year of Me" gets underway, readers can expect a more conversational, spontaneous tone from J.D. Rather than adhering to rigid content structures or lengthy, hyper-focused guides, future posts may take the form of brief personal updates and reflections as he navigates this critical season of personal renewal.
