J.D., the founder and voice behind the prominent personal finance platform Get Rich Slowly, has announced a major shift in his personal and professional trajectory. Following a period of profound grief and intense introspection, he has declared 2023 to be "The Year of Me," a deliberate, proactive effort to prioritize his own physical and mental health above all else.
The announcement comes roughly two months after the death of J.D.’s mother, an event that upended his daily routine and cast a heavy emotional shadow over his life. For weeks following the loss, J.D. navigated the thick fog of grief, stepping back from his usual productivity. Now, however, the fog has finally lifted, and he reports a renewed sense of motivation to pursue meaningful and productive endeavors. Yet, rather than immediately diving back into the relentless pace of content creation and platform management, he and his partner, Kim, recognized that a fundamental realignment was urgently needed.
More than a decade ago, J.D. established a popular personal habit of assigning thematic focuses to his years and months. Whether dedicating a span of time to fitness, writing, or dating, he found these temporal themes to be both fun and remarkably fruitful. Over time, however, this practice fell by the wayside, replaced by the daily grind and the habit of pushing his own needs to the periphery. For too long, he admits, he has allowed himself to occupy the second, third, or even ninth position in his own life, constantly making excuses while other demands and distractions interfered with his well-being.
Starting this year, that dynamic is coming to an end. Acknowledging that the decision might initially feel uncomfortable, selfish, or even wrong, J.D. has resolved to place himself first for the foreseeable future. He emphasizes that this period of self-prioritization is not merely an indulgence, but a necessary correction. In his view, taking care of oneself is a prerequisite for being genuinely helpful to others. It is an axiom he has frequently preached to readers and friends, yet one he struggled to apply to his own life until now.
For the loyal readership of Get Rich Slowly, the transition is expected to be largely internal rather than disruptive. J.D. reassures his audience that the core mission of the platform remains intact, and the changes will manifest primarily in his personal growth and mindset. While he is granting himself explicit permission to put his own needs and desires ahead of external expectations, he believes this inward focus will ultimately generate richer fodder for future articles. Furthermore, he anticipates that this renewed mental clarity will finally allow him to complete the long-awaited site redesign.
However, as part of this conscious commitment to his own well-being, J.D. is deliberately stepping away from rigid publishing schedules and production quotas. He plans to write and publish organically—sharing thoughts when he has something meaningful to say, and remaining silent when he does not. Rather than forcing content to meet arbitrary deadlines, he is embracing a more spontaneous, conversational approach to blogging, drawing inspiration from personal reflections, exercises like those found in the book Designing Your Life, and moments of quiet introspection before daily calls with friends.
2023 — The Year of Me
The philosophical groundwork for J.D.’s new chapter was reinforced during a Thanksgiving road trip to California with Kim and her family. To pass the miles, the couple listened to The Courage to Be Disliked by authors Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. The book, which explores the psychological worldview of the influential Austrian thinker Alfred Adler, resonated deeply with J.D., prompting him to plan a deeper, digital re-read of its contents via Kindle.
While the book’s Socratic dialogue format can occasionally feel tedious to navigate cover-to-cover, J.D. found it packed with profound insights regarding human motivation, interpersonal relationships, and happiness—noting that the title itself might be more accurately framed as The Courage to Be Happy. The themes of the book dovetail neatly with his broader journey toward self-actualization and breaking free from the approval of others.
This internal shift toward a more deliberate, values-driven existence was further underscored by a highlighted passage from Stephen R. Covey’s classic work, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which surfaced through his Readwise account. Covey famously wrote 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.
Reflecting on Covey’s words, J.D. realized that he had temporarily lost his grip on impulse control while drifting away from his core personal values. Recognizing this drift, he has already begun taking concrete, practical steps to curb his impulses—such as removing digital distractions like Reddit and Hearthstone from his iPad—to clear the mental space necessary for living a truly values-driven life.
Although this pivot means readers may see fewer traditional, highly structured guides and more short, conversational updates reminiscent of his earliest blogging days, J.D. is not abandoning long-form writing entirely. Instead, he is allowing the format to serve the journey. For J.D., 2023 is about shedding the pressure of external obligations, honoring his personal values, and taking the courageous step of putting himself first.
