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Here’s a number that should stop you mid-scroll: American adults just posted the lowest financial literacy score in a decade. Not a bad quarter. Not a rough year. The lowest in ten years of tracking, according to the TIAA Institute’s 2026 study — with the share of adults in the “very low knowledge” category climbing from 20% to 25% since 2017.

For many people, the math has quietly changed. You may be earning the same income, or even a little more, but it no longer supports the same lifestyle it used to. Groceries cost more. Insurance costs more. Property taxes, utilities, restaurants, travel, repairs, healthcare, gifts, subscriptions, and basic life all seem to have crept up.

One question I’ve been thinking about for much of my life is this: What would I do even if I weren’t paid to do it?

Not because money doesn’t matter. It does. But because there is something powerful about discovering the work, service, or contribution that feels deeply aligned with who you are.

Over the past year, I’ve talked a lot about predictability—and how when it disappears, so does confidence. Recently, that idea became very real for me.

Last year, I was actually looking forward to a couple of surgeries—both knees. Not exactly something most people get excited about, but for me, it meant more mobility, less pain, and a better quality of life. It felt like a step forward.