My dear reader.

In these final few weeks of my year-long sabbatical (which I reflected on in more detail in part 1 of this series), as I do some visioning, planning, and list-making for 2026, I keep circling back to the same question:

What, specifically, am I able (and willing) to do next to help me continue downshifting away from consumption that’s supported by paid work and embrace voluntary simplicity and household productivity instead?

This, of course, is an offshoot of one of the core questions I explore in my life/work (how much money is enough?) and I realized that in order to be able to continue writing about my exploration of money with transparency and detail in the coming year (there’s so much more I want to share with you!) it might be useful (especially for new readers) to republish an essay I wrote in June of 2024 about my stock market divestment.

That decision — to go against mainstream personal finance advice and redefine “investing” for myself in a more values-aligned way — is one that took me about three years of reflection and study and conversation to make. Three years is a long time to be in deep introspection about the same decision, and oh my god the relief and joy I felt after finally moving forward was so profound that all I could do for almost an hour after I completed the transaction in my Vanguard account was lay on the floor and cry.

What follows below is a recounting of how I got to that moment back in mid 2024 — the reflection questions that helped me shape my own personal vision for a reimagined retirement, because it’s this vision that I’m now using to guide my choices about money, work, and how I live my life. As when I first shared about this decision last year, I ask that if you choose to read on that you please remember two things:

1. None of this is prescriptive. I’m in no position to tell anyone else what to do with their lives/money (nor am I interested in doing so), and I don’t think my decisions are the “best” ones or the “right” ones in any kind of universal sense. What I am doing with my money and my life is simply what feels best for me, based on the specifics of my own situation, my past experiences, my family setup, my particular identities and privileges, my current beliefs, values, and desires, etc.

2. I am choosing to share my real numbers with you below, because I don’t think any truly honest conversation about money can be had without them. However, I know that this kind of radical transparency can often bring up a whole range of feelings and judgements, and so I ask that you be mindful of that as you read (and especially if you choose to join the discussion in the comments), keeping in mind that some people will see these numbers (particularly the $190k I divested from the stock market) and think, “Wow, that is more money than I have ever had in my life” while other people will think “That is less than I make in a single year,” and everything in between.

I think what I’m really saying here is that I trust you to take what resonates from this essay (and everything else I write about money) and leave the rest, all while acknowledging how many factors (both personally and systemically, seen and unseen) go into forming each of our different financial lives.

Okay, here we go.