Winter link flurry No. 4
A little love for your eyes, ears and hearts in this sleepy week of winter
Welcome to the fourth annual Healthy Rich winter link flurry! This once-a-year tradition is one piece of this newsletter that’s been showing up consistently since our earliest days, and I’m so delighted to share it with you every year 💖
The winter link flurry is an opportunity to highlight and celebrate all the places that have welcomed our anti-budget message throughout the past year — articles I’ve written, writers who’ve quoted me, publications that have featured You Don’t Need a Budget and podcasts I got to join.
I love to hold space for this little celebration each year, not to brag about all the press I’ve gotten (though, that’s worthy of space too!), but to extend a huge thank you to everyone who’s been willing to have a weird conversation about money in the midst of so many things weighing on people’s minds this year. And for all of you who are here because you don’t feel represented anywhere else in personal finance media, this annual list is proof that this message is spreading — and that’s happening because you’ve been here, showing up in this community every week.
So thank you for being here, and thank you for checking out these folks below who took on this conversation.
And, just for you, an addition this year: Scroll to the end for some of Healthy Rich readers’ favorite posts from the newsletter from 2025 (I guarantee you’ve forgotten about some of these gems!)
Add to your podcast queue
Releasing a book connected me with some amazing hosts and audiences this year.
🎧 I joined my fave, Katie Gatti Tassin, for Money With Katie to introduce some very traditional-minded finance folks to the idea of budget culture.
🎧 I got to return to my hometown radio, WORT FM in Madison, Wisconsin, to talk with host Richelle Wilson about how to leave budget culture behind.
🎧 I blew my partner’s mind when I sat down with his TikTok auntie, KC Davis, to talk about our relationships with debt for Struggle Care.
🎧 I about melted into my chair when I got the opportunity to join Anne and Melody for the Culture Study Podcast! We talked about the enduring myths of budget culture — and how people get so taken with Dave Ramsey and a debt-free scream.
🎧 I joined money mindset coach Meghan Dwyer for her pod, Money Isn’t Scary, to talk about the three dimensions of financial wellness and how to look past social media posts about consumption and use money the way you want to.
🎧 One for the other Substackers and authors out there: Simon Owens interviewed me about my journey in the personal finance industry and how a viral essay led to my first book deal.
🎧 Personal finance OG Jean Chatzky had me on HerMoney — and my episode about why you don’t need a budget was their most-listened episode of the year!
🎧 Felt like one of the cool girlies when I was invited to chat with Elise and Doree on Forever35… though I might have made the cool kids uncomfortable with my anti-budget talk?
🎧 NerdWallet featured YDNAB in its Smart Money Book Club podcast segment. Pretty cool to get this counter-cultural message on such a mainstay in personal finance.
🎧 I was back with my friend Kathy Oneto for her podcast Sustainable Ambition. For a quick listen, you can catch a snippet of our conversation, where we answered a question from a Healthy Rich reader, here.
I was on TV!
This was a first :)
📺 Hey Chicago! I was on WGN Morning News to talk about intuitive spending, and it gave me my favorite clip from the book tour:
📺 In Portland, I stopped by KATU’s AM Northwest to share why old advice about how to manage your money is unrealistic.
📺 Also in PDX! I hopped on Hello! Rose City to talk about rethinking financial norms (same day, same outfit!).
Substack friends
Thank these folks by following and subscribing to their newsletters!
🧡 I chatted with my friend Sara Eckel at It's Not Us about how I got started in personal finance journalism and what got me thinking about budget culture.
🧡 I joined Lindsey Stanberry’s inaugural “group chat” at The Purse alongside other personal finance writers to discuss what folks should be doing with their money in light of the incoming Trump administration.
🧡 Anne Helen Petersen invited me for a Q&A at Culture Study to make the case against budget culture.
🧡 I talked with Now What ’s Melinda Wenner Moyer about money and parenting — and she generously called YDNAB “a salve for my financial anxiety.” Thank you, Melinda!
🧡 I did a follow-up Q&A with Keris Fox at The Ladybird Purse • Talk Money to Me about how my financial habits have changed (or not) in the two years since we last talked.
🧡 I stopped by Pauline’s Money Feelings to do Le Questionnaire about how I think, feel and act around money — fun read!
Amazing people who explored budget-free money management
Huge thanks to these journalists who interviewed me or featured my book in their articles.
💖 Brittany Miller featured YDNAB at The Independent in an article on why you shouldn’t bother budgeting.
💖 YDNAB made the Woman’s World December book club!
💖 Preston Fore let me freak out Fortune readers by telling them you don’t need a budget, don’t pay all your bills and pay less attention to that investment account…
💖 Kimberly Palmer at NerdWallet invited me into a conversation I’m obsessed with: Gen Z’s underconsumption trend.
💖 This was cool: Fellow personal finance reporter Nicole Dieker Finley had me in conversation with our friends Jen Smith and Jill Sirianni about budgeting trends for Vox.
💖 By the time NerdWallet quoted me in this piece about “intuitive budgeting,” I’d given up on using my original phrase “conscious spending,” because SO MANY writers game-of-telephoned that into “intuitive spending” that I decided to let the people have it and just rename the practice.
💖 Jeanine Skowronski interviewed me for her newsletter, Money As If, for a piece about how to unlock guilt-free spending.
💖 GOBankingRates was kind to me this year! They named me among their Top 100 Money Experts of 2025 and subsequently featured me in a bunch of content — about why budget culture is as bad as diet culture, how to manage your money without a budget and how to handle holiday money stress. Glad to be a go-to expert for a traditional staple in personal finance media!
For your TBR list
Revisiting some of your (and my!) favorite Healthy Rich posts of 2025.
My essays
🥑 Using debt is not ‘living beyond your means’
🥑 Are we still just saving for retirement like it’s going to work?
🥑 Is freelancing just exploitation dressed up as independence?
Q&As
🥑 ‘When I say “I understand,” I truly do because I have been in financial situations that made me uncomfortable, anxious or avoidant’ with Aja Evans
🥑 ‘The data told my own story back to me’ with Corinne Low
🥑 Getting ‘good at spending’ with Jen Smith & Jill Sirianni
Contributor essays
🥑 We believed the lie that we could bootstrap our way out by Heather Bursch
🥑 Debt gave me freedom from toxic deprivation culture by Gemma Hartley
🥑 The priceless debt that got me to Paris by Kristi Evans
Budget-Free Basics
🥑 How to create a money map to manage your money without a budget
🥑 A happier way to manage money: Saying ‘yes’ to you
🥑 Set a regular ‘money date’ to get money off your mind
Share yours!
What’s something you want to celebrate this year? Leave a comment for the community to shout out to something you’re proud of — or something from someone else you think we need to know about.
Wow! That is a healthy list! Of accomplishments! Congratulations on a fantastic year. Thank you for being who you are!
This newsletter happens to be one of my most favorite Christmas gifts of 2025. I can't wait to give those links a re-read or listen. Appreciate you Dana!!! Happy Holidays