In January, I ran into a parked Tesla outside of a store that sold overpriced cookies in Fishtown. Not a big deal (it was just a fender bender), but I felt terrible.

I called the owner to tell her.

She picked up the phone:

“This is not how I wanted to start the year.”

You’re telling me.

By any objective measure, it was a rough start to 2026. There was The Tesla Incident. Our fridge broke. We found water leaking through the stucco on the back of our house, which means we need to replace the entire exterior. We lost Deefer, our dog, in January.

So yeah. Rough quarter.

Underneath all of that, a lot happened.

What happened in Q1

Good Morning Philly newsletter

The biggest thing I built was Good Morning Philly, a free weekly newsletter covering the River Wards (Fishtown, Northern Liberties, Kensington, Port Richmond) that ships every Monday at 6 AM.

This is my friends & family newsletter. You probably signed up after reading one of my articles, a LinkedIn post, or after we met.…

I’m often asked what personal finance books I’d recommend.

I don’t open with this to show off how (incredibly!) financially savvy I am, or humble brag about signal how (very) often people flock to me for advice. I think recommendations require context. Especially when it comes to money.