2025: My Year in Review

Me on a recent snowy day in Chicago. I love my city. I originally took this picture for my sister, who’s in the sunnier Arizona. Her daughter is a great cook, just like her.

2025 has been a whirlwind of growth and conflict on more levels than one. From having my Facebook page of nearly twenty years shut down to rekindling past relationships, this year has been wild against its politically volatile backdrop. Part of that was running into a woman I’ve spent some time with in the past. We ate Thanksgiving dinner cooked by my niece, and she asked me why I hadn’t called her in so long. I told her it wasn’t her. Between when we’d last seen each other and Thanksgiving, I’d had some eye-opening moments. Amid the political and personal noise, one question had become the primary focus for me. That was, How do I make money?

Waste Not. Earn More.

This has been my most successful year in the stock market, and this came as a result of analyzing my own thought process and how I interact with others. It would be impossible for me to tell you every step that got me here, but I can summarize some of it. The first thing is, some articles I write are thoughtful pieces about political crimes, but there was no monetary focus. Yes. Donald Trump is manipulating the stock market. It’s great to know that. But how do I make money? We’ll come back to that.

This change in my thought process has also changed how I interact with people online, particularly trolls. Some things they write or say are offensive and triggering. If I match their energy, what have I won? How much closer am I to making a dollar? Gaining nothing from these interactions, I looked to the Bible for guidance.

The Bible says, don’t throw your pearls before swine. That is, don’t give something of value to those who can’t appreciate it. Some people are pure chaos. They wake up defeated and ready to pour their negativity into the Universe. What do I offer these people?

No matter how much I want to reason with or guide people, some have their own insecurities and perceived failures that don’t allow them to achieve goals. The negative would rather hate the innovator than discuss the innovation and how to innovate further. This extremely negative energy is counterproductive and does nothing to move the conversation forward. So, they don’t deserve the attention or energy. I decided that wealth accumulation is what I needed to focus on.

An Evolved View on Wealth

Billionaires like Elon Musk make wealth look horrible, and they taint what it means to be wealthy. Because of that, we are so frustrated about the amount of money they have, we forget to pursue wealth for ourselves. We come to view wealth as an abstract idea and something only the evil have. And the only way to get it is through evil deeds. But what if wealth itself isn’t inherently bad? What if it’s within reach of anybody with a strategic plan?

With that at the forefront of my mind, I did what I do best. I asked questions about implications. If Donald Trump posted “buy now” on Truth Social, was he signaling to his people to do just that? If he was, was it wrong? After answering those questions, I made some trades based off the information. This is how I made money from this subject. I don’t have to agree with Donald Trump’s tactics, but I also don’t have to not make smart financial moves. Spite won’t grow my bank account. Plus, there’s no shame in monetizing.

An Evolved View on Money

That YouTuber you watch ranting against the famous people you despise gets paid from your views. We seldom think about how influencers monetize our frustrations. We can’t wait to hear podcasters drag instigators. There’s something poetic about a blogger saying everything we want about whoever irritates us. These podcasters, bloggers and vloggers, along with the mainstream media, are getting paid. Why shouldn’t I? Why shouldn’t you? This is where “How do I make money?” comes heavily into play.

Although there are mixed views on Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, his ideas on money are sound. He likens money to “little soldiers” that he sends out to war and to “bring back other little money soldiers.” In essence, his money is a tool to get more money. Between every problem and solution, the primary focus should be “How do I make money?”

If my money is “little soldiers,” one way they can bring back other soldiers is through the stock market. This is something I know, but in practice, the market has wins and losses. People think they’ll lose money if they invest in the stock market. They will. The goal is to win more. Considering that, I weighed my options and began trading stock, options and crypto more frequently. I looked at the market like a business.

In business, you have operating and business expenses, along with other costs. The average small business brings in less than 10 percent net profit. Nobody has a one-hundred percent net profit. If that is how business works, losing a little in the stock market is worth it when you make good profits. Investing more and making strategic moves was natural for me. 2025 put money into focus for me.

The Takeaway

The Serenity Prayer says, God, Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. There is a lot happening in America right now, and there is more happening to Black people. As the national unemployment rate ticks past 4.4 percent, it’s nearly twice that for the Black community. Without savings, losing a job for many of us means losing everything. How do we change this?

We have been working hard since 1619, and where has that gotten us? Without assets, what is a salary? In a world of consumerism, a salary is to pay the rent, student loans, car notes or other debt or bills. It is a pittance enough to keep the worker alive but not ever enough to thrive. Why is the American dream so intertwined with banks? Why does it make more sense to spend a dollar a day on coffee than to invest a dollar a day in stock?

This is not a tirade about how you’re wasting your money on coffee and how you need to live within your means. Buy coffee. Enjoy it. Anyone working an honest eight hours a day deserves to enjoy their money. It shouldn’t all go to bills, and some should also go to assets.

Stock, crypto and other securities create the foundation for generational wealth. What is hard work if we do not create generational wealth? If not you, then who? If not now, then when?

These questions drive me to not only buy assets but to teach my daughters how to do the same. They motivate me to inform others and share this life-changing information. Maybe the message reaches a few thousand or a million. Maybe only a percentage of them act on the information. Whether it’s ten thousand or ten million, I am doing my part to lay the seeds of thought for the building of generational wealth. This is not just my goal but also my purpose.

Jermaine Reed, MFA is an educator, author and editor in chief of TheReedersBlock. He has written over 14 books, nonfiction and fiction. Physical and digital copies are available here on Amazon. FOLLOW Jermaine Reed, MFA for his controversial but real hot takes.