Welcome to another monthly review of Lazy Man and Money. We’re into the second trimester of the year and almost halfway through.
Personal Update
May was, as they say, “A Month.” I feel like I aged 3 years in a single month.
- My wife was on work travel for the first ten days of the month. It’s been quite a while since I had the kids myself. They are into so many activities outside of school that I felt like I was just driving around everywhere all the time.
- She got back in time for a Mother’s Day brunch I planned. My mother, my mother-in-law, and my wife had a good meal and talked so long that it annoyed the kids to no end. Good, they needed time away from their screens anyway.
- My wife then went “back to the office”, which is in Boston. We moved to Rhode Island 12 years ago because she was a military worker who had been granted 60% work from home. Now the current administration has changed everything to 0% work from home. It’s a big mess because one of the core strengths of the department was that they were scattered around New England and could represent individual states. Now almost everyone has to commute a couple of hours to Boston every day. I have a LOT more thoughts on this, but I’ll keep them to myself.
I’m only sharing a couple of pictures this month and doing very limited proofreading/editing because this article should have gotten out days ago.
My Goals for 2025
I put all my goals in a spreadsheet. Here’s what it looks like for this year. I’ll explain what each one is in this article and give the results through April.
(Click it, and a bigger version will open in a new tab.)
Steal this idea and make it yours. I make an absurd number of goals I know I’ll never complete. It gives me the flexibility to fail on some things as long as I’m making progress on others. Most people would do the opposite, focus on fewer goals, and aim to get them all done. It’s much less overwhelming. As always, I’m pretty crazy, so do what works for you.
Passive Income
I have three side hustles with a passive component: a dog-sitting business, this blog, and I manage a website for a non-profit. They all require some active work. However, I can get paid by all three even while working a full-time job. I make a very little bit of money in my sleep from blogging and simply being available to do the website work. I consider income from these areas as half passive income.
(I do some other hourly work that isn’t passive income. That isn’t included here as there is no passive component to it.)
In the past, I’ve written a whole monthly article on this passive income. I’ve cut out the fluff to give you the numbers with minimal explanation. If this area seems off or confusing, perhaps the last full article will make more sense.
Dog, Blog, and Web Income
Dog boarding income in May was very good. It was shoulder season in Newport, Rhode Island. The tourists started to come in to enjoy the weather and the beaches. I think our population more than doubles in the summer. We’re a very dog friendly resort area and those dogs mean more business.
Blog income continued to be terrible. I would make a lot money working at McDonalds than typing up this report. Blogging has become a very low priority for me. In a lot of ways, blogging is like Joan Jett playing her hits from the 80s. Unfortunately, I don’t have the hits she does. Rock and roll died years ago and blogging is right there with it.
Some quality dog care from my youngest son.
Finally, I make a very little bit of money by running a website for a non-profit. I get a set amount every month, and most months, I don’t have to do too much.
Last month, I made $4,834.44 in income from these sources. Schools were out for April vacation and that associated travel was great for dog boarding. This month, the total dog/blog/web income was $4,293.60. Even though it is down from April, that’s still better than average.
Rental Property Income
We have two rental properties. We still have mortgages on them, so the rental income is around $700/mo. We will pay off one mortgage in 2027. The other one is a small loan, but it has another 15 years on it. If they were both mortgage-free, we’d make around $30,000 a year after all expected expenses including maintenance.
Three months ago, one our of tenants broke the lease and moved out suddenly. There was a health issue and while they didn’t handle things great, we left them to work out that problem. They had enough going on. We’ve been renovating the property and it’s almost done. I also wrote that it was almost done last month. Ugh.
On the bright side, we connected with someone from Facebook who was looking and showed the place – mess and all. He didn’t bat an eye when we gave a price quote of $1000/mo. more than what we were getting before. He was looking at other places and we didn’t hear back. It was a long shot considering the place was so far from ready. If we get $1000/mo. more, I’ll be able to show a huge (positive) change in this section.
For the purpose of this report, I calculate the rental property income using the following formula:
(Rents After Estimated Expenses) * (Equity Percentage Owned) = Income)
Estimated expenses are insurance, property taxes, condo fees, and condo maintenance. Equity Percentage Owned (EPO) is our total equity divided by the property value in Zillow. (Zillow is very accurate for our condos.)
In May, Zillow estimated our properties were worth about $4000 more than last month. As usual, we paid off about one thousand in mortgage principal. That meant that our EPO went from owning 83.02% of our properties to 83.31% of the properties. The rents (when they were both occupied) after expenses are $2,657/month. Using the equation above, our income from this area would be $2,213. That’s up $7 from last month. This number moves slow and steady. If I used the rent that I expect we’ll get soon the number will be $2,820.
I’m going to ignore the reality that we aren’t getting any money while we are renovating it. This is why I adjust the rents downward to include expenses.
Managing rental properties requires some work. We’re doing some of that now for the first time in a couple of years. For this reason, I only count 80% of this number as passive income.
Dividend Income
My wife and I have been nearly maxing out our retirement accounts for a couple of decades. The markets have done very well over that time. Overall, we have a nice retirement nest egg.
I don’t track dividends from all the accounts. It’s a win if I can get my wife to log into her TSP (government’s version of a 401k) account and give me the totals. Instead of tracking dividends, I assume we could easily invest the money into an ETF that pays a 2.5% dividend. For example, HDV currently yields 3.36%.
I also have profit-sharing income with a private company in which I own a small stake. I get a check each month that behaves like a dividend – it’s just taxed a little differently.
In April, most of the stock markets rebounded so we would have had $4,982 in dividends. In May, the markets continued to rebound. We would have had $5,135 as of June 5th. (I always wait until the 5th of the month to compile the numbers, so that rent and mortgage checks can clear.)
Unlike the previous two sections, this income is 100% passive. For this reason, I don’t have to adjust the numbers.
Total Passive Income
Dog/Blogs: $4,293 – Adjusted by 50% to $2,147
Rentals: $2,213 – Adjusted by 20% to $1,770
Dividends: $5,135 – Remains at $5,135
Dogs/Blogs Blue Line
Rental – Red Line
Dividend – Yellow Line
Total Adjusted Passive Income: $9,052
This number has been close to the norm for the last year. We have some dips, but it’s not too much.
Here’s a graph of the adjusted passive income since 2017, when I started keeping track of it:
The blue line represents the monthly total adjusted passive income. The Red Line represents the 12-month average. The point of doing the 12-month average is that dog boarding has some seasonality, and some months are always busier than others. We’re close to all-time highs for the 12-month average. Less and less of this income is dependent on my quasi-passive income, like dogs/blogs. That’s important because this income will trend down as I get older. The traditional passive income of rental and dividend income was $3 shy of it’s all-time high – essentially a round-off error.
My goal for this passive-ish income is to reach $109,000 for the year. It’s up to $43,609 and on pace for $104,662. With the busy dog boarding of the summer months, I might be close. I’ll need the markets to stay close to the highs that they are at now.
My wife continues to work as well. For how long, it is unclear – especially with the commute that I mentioned before. She has 26 years in the military and will be getting a pension that would double all this passive income. That pension grows a little each month, and we’re keeping track of it precisely due to the unprecedented (in her career) caustic work environment in the government/military.
I can’t think of anywhere else to put this information, but our net worth rebounded with the markets. It was up 3.19% last month. For the year, it is up 3.08%. I’ll take it with all the back and forth of tariffs.
Business and Other Money Goals
Personal Income ($75,000)
Three years ago, I made over $98,000 in side hustles. Two years ago, I made $88,000. Last year, I made a little more than $81,000. I see a trend, and it is not great. That’s okay; overall our passive income is going up, so everything is going as planned.
This year, I’m aiming to make $75,000.
Through May, I made around $30,581. I’m on a pace of making around $73,400. With more summer months for dog boarding, I think I’ve got a great shot at this.
Complete Estate Planning
I got the estate planning documents from the lawyer back recently. Looks like everything is completely done. I’m checking this one as complete. On one hand, we finished that off early this year. On the other hand, it’s been on my to-do list for years.
Kid Wealth (Goal: 50,000 Page Views)
For the fourth year, I hope to get to 50,000 page views on Kid Wealth.
In 2022, I launched Kid Wealth and wrote a lot of articles. It had 4,200 page views that year. In 2023, I got involved in other projects, but I tripled traffic to 13,708. Last year, traffic continued to grow to 16,352, even though I only wrote a couple of articles.
At the end of May, Kid Wealth had 43,238 lifetime views. It’s getting around 1,500 views a month and on target to get to 50,000 page views towards the end of the year.
I haven’t written any articles for it this year. Since Lazy Man and Money has changed from a business into a hobby, it’s hard to justify spending a lot of time on two writing hobbies about money.
Despite the dog boarding, a bunny thought it would be a good idea to give birth to a bunch of baby bunnies in our yard. I relocated them outside our fence and they were gone a few hours later. I like to think they survived.
Professional Improvements
For now, this is creating a website showing off a portfolio of what kind of websites I can do. Like most things, I got a start on that website, but my progress has stalled. I’m not optimistic about moving forward on this for the year.
Health
I’m putting a large emphasis on health these days. It’s so big that I wrote a separate article about it. My health goals for 2025 are here.
Weight and Body Fat (Goal: 164lbs / 19% BF)
At the end of May, my average weight was 173 pounds, which was a loss of 1.9 lbs from last month. My body fat was 23% which was a loss of 0.4%. These are averages over a whole month using my Fitbit Aria scale.
I’m slowly getting back to the weight I was before our cruise at the end of March. Because it’s an average, my weight is now less than that average.
I think I have a decent chance of getting to the goal, but the body fat percentage isn’t looking great.
Body and Brain Points (300 and 200 respectively)
I score myself from 1 (poor) to 5 (great) each week for diet and exercise. Then, I add them up for the month. May was a decent month for diet. While I’m on generic Ozempic, I don’t eat as much. There are a lot of positives to this, but one negative is that it’s easy for me to have bowl of ice cream or other treat. May was busy with my wife’s work situation, so I didn’t get as much planned exercise in. I felt like I was always moving though.
At the end of April, I had 107 body points, which at almost 22 points a month is a pace of 256 points. That’s not going to get me to my goal of 300. I might have to make changes.
I measure brain points on the same scale. They are based on doing things like the daily Wordle and New York Times Connections. I also do Duolingo, but I’ve been taking the easy way out and doing math instead of Japanese.
At the end of May, I have 56 brain points. That’s a pace for only 134 points for the year. I guess if I were a lot less busy, I could take more time to “grow” my brain muscles.
Blood Pressure (Goal: 115/75)
I have a family history of high blood pressure. I had a little medical scare in the first couple of days of the year. I also had one at the end of the month. Fortunately, my wife is a pharmacist and she’s coming to my doctor appointments now. It might be orthostatic hypotension and I’m reading that it can from low blood sugar could be a cause. That might make sense with the semaglutide that I’m taking.
In any event, this year I started taking my blood pressure and graphing it. My blood pressure in January averaged 138/92 which was high. I’m taking lisinopril 10mg, which was something like $3 for a 90-day supply. Wouldn’t be great if all medicine was that cheap?
May was the second month that I took 10mg for the whole month. I took my blood pressure twenty times, and it averaged out to 121/80. That’s exactly the the same average as the April. So I’m meeting my goal for this which is good, but there’s still more work to do if I’m still getting these dizzy spells a few times a month.
Doctor Appointments
I had a doctor appointment related to the scare I had at the end of the month. I also had a dentist appointment for a routine cleaning. The hygienist said that the WaterPik seems to be working. (Note: that’s an affliate link and I may make a small commission if you decide to click it an buy it.)
I need to look into booking a Cologuard test soon.
Longevity Research
Another month and I made no progress in getting a DexaFit scan scheduled. My blood pressure was more of an issue lately.
I did spend a little time researching some skin creams. I may write an article about it, because I thought the process was interesting. However, there’s not a lot of personal finance in the story. We’ll see how it goes.
Hobbies
Boost AI Skills
I want to get better at the following:
- Google Notebook LM
- Creating AI human video avatars
I didn’t work on either this month. However, I did work a little bit on making a custom ChatGPT of my Lazy Man writing style. Don’t worry yet, it’s not close to being good enough to automate the writing on this blog. I may use it to outline some ideas though.
3D Printing
I had this on my list all last year as I have a 3D printer, but I haven’t been able to load the filament correctly. It feels like I should be able to carve out a half hour and move forward with this. Yet, here we are, and it’s still on the list.
(Note: The above is what I said last month… and it’s still accurate this month.)
Journaling
I should be keeping a journal of some kind. Lazy Man and Money is my money journal. The goal is a journal for everything else. This is a lower priority than some of the other things above that I am more interested in. I did put a book of writing prompts on my Father’s Day wish list. That could serve the some of the same purposes.
Here are some other ideas of things I want to work on this year:
- Learn to fly a flight simulator
- Play a modern song on a ukulele
- Rubik’s Cube – I can solve it, but I am thinking about learning an advanced algorithm to do it faster. This is unlikely to happen
You may recognize the last two of these hobbies from my brain health goals for 2025.
I didn’t do much on any of the above. I picked up a Rubik’s Cube and realized that I forgot some of the algorithm, so I guess it’s not the kind of thing that I can just put away for a couple of months.
Family
Declutter and Organize House (50% done)
In May, we had our professional organizer come and we spent three hours on the garage. I would say that at least half the stuff is gone and what’s left is “somewhat organized.” We were running out of time (and I was running out of steam), so we cut some corners at the end. Everything isn’t in its final place, but the stuff is grouped well together. For example, the camping stuff is in one area and the beach stuff is in another area.
It was significant progress and I’m giving a big percentage gain for it.
Travel
We made great progress in booking our August trip. (More on that below.) We also made more progress on our 2026 travel plans.
Upcoming trips:
- June – Annual trip to Block Island. It’s cheaper during shoulder season, and we can get there by short drive and ferry. I love to get away from technology for a little while.
- August – We’re taking a road trip to Toronto and stopping at the sights along the way. None of us have ever been to Toronto, so it’s something new. We are planning to stop by the NY State Fair and Niagara Falls on the way. We’ll come back through Hershey, Pennsylvania which is one of our favorite places.
- December – I don’t think we’ll travel in December this year.
Kids
In May the kids had a billion activities. The school had Teacher Appreciation Week. I’m on the parent association board and I would have liked to contribute more, but with my wife on work travel, it was difficult. At the end of the week, it was Grandparent’s Day, which requires the kids to get in a nice suit.
The following week was the annual arts festival. That’s where they show off ALL the art the kids create throughout the year. The band, chorus, and theater groups put on performances. A couple of people didn’t show up for the chorus performance, so they asked my older son to take a lead role on a few numbers that he wasn’t initially in. I was quite proud. My younger son was in the chorus as well, but it’s not his thing.
The following week was spirit week, which meant that we had to prepare special theme outfits for each day. Fortunately, they were mostly easy. The difficulty was finding 1960s clothes, but we managed. That week ended with a field day where I helped out for a few hours. We found out that night that the following week was a semi-formal dance. It came from out of nowhere. That was about the fourth event that required a suit for the kids in a month.
The school was asking for a lot.
After School Activities
The 12-year-old had a full after school schedule with rehearsals for a local children’s theater show this month. He’s closing out the year in Scouts by trying to get his second class in. We’re still trying to squeeze in the last few classes before he earns his black belts in karate. The 11-year-old has lacrosse most days of the week. He earn his Scout rank and made progress on both Second and First class.
I think we’ll take it easy this summer with the exception of camps.
Summer Camps
We finally reserved the last weeks of summer camp. Usually we have it done in February, but a few of the options opened up much later this year.
Final Thoughts
As I’m finishing writing this up in the middle of June, I’m starting to realize that a lot of this is broken. I came to that conclusion yesterday when I ran around for 12 hours from one kid thing to another. I’m sure it sounds like they are overbooked and in some ways they are, but often it’s just that they are different kids with different schedules.
The crazy thing was that after I finished the twelfth hour of running around, I realized that none of it made me a single dime. Even though this is a money blog and I have a whole HUGE section about money at the top of this article, money is mostly on autopilot. Nonetheless, when you are exhausted after a full day, it would be good to know that you earned a few dollars.
The good news is that summer is here. As I said a few paragraphs before. It’s time to take it easy.
