2025 Ledger: How I Manufactured $72,838 in Income While Working a Bridge Job.”

People ask if the Wheel strategy actually works for ‘Late Starters’ —folks who didn’t spend 20 years on Wall Street. I don’t give opinions; I provide receipts. In 2025, using my $300,000 Equity account, I earned $72,838 in options premiums or a 24.3% return on capital.

If you’re new to the mechanics of how I do this, start with my Ultimate Retirement Wheel Playbook. It covers the ‘Phase 1’ and ‘Phase 2’ rules I followed to hit these numbers.

The Shoulder Surgery that Changed My Life”

I didn’t learn the Wheel at a fancy seminar or in a corporate boardroom. I learned it because I was forced to sit still.

In the winter of 2024, I was sidelined by shoulder surgery. I was bored, out of work, and staring at a $350k Freedom Fund that I hoped would last me until 59.5. I was scrolling X (formerly Twitter) and watching Bloomberg with one arm in a sling when I kept seeing ‘The Wheel’ pop up.

At first, I thought it was gambling. I’m a twice-homeless dad—I don’t gamble with my kids’ future. But I started digging. I spent my recovery time reading everything I could find, paper trading while on painkillers, and realizing that this wasn’t ‘betting’—it was insurance and rent. My first trade netted me exactly $19.32. That first $19 trade was the spark. I eventually turned that into a consistent average of $1,512 per week to pay my bills without touching my principal. I felt like I’d found fire. I wasn’t just a guy with a 401k anymore; I was a guy with a skill. That skill is what generated the $72,838 you’re about to see below.”

The Reality Check: The screenshot of my Freedom Fund below shows the total account value at the end of 2025. While the premiums were the “turbocharger,” the total growth also reflects dividends and capital gains. This isn’t a vacuum; it’s a total-return engine.

The 2025 Monthly P&L Breakdown

To understand the “how,” you have to see the volatility. It wasn’t a straight line. Here is the month-by-month breakdown of the premiums I collected in 2025.

Seeing is Believing: The Wheel Options Tracking Sheet

What follows is the actual tools I used to track my every trade. Im giving you a copy of the actual completed google sheet which shows every single options trade I made in 2025 as well as weekly summary. I have also summarized by month here on the table below.

Want to see the raw math? Here is the exact Google Sheet I used containing all 300+ trades.

Chart Analysis

• The June Surge: As you can see on the chart, June was a monster month ($12k+). This was because I made the decision to bet long on AMD. I made over $6,000 on a single LEAPS (Long-term Equity Anticipation Securities) trade with an expiration of January 2028. Coincidentally, that’s the same month I become eligible to execute the Rule of 55 and walk away.
• The April Lull: April was my lowest month ($1.7k). The market took a dip in April and I was assigned several positions at prices higher than the current market. Instead of forcing bad trades and risking capital, I remained patient and accepted lower premiums while waiting for the rebound. Discipline is why I’m still in the game.
• The Capital Efficiency: I moved $8.2 Million in total volume (notional value) to extract that $72k. That is a massive statistic and demonstrates that my success using wheel options to generate income, while very fortunate, was no accident. This isn’t a ‘get rich quick’ scheme; it’s a high-volume income operation executed with surgical precision.

The “Time Merchant” Secret: How I Earned While I Slept

A lot of people look at that $72k and think I’m day-trading, staring at candles all day. Wrong. In 2025, I wasn’t a gambler; I was a Time Merchant. When you sell options, you are primarily selling Theta (time decay). Every day that the market is open, the options I sold lost a little bit of value—value that went straight into my pocket.

I don’t need the stock to “moon.” I just need it to stay steady or move slightly. While I was at my kids’ soccer games or working my 25-hour-a-week bridge job, the clock was running out for the person who bought those options from me. That is the ultimate “work smarter, not harder” hack for a late-starter.

The “Dad-Defense” Filter: Why I Only Wheel Blue Chips

You won’t find any “meme stocks” or penny-stock junk in my ledger. Why? Because I’m a dad with a mortgage and a goal. I can’t afford to see a position go to zero because some CEO sent a weird tweet.

My criteria for the 300+ trades I made in 2025 were simple:

• The 10-Year Test: If the market closed for 10 years tomorrow, would I be happy owning this company? This is why you see names like AMD, NVDA, and SPY in my sheets.
• The Dividend Buffer: I prefer companies that pay me to wait. If I get assigned (forced to buy the stock), I want to collect dividends while I wait to sell my covered calls.

The Mental Game: Handling the “Red” Days

I’d be lying if I said 2025 was all sunshine. There were weeks in April where my screen was bleeding red. I was down thousands on paper.

The “Old Earl”—the one who was broke and sleeping on couches—would have panicked and sold everything. The “FIRE Earl” stayed disciplined. I knew the math, I knew my cost basis, and I knew that time was on my side. If you want to manufacture income like this, you have to develop a “Millionaire Mindset.” You have to be okay with temporary red to get to the permanent green.

Ready to stop reading and start doing? Make sure you check out my Step-by-Step Guide for Dads to see exactly how to set your first trade. The guide is part of my FREE 48-lesson Financial Independence Course, The Financial Freedom Compass.

You can also follow my journey to Full Retirement in Project 2028 as I approach the execution of the Rule of 55. I will be documenting in real time, the next 2 years month by month as cross the bridge from Corporate Workaholic into Part Time Coasting and in 2028 Full on Retirement at age 55.

Financial Disclaimer

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor, CPA, or attorney. The numbers and strategies, shared are a documentation of my personal journey and results—not financial advice. Trading options involves significant risk and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance (including my 2025 results) is no guarantee of future returns. Before executing strategies like this, consult with a qualified professional to discuss your specific tax and high-stakes financial situation. I am simply a man in the trenches sharing his exit plan; your mileage may and likely will vary.

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