This year, I simplified the two monthly articles that I’ve done for years – passive income and goals/resolutions. I’ve combined them and added some personal details.
Personal Monthly Recap
- The month started with my wife deployed for Hurricane Helene.
- We went to a local Harvest Festival and entered my cousin’s zucchini, which won first place. Our kids did some tug of war and sack races – lots of old-fashioned fun.
- We had a special trip to the zoo with the Cub Scouts that had behind-the-scenes animal interactions. The zoo was doing its annual pumpkin festival with around 5,000 lighted carved pumpkins that they replace every week (as the pumpkins go bad). It’s outsourced to a company called Passions for Pumpkins which does it for three states in the US
- My wife and I ran over the Pell Bridge – the longest suspension bridge in New England. It was great to watch the sunrise. Fortunately, it wasn’t as cold as last year.
- We went to Atlanta for FinCon. The kids crammed a lot into a few days, including Coca-Cola World and the largest aquarium in the United States.
- We celebrated Halloween with some friends, and the kids got enormous amounts of candy.
- We did the local annual corn maze. It’s always fun to get lost in nature for an hour or two.
[One of the thousands of carved pumpkins – an iconic moment in New England sports history.]
Back to the Passive Income and Goals
I put my goals in a spreadsheet and review it once a month. I know that I have too many goals to complete them all. That gives me the freedom to work on a few different things. Most people focus on fewer goals and aim to complete them. They find it much less overwhelming. That’s just another reason why I’m weird. Do whatever works for you.
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I just realized now that all year I’ve had Hobbes in my spreadsheet. He’s a great comic character, but I meant Hobbies.
Passive Income
I have three side hustles with a passive component: a dog-sitting business, this blog, and managing a website for a non-profit. All three require some active work. However, I can get paid for all three even while working a full-time job. That’s why I consider them somewhat passive income.
If this definition of passive income seems off or confusing, please refer to my the last stand-alone article on passive income.
Dog, Blog, and Web Income
Dog boarding was fairly average in October. I could have done better, but I went to the annual financial creator conference, FinCon. Not being around for a weekend meant that I couldn’t take dogs.
[Our puppy had a play date with her biological sister. They both came up to Rhode Island from Atlanta.]
Blogging income continues to be terrible. Much of my income comes from people finding the site on Google and seeing the ads. Google is sending a lot less traffic nowadays. They’ve focused on showing results from big brands and shopping results. Of course, with AI results, much of the time, people don’t even need to click on a website. I’m going to switch some things up, so stay tuned for that over the next few months.
The non-profit website I manage doesn’t pay much, but I love being part of the organization. I hoped to add more this year, but so far, I haven’t come up with anything. I’m doing more work than I thought I would for the non-profit, and it looks like they have some surplus income. I’ve been trying to hint that the budget could go to technology, but it’s hard because I originally volunteered myself. Next year, I’ll have to take this out of the passive-ish income. They pay me every month, but I work enough that it doesn’t fit even my stretched definition.
Finally, I started doing some web work for a restaurant. That’s an hourly rate now, so I’m not including it here. Hopefully, it will translate to some kind of retainer, which I might include here.
October’s dog, blog, and website income was $3,888.72. The previous month, it was $5,369.47.
Because this type of income requires some active work, I only count half of it as passive income. More on that later.
Rental Property Income
We have two rental properties. They still have 15-year mortgages, so the rental income is just a couple hundred dollars more than breaking even each month. We’re almost done with the mortgages, though, and they’ll make much more money (around $25,000 a year).
For the purpose of this report, I calculate their income using the following formula:
(Rents After Estimated Expenses) * (Equity Percentage Owned) = Passive Income
Estimated expenses are insurance, property taxes, condo fees, and estimated condo maintenance. Equity Percentage Owned (EPO) is our total equity divided by the property value in Zillow. (Zillow is very accurate for our condos.)
Zillow says our properties were worth $5,000 more than last month. That breaks a string of drops. We pay off about a thousand dollars of mortgage debt on them every month. That’s a recipe for gaining $6,000 in equity.
I calculate the rents on the properties at around $2,657/mo., after expenses. This calculation is a little disingenuous because I average what our true rents are and what the market says they should be. We should be charging a lot more, but we have good tenants, and we’re trying to be kind, considering the exploding housing costs.
This month, we owned 81.90% of the properties. Using the equation above, this would be $2,176 in monthly income. For a year, using this method, we’d net $26,113.
Last month, and the month before, it was $2,168, so we gained $8. That’s typically how this growth goes. It’s slow, but real estate has been one of my most consistently growing income streams.
[While my wife was away the kids built a LEGO Star Wars Millennium Falcon that I found on sale for under $100. They chipped in some of their money. Here, my son takes a break to read a book. (This is not the norm at our house.)]
Managing rental properties requires some work – a few days a year. For this reason, I only count 80% of this number as passive income.
Dividend Income
My wife has been maxing out her retirement accounts for a little more than two decades. I maxed out my retirement accounts for my first ten years of employment, but it got much tougher when I became self-employed. At that point, I mostly focused on maxing out my Roth IRA and a little on my SEP-IRA. Investing this money for so long has created quite the nest egg for us.
For the dividend income portion of our passive income, I assume we invested all the money in brokerage accounts (retirement and non-retirement) into an ETF that conservatively pays a 2.5% dividend. I use this 2.5% number because I’m too “Lazy” to track the exact dividends from all accounts. Also, dividend payments are very inconsistent, with most payments coming quarterly. Is 2.5% a fair number as an estimate? I’ll let you be the judge, but one ETF, iShares Core High Dividend (HDV), is paying around 3.63% right now.
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.
[Ice cream and a science lesson at Sub Zero Ice Cream in Atlanta]
This month our dividend income using this estimation was $5,001. We finally broke the $5,000 mark! I grabbed these numbers on the night of the election, before the big run up the next day. Waiting would have made a significant difference, but I always try to grab the numbers on the 5th of the following month. Last month, September, this was $4,985 so you can see it’s a decent $16 gain..
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: $3,888.72 – Adjusted to $1,944.36
Rentals: $2,176.00 – Adjusted to $1,740.80
Dividends: $5,001 – Remains at $5,001
Dogs/Blogs Blue Line
Rental – Red Line
Dividend – Yellow Line
Total Adjusted Passive Income: $8,686.16
That monthly income would be about $104,000 a year. I consider that financial indepence. We might be spending a little more than that as we make some home improvements and send our kids to fancy private school. We don’t need to spend as much as we do though.
Here’s a graph of the numbers since 2017, when I started keeping track:
(The blue line represents the monthly total adjusted passive income. The Red Line represents the 12-month average. This helps remove some of the seasonality of dog boarding.
Our 12-month average is $8,505.32. That’s a sliver below our all time high of $8,581.87 last August. I didn’t expect to make new highs this year and we’re running out of updates, but it’s possible. This is the core number that I want to beat because it shows that blogging doesn’t have to make any money at all to still do well. (I would still need the dog boarding to grow this number though.)
My wife continues to work as well. She now has 25 years in the military and will be getting a pension that effectively doubles all this passive income. Her job has gotten easier and seemingly more fun, so she might stay 30 years and grow the pension more.
I can’t think of anywhere else to put this information, but our net worth grew a modest 0.28% last month. Overall, it’s up 13.51% for the year. Our liquid cash was very much the same as the month before. Some people track their spending to know where their money goes. I’m too lazy, so I just look at the liquid cash number.
Business and Other Money Goals
Personal Income ($85,000)
Two years ago, I made over $98,000 in side hustles. Last year, I made $88,000. I’ve recently cut back on dog boarding a bit, so I’m aiming for $85,000 this year.
Through October, I made $68,998, which is on pace for $82,448.52. I think I’m going to fall short on this one.
Complete Estate Planning
After several months of not getting together with my wife to answer the lawyer’s questions, we finally were able to get it done. I had expected this to be easy, but it really is difficult.
[We were able to catch the Northern Lights. I loved how the moon was peaking out of the clouds at our local beach]
Kid Wealth (Goal: 50,000 Page Views)
For the third year, I hope to get 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 traffic tripled to 13,708. This year, I’ve only posted a couple of articles – ouch.
For some reason, traffic surged in October after an already good September. I’m getting double the traffic that I was for most of the year. I have no ads and almost no way of making money. I’ve got some renewed interest in this and also some ideas for 2025.
Professional Improvements
A few months ago, I worked on my website to show off my freelance skills. This past month, I updated my LinkedIn for the first time in about 15 years. That was a major goal for this. Additionally, I got the web work for the restaurant that I mentioned above.
[This praying mantis was outside our garage. The prayers apparently did not help.]
Health
I’m putting more focus on health this year. As you can tell from the above, our financial situation is great. Now, we just have to be healthy enough to enjoy a few decades of spending our money.
Lose Weight and Body Fat (Goal: 175lbs, 22.5% body fat)
I started on January 1st at 192.5 pounds and 26.3% body fat, according to my Fitbit scale. Ouch!
At the end of October, my average weight was 180.2 – effectively the same as last month. My body fat was 23.1% on average. The 4-mile Pell Bridge run with my wife seemed to lower my body fat for a couple of weeks. Towards the end of the month, I started eating a little more healthy again. We’ll see if it pays off in the next report.
[Pell Bridge Run!]
Health Points (Goal: 350)
This year, I’m tracking my health by giving myself a score at the end of the week for diet and exercise. The top score in each is five points.
When I give myself a five, I am saying that I generally had the reasonably best week possible. I can only have a couple of off meals a week and still get a five. The rest of the time, I have to eat with a purpose, such as half fruits and vegetables or half plant protein. If go out to restaurants and just eat whatever I want, then I’m only going to get one point.
For exercise, I’d have to put in a very solid effort every day to get a five. At the start of the year, I got mostly one point each week. The weather wasn’t very good, and I wasn’t motivated to exercise. Since spring, I’ve started walking more – often getting in 10,000 steps a day. I need to do higher cardio and weights, but this is a step in the right direction.
With 52 weeks, I can earn a maximum of 260 health points each for diet and exercise.
At the end of October I have 222 points. That’s a pace for 266 points. I’m going to miss my goal, but I know it’s helped me make much healthier decisions. Next year, I’ll shoot for 300 points.
Health Appointments
Medical appointments are a very important part of staying healthy. Here’s what I’ve done this year:
Dental – I had to do some deep cleaning this year. It was two separate appointments where they did one side and then the other. I had the regular cleanings and a couple of fillings replaced, including one in October.
ADHD – I finally got diagnosed with ADHD. Getting the standard testing with a specialist was impossible, with the scheduling being months in the future and their insurance policies changing at that time. Finally, I did an assessment at ADHD Online and paid out of pocket. I brought the results to my primary care physician, and she prescribed me a very low dosage of Adderall. It’s been very helpful.
Body Analysis – In February, I got a body analysis from DexaFit after watching “You Are What You Eat” on Netflix. They scanned my body completely for body fat. I also got a VO2 max test for cardio fitness and an RMR metabolic analysis. The results weren’t what I was looking for, but they will be a good baseline. I should get a follow-up, but I’ve been busy. I don’t know if I’ll get another one this year.
[Went to a town street fair where this crazy marching band was.]
Annual Physical – I had my annual physical a couple of months ago. She had recommended a colonoscopy in the past, but I wanted to wait until I got my ADHD sorted out. I thought a colonoscopy was a quick procedure that took maybe a couple of hours. I don’t know how to do a whole day cleanse and then manage the next day with my responsibilities of caring for dogs and kids. I think it makes sense to push this to 2025.
Finally, I’m on quest to regrow hair. July was my first month. I think it takes about 4-6 months to see results. I think this is going quite well. I’m probably going to update that article within the next month. You can judge for yourself with the before and after pictures.
Hobbies
I almost never get time to do a hobby. I have too many jobs and house/kid management going on. Below are just some of the things I’d like to do:
- Learn AI
My goal at the beginning of the year was to look into becoming a “prompt engineer.” AI was advancing so fast that I thought that “prompt engineering” might be dead. Regular readers saw that I used AI effectively in a few articles in the last few weeks. After FinCon, I realize that I couldn’t afford to do nothing on this, so I bought subscriptions to ChatGPT and Claude. I’ve been using them both for some research and projects over the last couple of weeks.
- Canva
My kids use Canva at school, and they are better than I am. However, I used it in September to make a “gift card” for dog boarding, and it was super easy.
- 3D Printing
Still no progress on using the 3D printer.
- Rubik’s Cube
Last year, my 10-year-old mastered the Rubik’s Cube. He can speed-cube it in less than 90 seconds on average.
I’ve got about 92% of the algorithm memorized. I’d say that 70% of it is in muscle memory – I don’t need to think. About half the time, I get lucky and don’t need the other 8% of the algorithm. I was able to solve it in 2 minute and 17 seconds on one of those lucky tries.
- WordPress Blog as a Journal?
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. I don’t think this is going to happen this year.
- Program in Python
I want to make a toy program to get my old software engineering skills going again. After seeing how the new ChatGPT can code, I wonder if this is even a useful goal.
Some of the new web work that I’m doing above has knocked the rust off. I’m giving myself partial credit for this one.
- Learn to fly a flight simulator
Let’s push this to 2025.
- Learn to play Backgammon
This may be a December thing to check a box off a box near the end of the year.
- Play a modern song on an ukulele
Another month with no progress on this one.
Overall, I’m doing much better with hobbies than I expected. I still have a couple of months left to make some more progress.
Family
Declutter and Organize House
Every year, we have some home improvement goals on the list. Last year, we got new carpets and interior paint.
This year, we are looking to declutter, organize, and upgrade the whole house. We hired a friend who is an interior designer and she put together a good plan. For years, we had a lot of cheap Ikea furniture. In May we finished the dining room, which is one of our smallest rooms.
In July, we cleaned out the office to make room for new desks. We also cleaned up the basement and made it much more functional. We now have a little workout area and an area for the kids to play. I set up some of my old gaming consoles and made them easy to play.
[Old school harvest festival!]
In August, we got the new desks and bookshelves. It’s fancy Pottern Barn – the stuff that lifestyle inflation is made of. Now, I just need to find the time to organize my existing stuff in that space.
In September, I got most of my stuff organized into that office space. I also did a little work on decluttering the garage. Our outdoor light fixtures were 30 years old and failing, so we replaced those. It sounds like a tiny baby step, but it required picking them out and scheduling an electrician. Finally, my wife has been listing and selling a lot of stuff on eBay.
Last month, we worked more on the office. My wife’s part is great. My side… needs work.
Our 10-year old said that we’re practically in a completely different house with every room getting upgrades. He simply volunteered this insight without me prompting him about the changes.
Travel
In March, we spent a week on a Yucatán Peninsula cruise on one of Royal Caribbean’s biggest cruise ships and another week at Disney World.
In April, we went to the eclipse and did a day of skiing. Usually, I wouldn’t count weekends as travel, but it was a notable life experience.
In June, we went on our annual trip to Block Island. We can drive to the ferry in a half hour and be on the island in 90 minutes. It’s a nice staycation for four days. The highlight was a scavenger hunt that we did on our phones. It was all virtual.
Of course, the big August trip was to see Paramore and Taylor Swift, go to Stonehenge, and do a Beatles tour in Liverpool.
In October, the whole family went to Atlanta. I had my FinCon conference, so the hotel room was already booked. My wife knows a lot of peope at the CDC and wanted to meet up with them. The kids came along to see the Coca Cola factory and the largest aquarium in the United States. It was a short trip, but still valuable.
[I didn’t see the sign that said we shouldn’t climb on the rings until it was too late. Whoops!]
I’ve taken a couple of days to put together some travel plans for 2025. Nothing is firm yet, but I feel good about the preliminary plans.
Kids
Kids are halfway through the first semester of school after a successful summer of camps. Their after-school activities are karate, First Lego League, and Scouting America. The 12-year-old will be in two school plays over the next few months while starting on the school swim team. Our 10-year-old is going to give basketball a shot. That will carry us through to the end of the year and into the next one.
[It’s always a good idea to give kids exposure to axes. What could go wrong?]
Final Thoughts
I’m pretty excited about how October went. I made really good progress on hobbies and got the new website gig. I’m feeling good about my health even though I’m still 5 annoying pounds from my goal. Even though the travel was minor, it was still a new experience for the kids (and my first time in Atlanta as well).
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