Wow, November kind of got away from me. We took a short 5-day trip to Puerto Rico, which was like a week off when you factor in packing and unpacking. It’s crunch time to get any last items on your New Year’s resolutions done. Are you even still keeping track of those? If not, dig them out and see if you can get a couple done. The rest of the year will go by quickly with the holidays.
Personal Update
Because I’m so far in getting this out there, I’m going to cut some corners and not upload any personal pictures. For the most part, we do things that we do every year: we went to the local harvest festival, the annual Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular at the Roger Williams Zoo (5,000+ carved pumpkins), and the local corn maze. My wife and I ran the Pell Bridge race. I came in almost the exact middle of the pack among some 4,000 people. We went to a local charity event to raise money for food grown here. Finally, my oldest son was in yet another play. That’s becoming a monthly occurrence now, since he’s in multiple groups.
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 so far.
(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. The same is true for dog boarding. I have to feed the dogs, but it’s a lot different than getting an hour wage. 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, reading the last full article will help it make more sense.
Dog, Blog, and Web Income
Dog boarding income in October can usually be hit or miss. We had the best October in three years.
Blog income started to look up a bit. I sold an advertisement, and it was barely the most profitable month that I’ve had all year. Income is still down something like 95-98% from where it was a few years ago.
Finally, I make some money by running a website for a non-profit that I’m in. I get a set amount every month, and most months, I don’t have to do too much. I’m able to do a little more by experimenting with AI. I spent October making a lot of tools to help the group. There’s a small chance that I can grow this into a better income.
In October, I made $5,653.90 in income from these sources. That was a little better than the $5,291.55 I made in September.
Rental Property Income
We have two rental properties. Perhaps we should only have one? We still have mortgages on them, so when they are fully rented, we make 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.
Way back in March, one of our tenants broke the lease and moved out suddenly. We renovated the property, which took three months longer than it should have, and put it on the market to be rented. It has sat unrented for several months now. We lowered the price by 20% and that didn’t help. It looks like it might lease for December, but I’m not excited about our potential tenant. Beggars can’t be choosers.
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 on Zillow. (Zillow is very accurate for our condos.)
In October, Zillow estimated our properties were worth about $3,000 more than the month before. After a couple of months, we’ll take any kind of rebound. As usual, we paid off about one thousand dollars in mortgage principal. That meant that our EPO went from owning 83.48% of our properties to 83.72% of them. We’re moving in the right direction.
A couple of months ago, I decided to make the terrible assumption that we’re going to get close to the price we’re asking for rent. I already did the math for this month, but next month, I’ll put in the rent that we’re actually going to get (assuming the lease signing works). The rents (with that assumption) after expenses are $2,806/month. Using the equation above, our income from this area would be $2,349. That’s only $6 more than last month.
Managing rental properties requires some work. We did a little of that recently for the first time in a few years. For this reason, I only count 80% of this as passive income.
Dividend Income
My wife has been maxing out her retirement accounts for a couple of decades. I haven’t done quite as well, but I still have over 30 years of Roth IRAs and a good deal of 401 (k) investments. The markets have done very well over the last 30 years. That leads to a sizeable nest egg.
I don’t track exact dividends from all the accounts. (It’s a win if I can get my wife to log into her TSP account and give me the totals.) Instead, I assume we could easily invest the money in the accounts into an ETF that pays a 2.5% dividend. For example, HDV currently yields 3.41%. I DO track dividends in our main brokerage account that isn’t a retirement account. We average about 2.6% dividend there.
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.
The stock market didn’t move much in October. It was up a little bit, but mostly a big yawn. I don’t mind that at all because it has been going up so much lately. The valuations feel too high when a lot of America is fighting with the cost of living. We’ve given to at least five different food drives from organizations we belong to between the SNAP issue and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
Last month, the dividend income number was $5,717. This month it is $5,726. That’s a boring move of $9. Believe it or not, there was a time when that would cover a Netflix bill. I’ll be telling my grandkids that story when it’s $99/mo.
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: $5,654 – Adjusted by 50% to $2,827
Rentals: $2,349 – Adjusted by 20% to $1,879
Dividends: $5,726 – Remains at $5,726
Dogs/Blogs Blue Line
Rental – Red Line
Dividend – Yellow Line
Total Adjusted Passive Income: $10,432.15
Last month it was $10,237. That’s a pretty small gain, but certainly good for one month. The only big difference was the dog boarding, or the blog advertisement. So in a lot of ways, it was essentially a flat month.
That’s the fourth straight month in 5 digits, so I feel like that should be the norm. I’m probably speaking too soon as the dog boarding will go down with travel.
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. Using those 12-month averages, we’re at all-time highs in passive-ish income. Our mostly pure passive income (rentals and dividends) is at an all-time high of $7,605.20. If I end the dog boarding and blogging gigs, that money could sustain us for quite a bit.
My goal for this passive-ish income is to reach $109,000 for the year. It’s up to $95,518 and on pace for $114,621. It looks like we’ll exceed this goal. When I was setting the goal, I didn’t expect the market to do as well this year as it has.
My wife continues to work as well. However, as a pharmacist working with public health, she has problems supporting RFK Jr.’s disinformation campaign. She’s set a retirement date, but it’s more than a year away. 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 now we’re keeping track of it precisely.
I can’t think of anywhere else to put this information, but our net worth went up 2.04% last month. That’s a huge month. For the year, it is up 10.49%. That’s so much better than I expected. Our liquid cash went down about 2%. We don’t keep a lot of liquid cash, so this isn’t a big deal.
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 October, I made $69,853. That’s a pace of $83,824. It looks great, but we have some travel coming up, and this may be close.
Complete Estate Planning
I got the estate planning documents from the lawyer back near the start of the year. This is done. Yay!
Kid Wealth (Goal: 50,000 Page Views)
For the fourth year, I hope to get to 50,000 page views on Kid Wealth. I thought something would go viral and I’d get most of them in one day.
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 October, Kid Wealth had 48,665 lifetime views. It’s going to be close to 50,000 page views by the end of the year.
I’m still looking for a partner or some motivation to make it into a business. Any readers interested? I simply don’t believe the money is in blogging anymore. I still believe in the value of the written word, but I think the brand needs to be something else. My interest has moved on to other projects for now.
Maybe it could be a non-profit and receive some kind of grant money. It’s a good brand and cause, and I’m sure it can be valuable with time to move it in the right direction. I’ve invested enough money and set up a good foundation, but I doubt anyone buying it will give me any kind of ROI. It was never about making money, so selling it at a loss isn’t worth it to me.
Professional Improvements
A few months ago, I got really excited to create a new application, but I haven’t done anything with it for a few months. I spent a few minutes this past month to see if I could take what I have and turn it into something that is close to launchable, and there might be some hope for that.
I spent more time working on the tools for the non-profit, which is similar to a local Business Networking International group. It would be great if I could package the tools and franchise them. It’s a long shot that it turns into something.
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)
My average weight in October was 169.4 pounds, more than a pound less than last month. My body fat was 22.4% which is about the same as it has been all year. I might be able to come close to the weight goal, but I don’t think the body fat goal is going to work. These are averages over a whole month using my Fitbit Aria scale.
This is the least I’ve weighed in over 10 years, which is as long as I’ve kept track. It’s down from 197 from about two years ago – 30 pounds lost! About half of those are from a traditional diet and exercise. The other half has been from a year of the generic GLP-1s that you read about everywhere. I take a low dose, because my BMI at 26 is just a little overweight. When I tell people that I take it, they are shocked because they say that I don’t need it. I certainly feel a lot healthier now than I did then.
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. I did a 4-mile race in October with my wife, so I gave myself an extra health point for that. I also had a week where I was very focused on eating well. Other than that, it was a very average month.
At the end of October, I had 243 body points. It’s a pace of 291 for the year. It’s going to come down to the wire, I think.
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. Usually, I study Japanese, but I’ve been hooked on playing Oscar in chess. In about 30 matches so far, he beat me once, and I got stuck in 4-5 stupid stalemates. Whoever wrote the stalemate rule in chess should be ashamed of themselves.
At the end of October, I have 158 brain points. That’s a pace for around 189 points for the year. I might be able to get this done, too.
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. Now I think it is orthostatic hypotension, but I didn’t know that at the start of the year. It seems pointless to try to be healthy in a bunch of other ways and let high blood pressure create all kinds of problems under the surface.
My blood pressure in January averaged 138/92, which is high. My doctor put me on lisinopril 10mg and then upped it to 15mg a few months ago. It’s amazing how cheap this generic medication is – less than $10 for a 90-day supply.
A few months ago, I bought this Omron Blood Pressure Monitor on Amazon on a Prime Day deal. That’s an affiliate link, so I might make a couple of extra dollars if you click on it and buy it. I’m impressed as it creates great averages and graphs. I can have it email me a report so I can print it out and give it to my doctor. Because a lot of doctors use Omron products, they seem to be familiar with the reports, too.
In October, my blood pressure averaged 125/77. That’s still a little high, but it’s significant progress.
Doctor Appointments
I didn’t have any doctor or dentist appointments, but I got my Cologuard results back. I seem to be in the clear for a few years. Next time, I should get an actual colonoscopy instead of just doing the screening.
Longevity Research
I scheduled a DexaFit appointment and went for the first time in 18 months. I had hoped to do it every year, but I got busy. For those not familiar with DexaFit, they perform a series of tests consisting of a very detailed scan of your body, measuring your resting metabolic rate, and measuring your VO2 Max. They use this information with AI (because of course) to figure out a biological age.
There was some good news and bad news on this test. The good news is that I improved in every area. I had less body fat (29.5% vs. 31.4% before). One of the biggest concerns before was belly fat, which was at 3.57 pounds before. Now it’s at 2.51 pounds. That’s still over my peer group, though.
The bad news is that my biological age went from 49 to 51. Since I’m 50, I went from being on pace to being behind. I asked the franchise owner why my age would go up if I’m getting healthier everywhere. He said that they probably changed the algorithm in the last 18 months. I think that DexaFit tends to use its average client as a baseline, but the people interested in DexaFit tend to be athletic or more health-conscious.
Hobbies
Prior to this year, I haven’t been doing well in developing hobbies. I’d say that I want to get into flying drones or something else, but I never seem to have the time. With my new productivity system in place, I think I’m making better progress in this. Let’s find out:
Boost AI Skills
In October, I focused on a few projects to improve my dog boarding website. Some of that involved AI research. I am finding that a lot of what I do nowadays involves spending time in ChatGPT.
I also met with a friend who has been working on creating a business networking group. We did a lot of work with AI for planning the software for that.
3D Printing
After doing about 90% of the work to hopefully get the 3D printer working a couple of months ago, I haven’t done anything since.
Journaling
I like the idea of journaling, but I don’t think I’ll get to it.
Here are some other ideas of things I want to work on this year:
- Learn to fly a flight simulator – Either scrap or push to next year.
- Play a modern song on a ukulele – Either scrap or push to next year.
- Rubik’s Cube – I was able to solve it at the beginning of the year, but I think I’ve forgotten since I haven’t done it in a while. I had hoped to learn an advanced algorithm to do it faster, but it doesn’t look like that will happen.
You may recognize the last two of these hobbies from my brain health goals for 2025.
I signed up for Masterclass, which I think can teach the ukulele, but I haven’t moved forward on that either.
Family
Declutter and Organize House (95% Progress)
The decluttering and organizing never end. With my wife only working part-time due to the government shutdown, she listed and sold a lot of small items. It was a good time to sell some of the kids’ old Halloween costumes.
We’ll end up having made more progress than I expected this year, but there’s still a lot to do.
b>Travel
No travel in October, but we just got back from Puerto Rico. I’ll have more on that next month. Next up, we’re going to Vermont for a long weekend of skiing in early December.
We’ve made more progress planning our 2026 travel.
Kids
In October, we started to look at high schools for our 7th grader. That’s a weird sentence to type. The kids go to a private school on a military discount, but with my wife retiring, that discount probably won’t happen in high school. It gets really expensive, and as you can tell from the financial information above, we probably won’t qualify for a lot of aid unless it is merit-based. Since he’s looking at extremely good schools, they don’t do merit-based scholarships – everyone would get one. It feels like a college search.
I’m still a fan of public school, especially with an option like dual enrollment at a local college. He needs to be challenged, though, and I don’t see that happening (academically) in the public high schools we have here. There are some things you can do to go to a public school in another city, which is interesting.
I spent a lot of October going back and forth over it. It turns out that we are a year too early to look into this. Usually, the kids, as 8th graders, start touring the schools.
Final Thoughts
I’m writing this up on November 20th after having come back from our trip to Puerto Rico. Without going back through the pictures on my phone, a lot of October was a blur.
There is one notable thing that I haven’t mentioned above. Being from Massachusetts, I’ve been a Patriots fan my whole life. I watched them go 1-15 and, of course, celebrated the twenty years with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Those days are long gone, and they’ve been bad the last few seasons. However, this year, with a new coach, great development of last year’s rookie quarterback, and a historically easy schedule, they are back to being good again.
I never thought to buy a Tom Brady football card. Since I was just out of college, I was a decade out of my baseball card-collecting phase. I decided that I wouldn’t make that mistake twice, and I “invested” (i.e., gambled) $250 on a perfectly graded Drake Maye card in mid-October. The card had been around $125 at the start of the season, so I was paying double! With the great performance since then, the cheapest one on eBay is over $400, and the last one sold for $380.
I don’t imagine that I’d ever sell the card, though. It’s either going to be worth so much that I’d just as well keep it and enjoy having my cake and eating it too. Alternatively, Drake Maye could regress to the norm (or worse), and the card becomes worth very little. I’m not sure that I’d sell it then either, because what’s the point?
