It\u2019s weird to publish March\u2019s report when April is more than half over, but here we are. That shows you how far behind I am. When we finished March, the first quarter of the year was over. By the time you are reading this, you have to be around 30% of the way to achieving your goals for the year. If you aren\u2019t there, it\u2019s time to get cracking. Summer will come soon, and I know I\u2019ll want to spend time outside enjoying the weather.<\/p>\n
On the topic of enjoyment, we spent half of March on vacation. That had a huge effect on my goal progress for the month. It will be a recurring theme in almost every area.<\/p>\n
I often like to highlight some of the things we did for the month, but the vacation recap<\/a> works well for that.<\/p>\n I put all my goals in a spreadsheet. Here\u2019s what it looks like for this year. I\u2019ll explain what each one is in this article and give the results through March.<\/p>\n (Click it and it will open in a new tab.)<\/p>\n Steal this idea and make it yours. I make an absurd number of goals I know I\u2019ll never complete. It gives me the flexibility to fail on some things as long as I\u2019m making progress on others. Most people would do the opposite, focus on fewer goals, and aim to get them all done. It\u2019s much less overwhelming. As always, I\u2019m pretty crazy, so do what works for you.<\/p>\n 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 do some other hourly work that isn\u2019t passive income. That isn\u2019t included here, of course.<\/p>\n In the past, I\u2019ve written a whole monthly article on this passive income. I\u2019ve 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dog boarding income wasn\u2019t great in March. It\u2019s always one of our worst months since we are traveling for a couple of weeks. Compared to last year, we made 4% more \u2013 pretty much the rate of inflation.<\/p>\n Blog income was a little better than earlier this year. However, blogging barely brings in any money nowadays.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t have to do too much.<\/p>\n All of these require some work, but a lot of it is fairly passive. I can work at another job from home while I am boarding a dog. 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.<\/p>\n Last month, I made $4,431.19 in income from these sources. This month, the total dog\/blog\/web income was $2,341.90.<\/p>\n 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\u2019d make around $25,000 a year after all expected expenses including maintenance.<\/p>\n Last month one our of tenants broke the lease and moved out suddenly. It\u2019s always when you are on vacation, right? We\u2019re renovating the property as much of it was from the 1980\u2019s. It\u2019s going to be an investment, but we should be able to make around $800\/mo. More than what we were getting before.<\/p>\n For the purpose of this report, I calculate the rental property income using the following formula:<\/p>\n (Rents After Estimated Expenses) * (Equity Percentage Owned) = Income)<\/b><\/p>\n Estimated expenses are insurance, property taxes, condo fees, and condo maintenance<\/a>. Equity Percentage Owned (EPO) is our total equity divided by the property value in Zillow. (Zillow is very accurate for our condos.)<\/p>\n In March, Zillow estimated our properties were worth about $3000 more dollars. We paid off another thousand in mortgage principal. That meant that our EPO went from owning 82.41% of our properties to 82.65% of the properties. The rents (when they were both occupied) after expenses are $2,218\/month. Using the equation above, our income from this area would be $2,196.<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to ignore the reality that we aren\u2019t getting any money while we are renovating it. This is why I adjust the rents downward to include expenses.<\/p>\n Managing rental properties requires some work. We\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t track dividends from all the accounts. I\u2019m doing well to get my wife to log into her TSP (government\u2019s version of a 401k) account and give me the totals. Instead of tracking dividends, I assume we could invest the money into an ETF that pays a 2.5% dividend. For example, HDV currently yields 3.3%.<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 it\u2019s just taxed a little differently.<\/p>\n I take all these numbers on the 5th of the month, so that I have rent checks cleared and mortgages paid. When April 5th came around, the market had a couple of days of the Tariff Crash of 2025. That sharply reduces this estimate.<\/p>\n In February, we could have made $5,042 in dividends. In March (well, April 5th), that fell down to $4,586. I started to implement my tariff playbook<\/a>, and I feel well-positioned for whatever comes next.<\/p>\n Unlike the previous two sections, this income is 100% passive. For this reason, I don\u2019t have to adjust the numbers.<\/p>\n Dog\/Blogs: $2,341 \u2013 Adjusted by 50% to $2,171 Dogs\/Blogs Blue Line Total Adjusted Passive Income: $7,513.75<\/b><\/p>\n Usually, I don\u2019t have a lot to say about this number, but I\u2019m very excited about it. We had a double whammy of a being on vacation and a market crash. In 2021, $7513 was about the best I could hope for. Now, it represents a very bad case scenario.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a graph of the adjusted passive income since 2017, when I started keeping track:<\/p>\n The blue line represents the monthly total adjusted passive income. The Red Line represents the 12-month average. This removes some of the seasonality of dog boarding. I\u2019m mostly focused on that red line. March was a new all-time, with an average of $8,735.90 over the last 12 months. Less and less of this income is dependent on my quasi-passive income, like dogs\/blogs.<\/p>\n My goal is to get this to $109,000 for the year and I\u2019m on pace for $100,000. It looks like it\u2019s going to be close.<\/p>\n My wife continues to work as well. She has 26 years in the military and will be getting a pension that would double all this passive income.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t think of anywhere else to put this information, but our net worth went down -5.98% last month. For the year, it is down -6.31%. Hopefully, tariffs will get figured out and things will go back to where they were.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n This year, I\u2019m going to aim for $75,000. I think earning income is generally going to head down for a while. That\u2019s okay; our passive income is going up, so we\u2019ll come out ahead.<\/p>\n Through March, I made around $16,126, which is a pace for just under $64,504. That\u2019s about where I expected to be after the vacation. I\u2019m not worried as the income earning engine is going well through April thus far.<\/p>\n Last year, I made a huge effort to get an estate plan together. I got it about 95% done. In March, I think we walked it over the finish line. I still have a \u201ci\u201d and \u201ct\u201d to dot, but we\u2019ve signed all the paperwork with the lawyer. I\u2019ll call this 99.9% done.<\/p>\n For the fourth year, I hope to get to 50,000 page views on Kid Wealth<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n At the end of March, we had 40,659 lifetime views. It\u2019s on target to get to 50,000 page views towards the end of the year.<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t written any articles for it this year. I simply haven\u2019t had any time with other interests. I\u2019ve always looked at it as a hobby with potential to be a business. However, with Lazy Man and Money turning from a business into a hobby it\u2019s hard to justify spending a lot of time on two money writing hobbies.<\/p>\n For now, I am creating a website and 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.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure if I\u2019ll make progress on this.<\/p>\nSetting Goals for 2025<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lazymanandmoney.com\/images\/posts\/2025\/04\/lazy-man-goal-progress-202503.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPassive Income<\/h2>\n
Dog, Blog, and Web Income<\/h3>\n
Rental Property Income<\/h3>\n
Dividend Income<\/h3>\n
Total Passive Income<\/h3>\n
Rentals: $2,196 \u2013 Adjusted by 20% to $1,757
Dividends: $4,586 \u2013 Remains at $4,586<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Rental \u2013 Red Line
Dividend \u2013 Yellow Line<\/p>\n<\/p>\nBusiness and Other Money Goals<\/h2>\n
Personal Income ($75,000)<\/h3>\n
Complete Estate Planning<\/h3>\n
Kid Wealth (Goal: 50,000 Page Views)<\/h3>\n
Professional Improvements<\/h3>\n
Health<\/h2>\n