Welcome to another monthly review of Lazy Man and Money. We\u2019re a third of the way through the year. These multiples of 12 make it easy to estimate your progress. The next major one is July 4th, which is about half-way through the year. It\u2019ll be here before you can blink, right?<\/p>\n
Personal Update<\/h2>\n
April was a weird month in that nothing seemed to stand out. We did do some interesting things, though:<\/p>\n
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- My wife and I went to an Adam Conover comedy show<\/a>. He\u2019s best known for his Adam Ruins which was one of my favorite shows. It\u2019s similar to John Oliver\u2019s tackling of one topic in depth. I covered how he explains that taxes could be done in five minutes here<\/a>, but the tax software lobby pays the politicians to continue to make it difficult for us to do taxes. Side thought: Remember when Trump promised we\u2019d pay taxes with a single postcard<\/a>. That would have been a good place for DOGE to focus on.\n
Anyway, Conover was doing a pivot from his usual stuff, so I didn\u2019t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
- We also went to see Colin Jost, who was doing a comedy routine with some other SNL cast members on a night off (they had a re-run). It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. Rumor has it that I was only there in hopes he brought his wife<\/a>. He only referenced her a couple of times \u2013 once to refer to her as a plumber. Another time, he mentioned that he couldn\u2019t use any material from their life because every man in the audience would groan.\n
I actually liked the opening comic more. She was just a writer for SNL. I didn\u2019t catch her name.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
- We continued to renovate the condo rental property. We are outsourcing most of it but doing a little ourselves.<\/li>\n
- I continued volunteer work for the local community commerce group I\u2019m vice president of and for the parent\u2019s association that I\u2019m the treasurer of. They were both much, much busier than usual.<\/li>\n
- My wife went on work travel at the end of the month, so I\u2019ve been on single-dad duty for ten days.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
My Goals for 2025<\/h2>\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 April.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lazymanandmoney.com\/images\/posts\/2025\/05\/lazy-man-goal-progress-202504.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n(Click it, and a bigger version 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
Passive Income<\/h2>\n
![\"Passive](\"https:\/\/www.lazymanandmoney.com\/images\/posts\/2019\/06\/PassiveIncomePyramid-300x240.jpg\")
My Passive Income Pyramid<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\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 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<\/b>.<\/p>\n
(I do some other hourly work that isn\u2019t passive income. That isn\u2019t included here as there is no passive component to it.)<\/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, Blog, and Web Income<\/h3>\n
Dog boarding income in April was hopping like the Easter bunny. Public schools have a vacation and when people travel, I make more money boarding their dog.<\/p>\n
Blog income continued to be terrible. At this point, I might make more working at McDonalds than typing up this report. Fortunately, I don\u2019t really need the money from blogging nowadays. I\u2019d remove the ads, but I want to keep the grandfathered partnership that I have with the advertising company I work with. In another era, they\u2019d probably just cancel our agreement, but blogging has been dying in general<\/a>.<\/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
Last month (when I was on vacation), I made $2,341.90 in income from these sources. This month, the total dog\/blog\/web income was $5,311.79. Go dogs!<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lazymanandmoney.com\/images\/posts\/2025\/05\/wrong-b-in-my-bed.jpg\")
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With my wife out of town, another b!@#h has taken her place in our bed.<\/small><\/p>\nRental Property Income<\/h3>\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
Two months ago one our of tenants broke the lease and moved out suddenly. We\u2019re renovating the property and it\u2019s almost done. We should be able to make around $800\/mo. more than what we were getting before. That will create a big (positive) change in this section.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lazymanandmoney.com\/images\/posts\/2025\/05\/kid-condo-renovation-rotated.jpg\")
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Sometimes you have to put the kid to work. Hey, if he\u2019s going to be an actor, he\u2019s going to have to learn a skill that can pay the bills, right?<\/small><\/p>\nFor 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 April, Zillow estimated our properties were worth about $7000 more than last month. As usual, we paid off about one thousand in mortgage principal. That meant that our EPO went from owning 82.65% of our properties to 83.02% 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 $2,206. That\u2019s up $10 from last month. This number moves slow and steady, but you can start to see where the $25,000 estimated income comes from ($2,206 * 12 months).<\/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
Dividend Income<\/h3>\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. It\u2019s a win if I can 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 the numbers in this report on the 5th of the month, so that rent checks have cleared and mortgages have been paid. In March, we could have made $4,586 in dividends. Since we take the numbers for March in early April, we saw a huge dip as the market had just been shocked by tariff announcement .<\/p>\n
In April, that rebounded to $4,982. We\u2019re still a little off our all-time highs, but it\u2019s not too bad. I am still using my tariff playbook<\/a> to be defensive when the tariffs come into full effect.<\/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
Total Passive Income<\/h3>\n
Dog\/Blogs: $5,312 \u2013 Adjusted by 50% to $2,656
Rentals: $2,206 \u2013 Adjusted by 20% to $1,765
Dividends: $4,982 \u2013 Remains at $4,982<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lazymanandmoney.com\/images\/posts\/2025\/05\/passive-income-streams-202504.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDogs\/Blogs Blue Line
Rental \u2013 Red Line
Dividend \u2013 Yellow Line<\/p>\nTotal Adjusted Passive Income: $9,402.70<\/b><\/p>\n
This number has been close to the norm for the last year. We have some dips, but it\u2019s not too much.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a graph of the adjusted passive income since 2017, when I started keeping track:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lazymanandmoney.com\/images\/posts\/2025\/05\/passive-income-streams-12month-202504.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe 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. April was a new all-time for the 12-month, with an average of $8,871.22 over the last 12 months. Less and less of this income is dependent on my quasi-passive income, like dogs\/blogs. That\u2019s important because this income will trend down as I get older.<\/p>\n
My goal for this passive-ish income is to reach $109,000 for the year. It\u2019s up to $34,557 and on pace for $103,672. With the busy dog boarding of the summer months, I might be close. If tariffs rock the market, I\u2019ll surely fall off.<\/p>\n
My wife continues to work as well. For how long, it is unclear. 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\u2019re keeping track of it precisely due to the unprecedented (in her career) caustic work environment in the government\/military.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t think of anywhere else to put this information, but our net worth rebounded with the markets. It was up 6.61% last month. For the year, it is down only -0.11%. So for all the back and forth with tariffs, we are still doing well enough.<\/p>\n
Business and Other Money Goals<\/h2>\n
Personal Income ($75,000)<\/h3>\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. That\u2019s okay; overall our passive income is going up, so everything is going as planned.<\/p>\n
This year, I\u2019m aiming to make $75,000.<\/p>\n
Through April, I made around $24,591. That\u2019s 1\/3 of the year, so I am a little below my target of $25,000. This one might be close, but I\u2019m optimistic.<\/p>\n
Complete Estate Planning<\/h3>\n
I got the estate planning documents from the lawyer back recently. Looks like everything is completely done. I\u2019m checking this one as complete. On one hand, we finished that off early this year. On the other hand, it\u2019s been on my to-do list for years.<\/p>\n
Kid Wealth (Goal: 50,000 Page Views)<\/h3>\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
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lazymanandmoney.com\/images\/posts\/2025\/05\/colin-jost-foxwoods.jpg\")
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These are the seats you get when you buy tickets at the last minute. Oh well, at least we were there.<\/small><\/p>\nAt the end of April, Kid Wealth had 41,884 lifetime views. It\u2019s getting around 1,500 views a month and 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. Since Lazy Man and Money has changed from a business into a hobby, it\u2019s hard to justify spending a lot of time on two hobbies about money. With that said, a parent at my kids\u2019 school saw the site and approached me about financial literacy for kids. We might collaborate on an after school club next (school) year.<\/p>\n
Professional Improvements<\/h3>\n
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\u2019m not optimistic about moving forward on this for the year.<\/p>\n
Health<\/h2>\n
I\u2019m putting a large emphasis on health these days. It\u2019s so big that I wrote a separate article about it. My health goals for 2025 are here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Weight and Body Fat (Goal: 164lbs \/ 19% BF)<\/h3>\n
At the end of April, my average weight was 174.9 pounds, which was a gain of 2.2 lbs from last month. My body fat was 23.4% which was a gain of 1.3%.<\/p>\n
That may look bad, but we were on vacation for the last two weeks of March. That included a cruise with all-you-can-eat food. I gained about 7 pounds, so April had a lot of those numbers in the average. By the end of the month, I was around 173 \u2013 close to the average before the cruise.<\/p>\n
The body fat percentage is disappointing. Usually, if I do a 5k race, it\u2019ll drop a lot for a while. The weather is getting better and I\u2019ll look to do that soon. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s reasonable to get it down to 19% as it says in my goal.<\/p>\n
Body and Brain Points (300 and 200 respectively)<\/h3>\n
I score myself from 1 (poor) to 5 (great) each week for diet and exercise. Then, I add them up for the month. April was a good month for diet. After eating a lot on the cruise in March, it was time to get to work on better eating. However, it wasn\u2019t a great month for exercise. It rained a lot, and it was hard to get out for walks.<\/p>\n
At the end of April, I had 87 points, which at almost 22 points a month is a pace of 264 points. That\u2019s not going to get me to my goal of 300.<\/p>\n
I measure brain points on the same scale. They are based on doing things like the daily Wordle and New York Times Connections.<\/p>\n
At the of April, I have 46 brain points. That\u2019s a pace for only 138 points for the year. I\u2019m low on this, but I feel like I\u2019m keeping my brain sharp with a lot of the other stuff I have going on.<\/p>\n
Blood Pressure (Goal: 115\/75)<\/h3>\n
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 started taking my blood pressure and graphing it for my primary care physician. My blood pressure in January averaged 138\/92. I\u2019m taking lisinopril 10mg, which was something like $3 for a 90-day supply. At first, the doctor gave me 5mg, and it wasn\u2019t doing enough.<\/p>\n
April was the first month that I took 10mg for the whole month. I took my blood pressure eighteen times, and it averaged out to 121\/80. This is close enough to the goal.<\/p>\n
Doctor Appointments<\/h3>\n
I didn\u2019t have any doctor appointments in April. I need to look into booking a Cologuard test soon.<\/p>\n
Longevity Research<\/h3>\n
I made no progress in getting a DexaFit scan scheduled. I couldn\u2019t fit it in before the vacation and I wanted to get back in the swing of health stuff after. Other than that, getting my blood pressure and colon test are more important right now.<\/p>\n
Hobbies<\/h2>\n
Boost AI Skills<\/b><\/p>\n
I want to get better at the following:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Google Notebook LM<\/li>\n
- Creating AI human video avatars<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Once again, no progress.<\/p>\n
3D Printing<\/b><\/p>\n
I had this on my list all last year as I have a 3D printer, but I haven\u2019t 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\u2019s still on the list.<\/p>\n
Journaling<\/b><\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Here are some other ideas of things I want to work on this year:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Learn to fly a flight simulator<\/li>\n
- Play a modern song on a ukulele<\/li>\n
- Rubik\u2019s Cube \u2013 I can solve it, but I am thinking about learning an advanced algorithm to do it faster. This is unlikely to happen<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
You may recognize the last two of these hobbies from my brain health goals for 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a big zero improvement in hobbies this month. The kids and I enjoyed rock climbing on the cruise, so maybe we\u2019ll add that to the mix.<\/p>\n
Family<\/h2>\n
Declutter and Organize House<\/b><\/p>\n
In April, I put in a solid effort to clean the garage and got about 15-20% done. That\u2019s not great, but it\u2019s noticeable. We had plans to get more done, but my wife had to reschedule some work travel, so it got moved to May.<\/p>\n
- We also went to see Colin Jost, who was doing a comedy routine with some other SNL cast members on a night off (they had a re-run). It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. Rumor has it that I was only there in hopes he brought his wife<\/a>. He only referenced her a couple of times \u2013 once to refer to her as a plumber. Another time, he mentioned that he couldn\u2019t use any material from their life because every man in the audience would groan.\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lazymanandmoney.com\/images\/posts\/2025\/05\/adam-conover-providence.jpg\")
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