Welcome to another monthly review of Lazy Man and Money. We\u2019re into the second trimester of the year and almost halfway through.<\/p>\n
Personal Update<\/h2>\n
May was, as they say, \u201cA Month.\u201d I feel like I aged 3 years in a single month.<\/p>\n
- \n
- My wife was on work travel for the first ten days of the month. It\u2019s been quite a while since I had the kids myself. They are into so many activities outside of school that I felt like I was just driving around everywhere all the time.<\/li>\n
- She got back in time for a Mother\u2019s Day brunch I planned. My mother, my mother-in-law, and my wife had a good meal and talked so long that it annoyed the kids to no end. Good, they needed time away from their screens anyway.<\/li>\n
- My wife then went \u201cback to the office\u201d, which is in Boston. We moved to Rhode Island 12 years ago because she was a military worker who had been granted 60% work from home. Now the current administration has changed everything to 0% work from home. It\u2019s a big mess because one of the core strengths of the department was that they were scattered around New England and could represent individual states. Now almost everyone has to commute a couple of hours to Boston every day. I have a LOT more thoughts on this, but I\u2019ll keep them to myself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I\u2019m only sharing a couple of pictures this month and doing very limited proofreading\/editing because this article should have gotten out days ago.<\/p>\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\/06\/lazy-man-goal-progress-202505.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 May was very good. It was shoulder season in Newport, Rhode Island. The tourists started to come in to enjoy the weather and the beaches. I think our population more than doubles in the summer. We\u2019re a very dog friendly resort area and those dogs mean more business.<\/p>\n
Blog income continued to be terrible. I would make a lot money working at McDonalds than typing up this report. Blogging has become a very low priority for me. In a lot of ways, blogging is like Joan Jett playing her hits from the 80s. Unfortunately, I don\u2019t have the hits she does. Rock and roll died years ago and blogging is right there with it.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lazymanandmoney.com\/images\/posts\/2025\/06\/kid-dog-sleep-1024x784.jpg\")
Some quality dog care from my youngest son.<\/small><\/p>\nFinally, 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, I made $4,834.44 in income from these sources. Schools were out for April vacation and that associated travel was great for dog boarding. This month, the total dog\/blog\/web income was $4,293.60. Even though it is down from April, that\u2019s still better than average.<\/p>\n
Rental 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 $30,000 a year after all expected expenses including maintenance.<\/p>\n
Three months ago, one our of tenants broke the lease and moved out suddenly. There was a health issue and while they didn\u2019t handle things great, we left them to work out that problem. They had enough going on. We\u2019ve been renovating the property and it\u2019s almost done. I also wrote that it was almost done last month. Ugh.<\/p>\n
On the bright side, we connected with someone from Facebook who was looking and showed the place \u2013 mess and all. He didn\u2019t bat an eye when we gave a price quote of $1000\/mo. more than what we were getting before. He was looking at other places and we didn\u2019t hear back. It was a long shot considering the place was so far from ready. If we get $1000\/mo. more, I\u2019ll be able to show a huge (positive) change in this section.<\/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 May, Zillow estimated our properties were worth about $4000 more than last month. As usual, we paid off about one thousand in mortgage principal. That meant that our EPO went from owning 83.02% of our properties to 83.31% of the properties. The rents (when they were both occupied) after expenses are $2,657\/month. Using the equation above, our income from this area would be $2,213. That\u2019s up $7 from last month. This number moves slow and steady. If I used the rent that I expect we\u2019ll get soon the number will be $2,820.<\/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 easily invest the money into an ETF that pays a 2.5% dividend. For example, HDV currently yields 3.36%.<\/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
In April, most of the stock markets rebounded so we would have had $4,982 in dividends. In May, the markets continued to rebound. We would have had $5,135 as of June 5th. (I always wait until the 5th of the month to compile the numbers, so that rent and mortgage checks can clear.)<\/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: $4,293 \u2013 Adjusted by 50% to $2,147
Rentals: $2,213 \u2013 Adjusted by 20% to $1,770
Dividends: $5,135 \u2013 Remains at $5,135<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lazymanandmoney.com\/images\/posts\/2025\/06\/passive-income-streams-202505-1024x463.png\")
<\/p>\nDogs\/Blogs Blue Line
Rental \u2013 Red Line
Dividend \u2013 Yellow Line<\/p>\nTotal Adjusted Passive Income: $9,052<\/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 of it:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lazymanandmoney.com\/images\/posts\/2025\/06\/passive-income-streams-12month-202505-1024x469.png\")
<\/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. We\u2019re close to all-time highs for the 12-month average. 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. The traditional passive income of rental and dividend income was $3 shy of it\u2019s all-time high \u2013 essentially a round-off error.<\/p>\n
My goal for this passive-ish income is to reach $109,000 for the year. It\u2019s up to $43,609 and on pace for $104,662. With the busy dog boarding of the summer months, I might be close. I\u2019ll need the markets to stay close to the highs that they are at now.<\/p>\n
My wife continues to work as well. For how long, it is unclear \u2013 especially with the commute that I mentioned before. 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 3.19% last month. For the year, it is up 3.08%. I\u2019ll take it with all the back and forth of tariffs.<\/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 May, I made around $30,581. I\u2019m on a pace of making around $73,400. With more summer months for dog boarding, I think I\u2019ve got a great shot at this.<\/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
At the end of May, Kid Wealth had 43,238 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 writing hobbies about money.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lazymanandmoney.com\/images\/posts\/2025\/06\/baby-bunny-577x1024.jpg\")
Despite the dog boarding, a bunny thought it would be a good idea to give birth to a bunch of baby bunnies in our yard. I relocated them outside our fence and they were gone a few hours later. I like to think they survived.<\/small><\/p>\nProfessional 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 May, my average weight was 173 pounds, which was a loss of 1.9 lbs from last month. My body fat was 23% which was a loss of 0.4%. These are averages over a whole month using my Fitbit Aria scale.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m slowly getting back to the weight I was before our cruise at the end of March. Because it\u2019s an average, my weight is now less than that average.<\/p>\n
I think I have a decent chance of getting to the goal, but the body fat percentage isn\u2019t looking great.<\/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. May was a decent month for diet. While I\u2019m on generic Ozempic<\/a>, I don\u2019t eat as much. There are a lot of positives to this, but one negative is that it\u2019s easy for me to have bowl of ice cream or other treat. May was busy with my wife\u2019s work situation, so I didn\u2019t get as much planned exercise in. I felt like I was always moving though.<\/p>\n
At the end of April, I had 107 body points, which at almost 22 points a month is a pace of 256 points. That\u2019s not going to get me to my goal of 300. I might have to make changes.<\/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. I also do Duolingo, but I\u2019ve been taking the easy way out and doing math instead of Japanese.<\/p>\n
At the end of May, I have 56 brain points. That\u2019s a pace for only 134 points for the year. I guess if I were a lot less busy, I could take more time to \u201cgrow\u201d my brain muscles.<\/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 also had one at the end of the month. Fortunately, my wife is a pharmacist and she\u2019s coming to my doctor appointments now. It might be orthostatic hypotension and I\u2019m reading that it can from low blood sugar could be a cause. That might make sense with the semaglutide that I\u2019m taking.<\/p>\n
In any event, this year I started taking my blood pressure and graphing it. My blood pressure in January averaged 138\/92 which was high. I\u2019m taking lisinopril 10mg, which was something like $3 for a 90-day supply. Wouldn\u2019t be great if all medicine was that cheap?<\/p>\n
May was the second month that I took 10mg for the whole month. I took my blood pressure twenty times, and it averaged out to 121\/80. That\u2019s exactly the the same average as the April. So I\u2019m meeting my goal for this which is good, but there\u2019s still more work to do if I\u2019m still getting these dizzy spells a few times a month.<\/p>\n
Doctor Appointments<\/h3>\n
I had a doctor appointment related to the scare I had at the end of the month. I also had a dentist appointment for a routine cleaning. The hygienist said that the WaterPik seems to be working<\/a>. (Note: that\u2019s an affliate link and I may make a small commission if you decide to click it an buy it.)<\/p>\n
I need to look into booking a Cologuard test soon.<\/p>\n
Longevity Research<\/h3>\n
Another month and I made no progress in getting a DexaFit scan scheduled. My blood pressure was more of an issue lately.<\/p>\n
I did spend a little time researching some skin creams. I may write an article about it, because I thought the process was interesting. However, there\u2019s not a lot of personal finance in the story. We\u2019ll see how it goes.<\/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
I didn\u2019t work on either this month. However, I did work a little bit on making a custom ChatGPT of my Lazy Man writing style. Don\u2019t worry yet, it\u2019s not close to being good enough to automate the writing on this blog. I may use it to outline some ideas though.<\/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
(Note: The above is what I said last month\u2026 and it\u2019s still accurate this month.)<\/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. I did put a book of writing prompts on my Father\u2019s Day wish list<\/a>. That could serve the some of the same purposes.<\/p>\n
Here are some other ideas of things I want to work on this year:<\/p>\n