{"id":82368,"date":"2025-02-11T17:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T17:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/finance\/my-passive-income-and-life-goals-for-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-02-11T17:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T17:56:09","slug":"my-passive-income-and-life-goals-for-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=82368","title":{"rendered":"My Passive Income and Life Goals for 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Every month, I write an article showing my passive income and life goal growth. Since this if the first article of the year, it\u2019s my first change to state those goals while giving my progress for January.<\/p>\n

January was a difficult month in the Lazy Man household. If you\u2019ve caught the news over the last few weeks, there\u2019s A LOT<\/b> going on in the government. With my wife being a military pharmacist, there\u2019s been drama almost every day.<\/p>\n

With all that\u2019s going on, I decided not to \u201cnag\u201d her for the totals from her bank and retirement accounts. In the past, I\u2019ve been able to estimate her numbers using the general market growth. It\u2019ll have to be good enough for this month.<\/p>\n

Typically, this personal update would have a recap of all the awesome stuff our family did. This article is already huge, so we\u2019ll skip it.<\/p>\n

Setting Goals for 2025<\/h2>\n

I put all my goals in a spreadsheet that I stole<\/strike> borrowed from Retire By 40<\/a>. Here\u2019s what it looks like for this year. I\u2019ll explain what each one is in this article and give the results for January.<\/p>\n

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(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.<\/p>\n

Passive Income<\/h2>\n
\"Passive
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 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\u2019m cutting out the fluff to give you the numbers. 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

Because this is the first article of the year, I need to come up with a goal for the year\u2019s earnings in this area. Dog sitting has been very steady over the last few years. The biggest variable is how much we travel we do. I can\u2019t board dogs while I am away. Blog income has shrunk to almost nothing.<\/a> I have a similar article to the one outlined for this year. 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

My goal for the year is to make $25,000 in passive income. That\u2019s $50,000 in real income from these sources. Last year, I made $28,368 in passive income. I\u2019m reducing my goal to reflect the dying blogging business.<\/p>\n

January\u2019s Dog\/blog\/web Real Income: $3,268.40<\/p>\n

January can be a slow month for dog boarding. People got all their travel out in December. Some are saving their vacation days for February school vacations. January just has the long weekend for Martin Luther King, Jr. This is very much on par with what I\u2019d expect.<\/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 $25,000 a year.<\/p>\n

For the purpose of this report, I calculate their 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 estimated 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

The goal for the year is for this number to be $21,000. Last year, we finished with $19,006. This number usually doesn\u2019t go up very fast. Typically, the only two ways it can increase substantially is if the rents\/estimated change or if the market jumps and Zillow estimates our properties as worth more money.<\/p>\n

In January, Zillow estimated our properties were worth a couple thousand more dollars. We paid off another thousand in mortgage principal. That meant that our EPO went from owning 82.00% of our properties to 82.23% of the properties. The rents after expenses are $2,218\/month. Using the equation above, our income from this area would be $2,185.<\/p>\n

Managing rental properties requires some work \u2013 a few days a year. 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. 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. I just assume we could invest the money into an ETF that pays a 2.5% dividend. For example, HDV currently yields 3.7%<\/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

Last year, we made an estimated $57,304 in dividends. I\u2019m setting a goal for $63,000 this year. It\u2019s trending towards $65,000, but I think the markets are expensive, and there could be a significant crash.<\/p>\n

The markets have been doing very well. There have been a couple of short-term hiccups due to DeepSeek and tariffs, but those blips have faded away.<\/p>\n

In December, we made an estimated $5,045 in dividends. In January, that jumped to $5,146. That\u2019s some solid growth. I can\u2019t do too much to control this area other than stick to my asset allocation. Time\u2019s arrow marches forward.<\/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: $3,100.58 \u2013 Adjusted to $1,550.29
Rentals: $2,185 \u2013 Adjusted to $1,748.00
Dividends: $5,146 \u2013 Remains at $5,146<\/p>\n

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Dogs\/Blogs Blue Line
Rental \u2013 Red Line
Dividend \u2013 Yellow Line<\/p>\n

Total Adjusted Passive Income: $8,444.29<\/b><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a graph of the adjusted passive income since 2017, when I started keeping track:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/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. However, it hasn\u2019t grown much in the last couple of years. That\u2019s because I\u2019ve done less dog boarding, and my blog income has gone down. Fortunately, real estate and stocks continue to appreciate to balance it out.<\/p>\n

My wife continues to work as well. She has 26 years in the military and will be getting a pension that may double all this passive income. I also earn some income that falls outside of the areas listed above. It\u2019s not passive, so I don\u2019t mention it here.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t think of anywhere else to put this information, but our net worth grew 1.11% last month. We are just a little behind our all-time high set a couple of months ago.<\/p>\n

Business and Other Money Goals<\/h2>\n

Personal Income ($80,000)<\/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.<\/p>\n

I see a trend.<\/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

In January, I made around $5,000, and I\u2019m on a $60,000 pace. That\u2019s not going to cut it for getting me to $75,000, but January is typically one of my worst months. It is early in February, but it is looking like I\u2019ll gain ground on the quest for $75,000.<\/p>\n

Complete Estate Planning<\/h3>\n

Last year, I made a huge effort to get an estate plan together. I got it about 95% done. In January, we sent the check to the lawyer to draw it up. This should be very easy to do this year.<\/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. We\u2019re on target to get to 50,000 page views towards the end of the year.<\/p>\n

At some point, it would be great if it made some money. I\u2019m not sure how to monetize it. Perhaps it is better if I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Professional Improvements<\/h3>\n

I feel like I need to seek out some new income opportunities. I should put some of my tech skills to use. They are too rusty for the general job market, but I might be able to use them for other projects.<\/p>\n

One concrete goal would be to get a website showing off a portfolio of what I\u2019ve done in the past.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be the first to admit that this goal is not well-defined at all.<\/p>\n

Health<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m putting such a huge emphasis on health these days 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

For January, my average weight was 173.8lbs, and my body fat was 22.2%. My average for all of last year was 181.1 and 23.8%. I\u2019m loving the progress. Semaglutide seems to be the miracle that counter-attacks the evils of the modern food and work environment.<\/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. I then add them up for the month. I got 26 points for January, which puts me on pace for around 300 points. Most of the points came from diet. I wasn\u2019t motivated to exercise because it was so cold.<\/p>\n

I measure brain points on the same scale. They are based on doing the exercises that I gave you at the top of the Health section. For January, I averaged 15 brain points. I need to do a little more, or I will fall shy of 200.<\/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 for the month averaged 138\/92. My doctor saw the results and decided to put me on lisinopril 5mg.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also started to eat a banana a day. I asked ChatGPT for some tips on how the potassium in bananas may help. It\u2019s low-lying fruit \u2013 LOL.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see how blood pressure goes in the next update.<\/p>\n

Doctor Appointments<\/h3>\n

I had a teeth cleaning with the dentist at the end of January. The dentist shamed me for not flossing enough. (No matter how much health stuff you try to do, there is always more!) I told him that I didn\u2019t know anyone who flosses at all, and he responded that he did. So, in case you didn\u2019t know, dentists floss. Do you floss? Let me know in the comments.<\/p>\n

It upset me and I couldn\u2019t sleep, so I bought this water flosser<\/a> (affiliate link) from Amazon at 2 AM. It was delivered at 6:15 AM. I was stunned. The water flosser is so much easier to use than regular floss and makes it much less of a chore. Let\u2019s see how it goes.<\/p>\n

I also had the aforementioned doctor\u2019s appointment for my physical.<\/p>\n

Longevity Research<\/h3>\n

I watched Bryan Johnson\u2019s Don\u2019t Die on Netflix. He\u2019s super crazy about longevity. It looks like every minute of every day is spent on it. I\u2019ll look for whatever is easy and makes sense. I\u2019m not going to go too crazy.<\/p>\n

Also, I\u2019m a few months older than Bryan Johnson, but I think I look a good deal younger. He\u2019s got me beat in every other health category, though.<\/p>\n

Hobbies<\/h2>\n

Boost AI Skills<\/b><\/p>\n

Last year, I wrote that I wanted to become a very good prompt engineer. However, AI got so good that I didn\u2019t feel it became a truly useful skill for me to learn. Instead, I decided to learn how to use different AI tools effectively. I have a ChatGPT Pro account and an Anthropic Claude Pro account. In hindsight, I don\u2019t know if I needed to pay for both. I probably could just use ChatGPT. I also started to use Google Notebook LM, but I barely scratched the surface.<\/p>\n

I want to explore creating AI human video avatars and other things like that. I\u2019ll write more about this a little later this year.
I also want to explore coding using AI. It seems that\u2019s the future, and it can help me refresh my rusty coding skills.<\/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.<\/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.<\/p>\n

Other ideas:<\/p>\n