I have published a passive income monthly update for more than seven years. For a decade, I’ve published regular life goals that I don’t update that often. This year, I’ve merged the two reports.
I hope it will ensure that I am accountable for my goals at least once a month. It should be much better than looking at them once a quarter and thinking, “WOW, I didn’t do any of these.” Now, I can say that twelve times a year! ?
All joking aside, putting goals in a spreadsheet and regularly updating it is very powerful. I’m incredibly proud of what I accomplished at the end of every year. Before I had this structure, the annual John Lennon lyrics, “So this is Christmas… And what have you done?” stung me to the core.
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 complete them. It’s much less overwhelming.
Passive Income
I have three side hustles with a passive component: a dog-sitting business, this blog, and managing a website for a non-profit. All three require some active work. However, I can get paid for all three even while working a full-time job. This past month, I haven’t blogged much at all, but I still make some money from it. I do some other hourly work that isn’t passive income. That isn’t included here.
In the past, I’ve written a whole monthly article on this passive income. I’ve decided to cut out much of the fluff and give you the numbers. If this area of passive income seems off or confusing, perhaps the last full article will make more sense.
Dog, Blog, and Web Income
In March, the dog boarding business was terrible. We went on a two-week vacation on a Royal Caribbean ship and then spent a week at Disney World in Orlando. Hopefully, I will get to publish my review of that soon. I can’t board dogs while traveling, so I had to turn away a lot of potential business.
I didn’t blog very much either, but at least that income stayed mostly the same.
The non-profit website I manage doesn’t pay much, but I love being part of the organization. I hope to add more website work in 2024. March’s dog, blog, and website income was $2,370.00.
The previous month, it was $5,390.73.
Wow, I was down over $3,000! That seems like a lot. On the other hand, the income of $2,370 while being on vacation much of the time is pretty good.
Because this dog, blog, and website income requires some work, I only count half of it as passive income. More on that later.
Rental Property Income
We have two rental properties. They still have mortgages, so the rental income isn’t much more than breaking even. We’re almost done with the mortgages, though, and then they’ll make much more money (around $25,000 a year).
For the purpose of this report, I calculate their income using the following formula:
(Rents After Estimated Expenses) * (Equity Percentage Owned) = Passive Income
Estimated expenses are insurance, property taxes, condo fees, and estimated condo maintenance. Equity Percentage Owned (EPO) is our total equity divided by the property value in Zillow. (Zillow is very accurate for our condos.)
Zillow thought our properties were worth nearly $20,000 dollars more than the previous month. We also paid off about a thousand dollars of mortgages as we do every month. They both help our EPO.
The rents after expenses are $2,218/mo. In March, we owned 80.66% of the properties. It’s nice to get down to the last 20%. Using the equation above, this would be $1,789 in income.
Last month, it was $1,772. The gain of $17 may not seem like a lot, but it is a significant movement for this area.
Managing rental properties requires some work – a few days a year. For this reason, I only count 80% of this number as passive income.
Dividend Income
My wife and I have been nearly maxing out our retirement accounts for a couple of decades. With investment growth, we’ve got a nice nest egg.
I don’t track the exact dividends from all the accounts. That’s a lot of work. Instead, I assume we could invest the money into an ETF that conservatively pays a 2.5% dividend. One ETF, HDV, is paying around 3.80% right now, so that’s conservative.
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.
When I took these numbers on April 5th, the markets were on fire. It’s since cooled off some, but that’s not going to be reflected here. Our dividend income is at an all-time high. For March, it was $4,627.
Last month, it was $4,538. That’s the second consecutive month of $90 of growth. We rarely see the numbers go up that much, but it seems to have done it every month this year.
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: $2,370 – Adjusted to $1,185
Rentals: $1,772 – Adjusted to $1,431.20
Dividends: $4,627 – Remains at $4,627
Dogs/Blogs Blue Line
Rental – Red Line
Dividend – Yellow Line
Total Adjusted Passive Income: $7,243.20
Last month, we were at $8,650.97. Going on vacation messed up the dog boarding numbers, but rentals and dividends are still winning the day. It’s the second month in a row that those reached an all-time high. We finally passed $6,000/mo total. I like to keep track of this number because I realize that some readers don’t consider the dogs/blogs passive income at all. So there you have it.
Here’s a graph of the numbers since 2017, when I started keeping track:
(The blue line represents the monthly total adjusted passive income. The Red Line represents the 12-month average. This helps remove some of the seasonality of dog boarding.)
My wife continues to work as well. She now has 25 years in the military and will be getting a pension that may double all this passive income. Maybe she’ll retire soon and I can add that.
I can’t think of anywhere else to put this information, but our net worth grew 2.11% last month to another all-time high. It’s up 6.11% for the year. Our liquid cash is down to only 3.34% of our net worth. We’ve been spending money on vacations and a new car. Also, because our net worth is going up, that ratio is going to be lower. Fortunately, I think we have a couple of months to make that go up. Our Debt/NW ratio is 6.52%, which is very good. Seven years ago, it was over 50%. That’s the power of 15-year mortgages.
Business and Other Money Goals
Personal Income ($85,000)
Two years ago, I made over $98,000 in side hustles. Last year, I made $88,000. I’ve recently cut back on dog boarding a bit, so I’m aiming for $85,000 this year. Through March, I made about $20,968, and I’m on a $82,792 pace. I’ll have to do some hustling. Usually, the summer months pick up for dog boarding. Also, with April mostly in the books, I can say that things are going well so far.
Complete Estate Planning
I need to do some serious estate planning… the kind that involves lawyers and financial/tax advisers.
Last year, I read More Than Enough by Mike Piper and contacted him about estate planning. I met with him earlier this year, and we decided that there aren’t any events to plan for right now. We also decided it was much more important to get the estate planning done with a lawyer.
Last week, we met with the estate lawyer and made great progress. He gave me a list of around ten questions to work on. I’d say that I’m about 75% done with this task.
Kid Wealth (Goal: 50,000 Page Views)
For the third year, I hope to get 50,000 page views on Kid Wealth.
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. There’s not much growth from there because I don’t feel like blogging much nowadays.
I’m up to 20,920 page views all the time. This goal is not going well.
I don’t have any money goals for it right now, but I’d love it if I had a few people support it on Patreon with $1/month.
Professional Improvements
I’m looking for more website work, so I need to set up my website to show off what I can do. I also need to update my LinkedIn profile. I haven’t updated it since about 2006. It will be fun explaining a nearly 20-year gap while I’ve been blogging and dog boarding
So far, I’ve made no progress on this.
Health
I’m putting a lot of focus on health this year. As you can tell from the above, our financial situation is good. Now, we just have to be healthy enough to enjoy a few decades of spending it.
Lose Weight and Body Fat (Goal: 175lbs, 22.5% body fat)
I started January 1st at 192.5 pounds. That’s four pounds over my average (188.5) for last year. Most of that holiday weight, so I knew it would be easy to lose. In early March, my weekly average is 182.6.
However, with the vacation, my weight went up to 184.5. I was actually surprised it didn’t go up higher. It was so easy to eat on the Royal Caribbean cruise. I was saved by walking Disney World for 13 miles a day. I also didn’t weigh myself while I was on the trip, so there was a big gap in the middle of it.
Health Points (Goal: 350)
This year, I’m tracking my health by giving myself a score at the end of the week for diet and exercise. The top score in each is five points.
When I give myself a five, I am saying that I generally had the reasonably best week possible. I can only have a couple of off meals a week and still get a five. The rest of the time, I have to eat with a purpose, such as half fruits and vegetables or half plant protein. If I go out to restaurants a lot, then my score is going to get close to one. For the week of the cruise, I gave myself a one.
For exercise, I’d have to put in a very solid effort every day to get a five. Most of the time, I’ve gotten scores of ones, because I’ve rare set aside time for extra exercise. With all the walking around Disney World, I was getting in 25,000 each day, so I gave myself a 5. Reasonably, I wouldn’t be doing too much more than than.
With 52 weeks, I can earn a maximum of 260 health points each for diet and exercise.
With vacation, I didn’t pay much attention to health outside of the activities themselves. I have only gotten to 68 points this year. That’s a pace for 272 points, which won’t get me to my goal.
Maybe I set my goal too high, or maybe I just need to exercise more.
These two systems are really working well for me. The Fitbit daily weigh-in in the morning gets me motivated to stay on track. The weekly health point scoring helps me see trends without making me manually log each day. Normally, by this time of year, a two-week vacation would derail all progress, and I’d be back at the start of next year.
Health Appointments
I am looking to do several health appointments this year.
Earlier this year, I completed a lot of dental work. Now, I just have normal cleanings for the rest of the year.
I also had an ADHD appointment scheduled with my general practitioner. I did an assessment at ADHD Online because managing insurance and booking local testers is insanely difficult. She prescribed me a very low dosage of Adderall. It’s been very helpful.
Telehealth should be the wave of the future.
Finally, I had body scans from DexaFit after watching “You Are What You Eat” on Netflix. I’m also got a VO2 max test for cardio fitness and an RMR metabolic analysis. It seems like I have some work to do on my body. I didn’t score nearly as well as I wanted to. This is the kind of thing that I would try again in maybe 6 months if I feel like I’ve made significant improvements. Maybe I’ll schedule again in September or October.
Hobbies
All month, I’ve been writing down little things that I’d like to learn how to do. Some of these are productive hobbies that may bring in an income at some point.
I almost never get the time to do any of these things. Below are just some of the ideas:
- Learn AI
I want to become really good at being a “prompt engineer,” with a stretch goal of getting paid to be one. You might see some AI artwork here.
I’ve playing around with ChatGPT a little bit. I even went to an AI talk about a week ago, but that should count under April’s update.
- Canva
My kids use Canva at school, and they are better than I am. That’s just sad.
I have a job opportunity coming up that lists the skill. I’ve got a little more motivation to learn now.
- 3D Printing
We got a 3D printer for Christmas. It was still in the box for a while. It’s out of the box and set up a bit, but I haven’t learned how to feed the filament yet.
- Rubik’s Cube
Last year, my 10-year-old mastered the Rubik’s Cube. He’s not a full-speed cuber, but he can solve it in about 90 seconds.
I can do it, but I need to have the algorithm in front of me. The goal is to do it without needing the algorithm. I didn’t get anywhere with this one.
- WordPress Blog as a Journal?
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.
- Program in Python
I want to make a toy program to get my old software engineering skills going again.
- Learn to fly a flight simulator
- Learn to play Backgammon
- Play a modern song on an ukulele
Hopefully, with enough of these options, I’ll find a few that stick.
Family
Declutter and Organize House
Every year, we have some home improvement goals on the list. Last year, we got new carpets and interior paint.
This year, we are looking to declutter and organize the whole house. In January, I did one junk drawer that had stuff like a Burger King coupon that expired in 2015. I did a couple of clothing drawers, too. It’s been slow as my wife has been traveling for a couple of weeks.
We had one incredible day of cleaning in February. It may not seem like much, but we had our cleaning service help, and we had so many bags of trash. We also hired a friend who is an interior designer to be our enforcer on this. My wife doesn’t need the enforcement, but I certainly do.
In March, I discovered that my wife and I were having a battle over the bedroom shades. When she gets changed, she closes them all but never reopens them. Then I come in and feel like the room is a cave, but I go about whatever I was there to do without reopening them. So we’re getting automatic shades. I want to be able to use Alexa/Google/Siri to close and open them. It probably seems silly, but I feel we’d use them 5 or 6 times a day.
The interior designer mentioned above also came through with some mood boards which I learned is an interior design term. They show you how furniture could go for some rooms. The concepts she chose are excellent! We’re going to have to work on each room in stages to keep it within our budget. Also, we’re going to have to declutter more to be able to fit our stuff into the pieces.
Travel
I think I have talked enough about our big March trip already.
In June, we’re booked on our annual trip to Block Island.
In December, we’ve reserved our timeshare for Aruba, but we may switch it up and go somewhere else.
The big change this year is that we don’t have a big August destination trip planned. We’re fairly sure that we’ll spend a week in New York City. The kids have been several times, and it’s always fun. It’s always been just for a couple of days as we pass through. We can obviously do a lot more with a week there. My wife can save money with military hotels and actually work out of the NY office to save on vacation days (if she chooses or needs to).
Kids
Every year, I always had a grand plan for the kids. Maybe we’d work on a YouTube channel or specific sports. This year, I don’t have a lot planned. They’ll do most of what they’ve done in the past.
I’ve set up most of their camps. They’ve got the same theater and sailing camps that they’ve loved in the past. It’s a double dose of them this year. Our oldest is trying overnight camp with the Boy Scouts. I might need to stay with him for a day or two. The information on that hasn’t been clear. I’m calling the New York travel that I mentioned before “NY Adventure” camp. Hey, they’ll learn a lot in the real world, right? For another week in August, we’re going to do a staycation camp. That’s going to be mostly beach days – a benefit of living 5 minutes from the beach.
Sports will include karate, Lego Robotics, scouting, and track team. I think the oldest should get his black belt towards the end of the year.
I’m still trying to get them some kind of in-person coding class, but it isn’t going well. There aren’t a lot of resources where we live. I’ve tried with their school and a local place that does some kids’ coding at schools. I’m striking out everywhere.
Final Thoughts
I was very satisfied with March. The money goals did well enough, and we added a lot of life experience during the vacations. The only downside is that I feel like I fell behind on a lot of other stuff, such as this website.
The decluttering is going well, but it seems like there’s always more to do. I spend so much time doing dishes, laundry, cooking, and grocery shopping that I barely have the energy to flip through a magazine at the end of the day.
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