The Retirement Newsletter: Happy New Year 2025
Issue Number: 187 (40) — Looking back at 2024
Welcome
Welcome to Issue 187 (40) — Happy New Year 2025.
And, it’s time to look back at 2024 — how did it go? How did I get on with my 2024 New Year Resolutions and Predictions?
My 2024 Predictions
So, how did I do? Let’s have a look at the predictions. (Link to the original newsletter — Issue Number: -6 — What will 2024 bring)
The Good Predictions for 2024
A pan-specific COVID-19 jab — Sadly, this didn’t happen. One day. Hopefully.
AI will make our lives easier — yes and no. I use AI much more than I expected, and it has made some tasks easier. However, I haven’t seen it having much impact (so far) outside a few specific uses.
So my score on the good predictions is one out of two.
The Bad Predictions for 2024
A new ’super-variant’ of COVID-19 will emerge — I am delighted to say I appear to have this one wrong. However, bird flu is now a concern.
I have a horrible feeling that we will experience what the financial people call “a correction” — this sort of happened. I saw a dip in my stock savings, but it wasn’t too bad and over the year, my savings came out ahead. But it looks like there will be a recession in the UK in 2025.
There will be a recession — I might have been a year out on this one!
The war in Ukraine will continue — sadly, this is still true.
The war between Israel and Gaza will spread — and it did.
AI will have an unexpected harmful impact — I am unaware of anything. Are you? Please let me know in the comments.
Out of my six bad predictions, I got two right, so I view that as a win, as four bad things didn’t happen.
Overall, my prediction success rate was awful. But I am pleased I got four of the six bad predictions wrong. Out of eight predictions, I only got three correct, but four that I got wrong; it was good that I got them wrong.
New Year Resolutions 2024
So, what were my New Year’s Resolutions for 2024 and did I stick and/or complete them? (You can see the original list in Issue Number: -6 — What will 2024 bring.)
The first four have been standards for the last 30 years:
Lose some weight—Tick, done… For the first time in many, many years, I have met this resolution and lost weight. I have lost just over 18 kg, which is nearly 40 lb, or, put another way, 2 st. 12 lb. I am delighted with this. I have dropped my Body Mass Index (BMI) from 31.4 to 26, so I still have a little way to reach 25, but I will get there.
Get fitter — This has been done as part of my weight loss efforts.
Work fewer hours — Another ‘tick done’ as I have retired. However, like most retirees, I feel busier than ever!
Declutter the house — Another one done. I still have a lot of decluttering to do, but I am getting there.
Keep working on my pension plan — This has been completed. I am now retired. Planning is still ongoing, but not in the way I used to as it is now more about maintenance of my finances and not building savings.
Keep The Retirement Newsletter running — tick done. You are reading it.
Launch a paid version of The Retirement Newsletter — I launched a paid newsletter — Retirement Hustle Newsletter — and I can only describe it as a flop. There are no paid subscribers. Interestingly, I also launched another free newsletter — Nick’s Wanderings — and the other day, I received a pledge of money if I launched a paid version.
Sort out my subscriptions — this I did, but it needs to be done again.
Get my YouTube channel sorted out and reach 1,000 subscribers — another completion. The channel now has over 1,000 subscribers but is still far short of the 4,000 watch hours required for monetisation. I launched a new YouTube Channel — Nick’s Wanderings. The Channel has over 1,000 subscribers and more than 4,000 watch hours in the year. Success!! I have a monetised YouTube channel.
Start bringing in some money from side-hustles — If you have followed my Retirement Hustle Newsletter, you will know that I have spent a lot of time and money on my side hustles. So far, I have not brought in much money (about $15 over the year) and have spent a lot. But, I am now waiting for my first YouTube payout, and if I assume that I will get somewhere near the forecast amount (YouTube gives an estimate), I will have brought in some money this year from my side hustles. Hence, I am going to say this is another win.
Out of ten resolutions, I think I have hit ten. I can’t ever recall doing so well in resolutions. The pressure is now on to do well with my 2025 resolutions.
How did your year go? Please let me know in the comments.
This week in the Retirement Hustle
There was no Retirement Hustle Newsletter this week as it was taking a Christmas break.
The Retirement Side Hustle Newsletter is subscription-based. However, each video comes with a free minute or so to confirm the content, and if you subscribe for free, you get full access to one edition.
Nick’s Wanderings — The Grey Wagtail
This week, day four of my planned three-day cruise to move the Grey Wagtail from where I bought it to its winter mooring. So, how did it go?
Useful Christmas and New Year Health Links
OK, so this week, here are some links that might be useful over the festive break.
To help you avoid poisoning yourself and your guests with a poorly cooked turkey:
And, if you do become ill with food poisoning, COVID-19 or the flu, you may find these health-related websites helpful:
NHS COVID-19 website — numerous links to information on COVID-19
CDC COVID-19 website — many links to information on COVID-19
NHS — Guidance for People with symptoms of a respiratory infection, including COVID-19
Next week
Next week, in issue 188 (41), I will share my predictions for 2025 and set my New Year’s Resolutions for the year. What will be on the lists?
Thanks
Thanks for taking the time to read this newsletter, and please don't hesitate to share it with your friends or on social media using the buttons below.
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Until next time,
Nick
PS: If you would like to contribute something to the newsletter — a story, advice, or anything else — please get in touch.
This year I retired and it is fabulous, I've so many projects for 2025, probably haven't felt so excited and positive since...god knows when.
Alas, AI has had a significant negative effect on the writing and artistic world. AI-generated books swarm Amazon. Artists I know have taken major hits to their income, and Facebook is full of AI-generated dreck to the degree that it's almost impossible to avoid it. My friends and I have had books and stories stolen to train AI, without even the slightest bit of compensation, and in the cases where compensation is offered, it's pathetically awful ($2500 from one major publisher offered to allow unpublished manuscripts submitted to them to be used for training). Editors are being put out of work because AI is being used--poorly--to do editing work (to me, an AI-edited work stands out because of certain phrasings, incorrect usage, and overall voice. But I've done enough editing work to see the difference).
I don't advise anyone to take up a technical writing career right now, either, because AI is taking over that world. And there's a certain amount of incursion into code. It is displacing voice narrators, and the information that came out from the writers and actors strike in media regarding the unfair use of lower-level performers to train AI for TV, movies, and voice work is absolutely chilling.
No, AI *has* been harmful to specific professions, and it's just going to get worse. It's moving into education here in the US. Teachers are struggling to find ways to teach writing where the students can't use ChatGPT to fake their way through a written assignment. Some districts are starting to use it in teaching.
If its use was just limited to crunching and munching huge amounts of data in a productive way that didn't displace humans, that would be one thing. If AI promoters hadn't targeted creatives, that would be different. If the output hadn't been so problematic, with false information coming from the LLMs, that would be different. But yes, it has been harmful.