The Retirement Newsletter: New Year’s Resolutions — 2025

Issue Number: 188 (41) — OK, it’s that time of year again

Photo by Author — Happy New Year 2025

Welcome

Welcome to issue 188 (41) — New Year’s Resolutions 2025.

Happy New Year!

If you have been reading this newsletter for a while, you will know that each year, I come up with a list of resolutions and predictions:

• Resolutions for 2022 — Welcome to 2022! Happy New Year!

• Resolutions for 2023 — Happy New Year — am I starting my last full calendar year in employment?

• Resolutions for 2024 — What will 2024 bring?

I review how things went in the summer and at the end of the year. Typically, the review is not good news, as I am usually way off on the predictions and have failed to stick to my resolutions. Except for this past year, since I retired, I have managed to stick to my resolutions (see Happy New Year 2025), but as usual, my predictions were wrong.

So, what are my predictions and resolutions for 2025?

Predictions for 2025

OK, so here we go with the predictions:

The Good Predictions for 2025

Are these predictions or wishes?

1. A pan-specific COVID-19 jab — I have hoped this prediction would come true for several years. A vaccine that targets all strains of COVID-19 and that doesn’t require follow-up boosters would be a game changer.

2. The war in Ukraine will end with all borders returning to their original positions and Crimea being returned.

3. The war in Gaza will come to an end.

The Bad Predictions for 2025

1. A new ’super-variant’ of COVID-19 will emerge — This was on my list for the last two years and is again this year. This could happen. I don’t think we are out of the COVID-19 woods by a long way.

2. I have a horrible feeling that we will experience what the financial people call “a correction” — this was a bad prediction last year, and I think it will happen in 2025.

3. There will be a recession in the UK — again, this was on my list last year. Looking at the UK economy, it seems very likely that this will happen at the beginning of 2025. The recession may have started at the end of 2024 and will be confirmed in 2025.

4. Bird flu will spread to humans — This past year, we have seen bird flu in cows and some humans. Towards the end of 2024, I thought that spread to humans would be more likely, as several cases had been reported. However, I read that contact with infected birds is still needed, and human-to-human spread is not happening. In the few instances (one?) where it has happened, the person contracting the virus had a mutation that made them susceptible.

Although this year’s predictions are a bit gloomy, with only three good and four bad, they are better than last year’s two good and six bad.

Let’s see how it goes.

Resolutions for 2025

When I worked — Before I retired (I love using those two phrases) we had to make our goals at work SMART. If you are unfamiliar with SMART, you are lucky; it stands for:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Attainable

• Relevant (sometimes R can be for realistic)

• Timely (or time-bound)

For example, my goal is to lose some weight. However, ‘lose weight’ is not a SMART task. To make it SMART, it should be the following:

• Specific — I will lose weight — this makes the task-specific.

• Measurable — I will lose one stone (14 pounds; 6.35 kg) — I now have a measurable goal.

• Attainable — I will achieve this by following a structured diet and exercise plan — which gives me the way to achieve my goal.

• Relevant — Losing weight is important to improve my overall health and well-being.

• Timely — I will achieve this by Christmas 2025.

The great thing about making New Year’s resolutions (goals) now that I am retired is that I don’t feel the need to make them SMART. I can leave SMART behind and just make the goals. So, here goes, twelve goals for 2025:

1. Lose some weight — As I said last week, tick, done. So far, I have lost just over 18 kg, which is nearly 40 lb, or, put another way, 2 st. 12 lb. I have also dropped my Body Mass Index (BMI) from 31.4 to 26, so I still have a little way to go to reach a BMI of 25 (between 20 and 25 is considered the health range). When I hit a BMI of 25 (or less), this resolution will become “to maintain my weight”. (Interesting side note — our fat cells remember being fat cells, and even when we empty them of fat, i.e. lose weight, the fat cells ‘nag’ us into refilling them and putting the weight back on. This is why our weight tends to yo-yo.)

2. Get fitter — This is always ongoing.

3. Declutter the house — I still have a lot of decluttering to do.

4. Monitor my spending — Now that I am retired, my income is reduced, so I need to monitor my spending more closely.

5. Monitor my savings — While I am no longer actively saving for retirement, I should build up small reserves in addition to my pension savings.

6. Keep The Retirement Newsletter running.

7. Decide what to do with the Retirement Hustle Newsletter. As I said last week, it was a flop. I may consider converting the content to an online course.

8. Continue the Nick’s Wanderings newsletter — I launched the newsletter at the start of December, and I already have 58 subscribers. The Nick’s Wanderings newsletter is growing much faster than this newsletter did.

9. Sort out my subscriptions — this needs to be done every year.

10. Get my Science YouTube channel sorted out — The channel has over 1,000 subscribers but is still not monetised. I need to think about how I can get the watch hours up.

11. Continue the Nick’s Wanderings YouTube Channel. The Channel has over 1,000 subscribers and more than 4,000 watch hours in the year. I need to build on this early success and maintain the momentum.

12. Start bringing in some money from other side-hustles — I need to look at other ideas for bringing in some extra cash.

So, let’s see how this goes. As usual, I will tell you how I progressed in six months.

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? If you do, why not share them in the comments?

This week in the Retirement Hustle

This week, there is no Retirement Side Hustle newsletter as it was the New Year, and the newsletter is taking a winter break. It will be back on Wednesday, January 8th, 2025, when I will share my December financials and reveal what happened with the monetisation of my Nick’s Wanderings YouTube Channel.

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, I am reflecting on my four-day cruise to move the narrowboat and on all the great advice I have received from fellow boaters.

Useful links

UK Government Website:

• How to avoid pension scams

• Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances

• National Insurance

• Check your National Insurance record

• Estimate your Income Tax for the current year

• Check your State Pension forecast

Next week

Next week, in issue 189 (42), I look at how I deal with breaking old habits and forming new ones.

Thanks

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If you want to thank me for the newsletter, why not buy me a cup of tea?

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.

Please note: I am not a financial or health advisor. When I write about money, financial matters, or health, I base my opinions on what I have read over the years about money, retirement preparation, and health. IT IS NOT FINANCIAL OR HEALTH ADVICE.