I’ve never used a Fitness Tracker before outside of just my smartphone. I’ve been curious about what they offer, but I didn’t want the distraction of constant notifications.

There’s a number of screenless devices now - name brand ones such as Whoop and the Polar Loop, more affordable ones such as the Amazfit Helio Strap. Heck, there’s a whole slew of off-brand trackers if you search screenless fitness tracker on Amazon. And I even hear Garmin is coming out with one.

So why did I choose Fitbit over any other brand? Mostly because my wife uses a Fitbit - she has a Fitbit Charge 6 - so becoming familiar with the Fitbit ecosystem should make it easier for me to help her if she runs into issues.

Picture of the Google Fitbit Air on my wrist

I’ve been wearing my Fitbit Air for a day now, so here’s my first impressions:

• I wear a regular wrist watch (currently a black Casio) on my non-dominant side, so I wear the Fitbit on my dominant wrist. I’m left-handed, so that means I’m wearing the Fitbit on my left wrist.
• I thought some of the measurements - like SpO2 - would be real-time or at least I would be able to view right away. Instead, they are measured while you sleep, so I had to wait a day before I could see them.
• I also thought I could use the Fitbit Air as a heart rate monitor with my MapMyFitness runs, but apparently you cannot. I’ll have to continue using the Powr Labs Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor if I want to measure my heart rate when I run. It’s a bit deceiving because MapMyFitness can “see” the Fitbit Air when trying to add a heart rate monitor, but selecting it just dismisses the dialog.

MapMyFitness “seeing” the Fitbit Air as a heart rate monitor

• Speaking of my MapMyFitness runs, when I went for my run today, I also was recording the run as an activity in the Google Health app (i.e. the app formally known as the Fitbit app). The two app’s persistent notifications kept overtaking each other, so I wasn’t able to see either easily. I have a Google Pixel 8a - in other words, Android phone.
• I’ve yet to try Google Health Premium, but from what I can tell, it just adds a chatbot and text summary. The summary of the chart data seems to be counter-productive, since charts themselves are summaries of data and easier to read than the wall-of-text the LLMs like to produce.
• Finally, I’m not sure what I’ll do with the data.

For now, I’m mostly curious to see whether the data changes any of my habits, or if I’ll just forget about it in a few weeks.

Heck, I even did it back in 2021 with my post on Setting my Fitness Goals.

For awhile, I’ve had a simple goal of continuing to be able to carry both my kids - who now are 6 and 8 and weigh about 60lbs and 80lbs - at the same time.

But I thought it would be fun to not only be able to carry both my kids - but also my wife!

Picking someone up isn’t simple, though. There’s at least three ways to pick someone up:

• Bridal carry
• Fireman’s carry
• Piggy back

Bridal carry is definitely the most romantic. Fireman’s carry is probably the most uncomfortable for her, although the easiest for me (if I want to travel long-distance, at least). Check out this WikiHow for details on the first two.

There’s another way that I have managed to carry her - her facing me, with my hands and arms supporting her underneath her butt. I’ve also found it’s taken some getting used to on her side. My kids are used to being carried, so they mostly know what to when being carried. Given my wife hasn’t been carried since she was a little girl, at first she wasn’t sure what to do while being carried.

She does laugh while being carried, though, and loves the idea of this fitness goal!

After all, a poké ball is just… a ball. That is round. And round, circle cake pans are pretty standard.

I also used strawberry icing for the red parts of the poké ball. Yes, it should be more red than pink, but from my experiences with the Mario cakes, it takes a lot of red food coloring to make red icing - which can be messy.

The black part of the poké ball - which is more outline than black - I used some black decorative icing I had on hand.

Was my some happy with the result? Absolutely. He was thrilled.

Here’s the result:

Essentially, in return for an upfront investment of $100 in a community solar program, I was going to get a small discount on my electric bill for ten years.

It’s now 2026 and it has been seven years since 2019. Earlier this month, on March 4th, I received the following email:

Action required: Pay your utility directly & Portable Panel discontinued

Hi Joseph,

We’re writing to inform you of an important update to your Arcadia account. Arcadia is discontinuing the Portable Panel product. As part of this change:

1. Arcadia will no longer process utility bill payments on your behalf.
2. We are refunding your remaining Portable Panel credit balance.

Important: You must begin paying your utility directly

Effective 03/05/2026, Arcadia will no longer process payments for the utility account(s) below:

Utility account #: ***

Service address: ***

⚠️ This means Arcadia will no longer submit payments to your utility on your behalf. If you do not take action, your utility bills will not be paid and you may incur late fees or risk service interruption.

What you need to do

• Watch for your next bill directly from your utility.
• Pay all bills issued on or after 03/05/2026 directly to your utility.
• (Optional) Set up autopay directly with your utility provider.

You will also receive a follow-up letter by mail with this information. Please continue paying any bills already issued by Arcadia directly to us.

How to claim your refund

Within 48 hours, you will receive an email from noreply@checkissuing.com with instructions on how to securely access your refund via e-check. Please ensure you follow the steps in that email to access your remaining balance.

⚠️ If you do not see the message in your inbox within 48 hours, be sure to check your spam or promotions folders.

We appreciate your participation in the Portable Panel program and your continued support of clean energy.

If you have any questions, our Customer Support team is here to help at support@arcadia.com or 866-526-0083 (Mon–Fri, 8am–7pm ET).

Thank you, Arcadia

A few days later, on March 6th I received a digital check for $63.24 from Arcadia.

Curious if I ended up ahead with my investment, I pulled some my records from Arcadia - which have my payments from December 2019 through February 2026.

According to the records, I paid Arcadia a total of $4,280.92 whereas they paid my utility $4,392.51, meaning I saved $111.59.

December 2019 through February 2026 is 75 months. If I truly saved $111.59 out of an initial $100 investment, plus the $63.24 refund I received this month, that means my $100 investment returned $174.83 over 76 months - a net return of $74.83. Simple interest math says the return was $74.83/$100, or 74.83%. If I calculate the yearly return the quick-but-wrong way, that’s 74.83%/76 months - 0.98% per month - multiply by 12 to get 11.82%.

The more correct equation is PV(1+i/n)^nt=FV. “PV” here is $100, “FV” is $174.83. “n” is 12 (since I got a discount every month) but since it truly didn’t compound, I feel it would be better to assume “n” is 1 and “t” - which is number of years - is 76/12, or 19/3 years, or 6⅓ years, or six years and four months.

Plugging the values in and we get $100(1+i)^(19/3)=$174.83. Wolfram Alpha says the answer is about 0.092214, or slightly more than a 9% return.

This return isn’t including the few times I got a referral bonus ($10 each time), the fact that I was able to pay with credit card without fees (and receive 2% or 5% cash back depending on the card I was using), and I feel that the data I pulled from Arcadia was missing the first few months and didn’t properly record my discount in the first 18 recorded months.

All in all, it was a good six years.

I reported back in August 2022 that Worthy Bonds were having liquidity problems. Last month I received the following email:

Hi Joseph,

As of February 2nd, 2026, after exhausting all available debt-recovery and asset sale efforts, Worthy Peer Capital has determined that no further funds remain for distribution to bondholders.

As a result, any securities held in this offering should at this time be considered worthless. Please contact your tax professional regarding the appropriate tax treatment for any loss related to the foregoing.

When we first paused redemption in 2022, we shared that Worthy Lending–our subsidiary that invested the bond proceeds–was experiencing illiquidity driven by borrower challenges and economic factors due to the COVID pandemic. Since then, we’ve taken every reasonable measure to recover assets, pursue collections, and support repayment. While we managed to recover millions of dollars for investors, recoveries were not sufficient to redeem all remaining bonds. We’re deeply sorry for this outcome and truly appreciate your patience throughout this process. Thank you,

The Worthy Team

According to my February account statement, I lost a total of $59.31:

I’ll have to do more research - and, if you lost money, too, I suggest you do, too - but I’ll probably write the money off as a loss on my Schedule D and Form 8949 next tax season.

I still have $231.88 in 20 Worthy Property Bonds. Same company, different offering. They’re “high yield” bonds just like the Worthy Peer Capital Bonds. “High yield” just being a more palatable name than “junk bonds.”

I also still have a Worthy Referral Link but I’m not sure it still works. The link does take you to Worthy’s site.

For further reading, read the Worthy Peer Capital I statement on Worthy’s own site.

Important: Cash Back Redemption Options

Dear Joseph Hendrix:

Beginning 3/27/26, you will no longer be able to redeem for a cash back deposit from your Chase Freedom®, Chase Sapphire®, or Chase Ink® credit card(s) to an account held by a financial institution other than Chase. You can continue to redeem for a cash back deposit to an eligible U.S. Chase account or redeem your rewards as an account statement credit.

Don’t forget, you can also redeem your points for gift cards, travel, and more. Visit ultimaterewards.com to explore all your options.

If you have questions, please call the number on the back of your card at any time.

Sincerely,

Customer Service

Frustrating, as I have two of each of the Chase Freedom Flex, Chase Freedom Unlimited, Chase Freedom, as well as one Chase Amazon Prime Visa, and I like to deposit the bonus money into my Ally account.

It’s not the end of the world, though. I’ll just have to use statement credits.

Further reading and discussion:

• Chase Credit Cards Cashback is No Longer Redeemable to External Bank Account at Doctor of Credit
• Chase cash redemptions to Chase accounts only from 3/27/2026 on Reddit

Basically my wife wanted ambient light in the room without a single light source. After thinking a bit, I thought it might be cool to make it so there’s light coming from every direction. Putting a light strip along the corner between the ceiling and the wall seemed to fit the bill.

Thirty years ago in the 90s when I was growing up this wasn’t feasible. Nowadays this can be done with something known as chip-on-board LED strips. The strip I ended up buying was this 32.8 foot-long Natural White 4000K COB LED strip by BTF-LIGHTING. It didn’t come with a power supply, so I had to buy one, too - it needed this 24V 5A 120W power supply. The light ended up being so bright I needed to by this dimmer a well.

Everything connected super easy - it’s simply plug-n-play. The strip itself has a sticker back, so I only had to make sure the wall and ceiling was clean and clear of any cob webs and spiders.

I hid the cord going up along the wall with this cord hider, and bought this table to set the power supply on. The cord hider has the same sticker back as the LED strip, so it also easily stuck to the wall.

Here’s a close up of the light strip on, but at minimum brightness:

And here’s a little video I created showing the light strip:

For fun, I also posted the video on YouTube and Facebook:

• https://youtube.com/shorts/BTnCAJ1oRJM
• https://www.facebook.com/reel/1201717622031015

For those outside Ohio, or otherwise don’t know, in we have something called Apples-to-Apples where we can choose our electrical supplier. If we don’t choose, it’s chosen for us (normally the same as who bills us), which may cost more than what is available.

Choosing the best - or even the cheapest - supplier isn’t as simple as choosing the lowest dollars per kilowatt hour ($/KWh) available. You also have to consider the term length (measured in months), if there’s a monthly fee, and if it’s a variable rate.

I don’t trust variable rates (the terms never say - or at least I can’t find - exactly how the rate is variable) and I don’t use enough electricity to justify a monthly fee - even with a low rate - so the first thing I do is filter out those options with a variable rate or monthly fee.

That leaves two other variables - $/KWh and term length. Two variables that will fit nicely on an x-y axis.

So I plotted them as a scatter plot:

What’s not surprising about this chart is that the cost tends to increase as the term length increases. The cheapest option - $0.0749 / KWh - is for only three months.

What is surprising is the number of options above, say, 10¢ or 11¢ even at the lower range of term length. The most expensive option - $0.1505 - wasn’t even the longest term. It was for 24 months. And the most expensive 3-month option - $0.1339 - was tied for 5th place as the most expensive option (oddly, the other $0.1339 options was for 12 months and from the same supplier).

Which option did I end up going for? The cheapest 12-month option: $0.0935 / kWh. Was it the best option? We’ll see in a year. For context, the contract that just ended was 7.19¢ / kWh for a 12-month term.

This is the second year I’ve been able to max out both our Roth IRAs and drop the max for our kids’ 529s within the first couple days of the year. I’d probably do the same for our 401(k)s - including my i401(k) account - but for those I just have to max out as the year goes along.

I do have a rough four-to-five year plan to be able to retire by 2030. Able to retire and not necessarily retire. That plan, right now, is mostly just moving traditional IRA money into a Roth IRA so I can potentially take some out earlier. But it also involves looking up other early-retirement strategies.

I enjoy what I do, so there’s a good chance I’d keep working regardless.

Health is pretty much the same, too. I never got under the 200 lbs I wanted. But I also never went over 210 lbs either. Well, I did - one day, December 26, 2025, I weighed 210.1 lbs. But I’ve weighed less than that since then.

I still would like to run a 5k non-stop in under 30 minutes. To do that I need to run more, and it’s been so cold outside, I’ve had a hard time motivating myself to run.

I still aim at reading at least one book a month. I don’t want to increase that goal because I want to enjoy the books I read, not read them merely to reach a goal.

The most important thing of all, of course, is my family - my wife, my son, and my daughter. And our dog too. I need to be healthy for them. I need to be financially secure for them.

If I want to make a checklist for “goals” this year, here’s what it would look like:

• Financial
  • Max out Roth IRAs (completed 1/2/2026)
  • Max out 529s (completed 1/7/2026)
  • Max out 401(k)s
  • Max out i401(k)
  • Move money from traditional IRA to Roth IRA
• Health
  • Weigh less than 200 lbs
  • Run a 5k non-stop in under 30 minutes
• Personal
  • Read at least one book a month (read 1 so far)
  • Attend at least one conference or other networking event (attended CodeMash, paid for by my employer)
  • Donate blood as much as possible
• Family
  • Hike as a family at least sixteen times
  • Seven or more date nights
  • Eat out no more than once a week as a family

Some of these were taken from my 2025 New Year’s Resolutions & Goals. I’ve been writing these since 2018. Here are the links for years 2018 - 2024:

• 2024 New Year’s Resolutions & Goals
• 2023 New Year’s Resolutions & Goals
• 2022 New Year’s Resolutions & Goals
• 2021 New Year’s Resolutions & Goals
• 2020 New Year’s Resolutions & Goals
• 2019 New Year’s Resolutions & Goals
• 2018 New Year’s Resolutions & Goals

These reports have evolved over time. A few years ago, I used to do them and the end of the year. However, there was also a few pennies that came in after I wrote the report, so I needed to do them in the beginning of the year.

Here are the previous nine income reports:

• 2024 End of Year Side Income Report
• 2023 End of Year Side Income Report
• 2022 End of Year Side Income Report
• 2021 End of Year Side Income Report
• 2020 End of Year Side Income Report
• 2019 End of Year Side Income Report
• 2018 End of Year Side Income Report
• 2017 End of Year Side Income Report
• 2016 End of Year Side Income Report

As it has come to be, I’ll organize my side income into separate categories, then total them up at the end. This year I’ve removed the cryptocurrency category and added a class action settlement category. That will probably change again next year - unless I get a slew of class action settlements again this year.

Credit Card Rewards

• Citi Double Cash → $904.61
• Chase Freedom → $268.49
• Chase Freedom Flex → $601.80
• Chase Freedom Unlimited → $300.14
• Chase Amazon Prime Visa → $614.37
• US Bank Cash+ → $156.16
• Capital One Quicksilver → $13.86
• Verizon Visa → $593.58
• Total → $3,453.01

This year I opened up the Chase Amazon Prime Visa, netting me at least 5% on my Amazon purchases. I’ll sometimes get more if I delay the shipment, however.

My base card is, of course, the the Citi Double Cash, netting gets me 2% cash back on everything.

Last year I didn’t count the “Verizon Dollars” earned on my Verizon Visa. This year I’m only counting the Verizon Dollars spent on my Verizon bill. Over the twelve month period of 2025, my Verizon bills totaled $714.28, but I only spend out-of-pocket $120,70, meaning I used $593.58 Verizon dollars, which is the amount I’m reporting above.

Interest-Bearing Accounts

• Ally Interest → $2,554.86
• Vanguard → $1,477.77
• Credit Union Interest → $700.05
• LendingClub CD Interest → $73.69
• Marcus CD Interest → $61.21
• Robinhood
  • Dividends → $257.54
  • Stock Lending → $1.91
  • Stock Option Premiums → $113.73
• Treasury Direct → $1,741.17
• Arrived Homes → $8.98
• Worthy Bonds → $18.21
• WeBull Dividends → $0.63
• Coinbase Staking → $2.10
• Total → $7,011.85

Most of these are from accounts I may receive a 1099-INT or 1099-DIV for. I probably won’t for the Coinbase crypto staking, but nevertheless I do report that on my Schedule B.

Print-On-Demand Sites

• Merch by Amazon → $912.56
• TeePublic → $13.50
• Amazon Kindle Direct → $27.72
• Total → $953.78

I did publish another word search book last year - The Ultimate Nature Word Search Book. I don’t believe it has sold any copies yet.

What did sell where two previous word searches I published - The Ultimate Cybersecurity Word Search Puzzle Book and The Ultimate Programming Word Search Puzzle Book.

My t-shirt sales, at least on Amazon, continue to do well, despite me not doing much with it.

Blogging

• Google AdSense → $0.00
• Amazon Associates → $22.29
• Total → $22.29

I didn’t receive any AdSense payments last year. In order to receive payment, my AdSense balance needs to hit $100. As I write this, my balance is sitting at $76.21. Perhaps I’ll get paid this year?

Class Action Settlements

• Facebook Settlement → $114.87
• Equifax Settlement → $7.44
• Mednax Services Settlement → $106.00
• PostMeds Data Breach Settlement → $107.3
• Verizon Settlement → $14.81
• Total → $350.42

Miscellaneous

• Cloud Research → $707.81
• Data Annotation → $278.78
• Programming Work → $23,590.80
• Receipt Hog → $80.00
• Mechanical Turk → $22.98
• Cooper Vision Rebate → $50.00
• Rakuten → $39.17
• pfsBuyerClub → $90.15
• Total → $24,859.69

Totals

• Credit Card Rewards → $3,453.01
• Interest-Bearing Accounts → $7,011.85
• Print-On-Demand Sites → $953.78
• Blogging → $22.29
• Class Action Settlements → $350.42
• Miscellaneous → $24,859.69
• Total → $36,651.04

It’s nice that these numbers continue to rise. Here are the previous years, and only a couple years did I make less than the previous (2018 and 2020):

• 2016 → $2,463.91
• 2017 → $5,575.35
• 2018 → $4,196.72
• 2019 → $5,585.39
• 2020 → $5,049.26
• 2021 → $6,859.83
• 2022 → $7,747.19
• 2023 → $9,060.98
• 2024 → $21,455.31