Closing my open questions of 2025

A yearly tradition since 2021. I start the year with some questions and concerns I have no answers to, uncertainties and self-doubts I hold about the year ahead. Keep them open in my mind, consciously and subconsciously. Then look back at the end of the year to see how it panned out.

For 2025, these were my open questions:

• Thrive: I managed to get past survival and scarcity. Will I be able to switch to thriving and abundance?

• Products: Past years had shown that I can ship new products, I can do it with consistency, and they can make (some) money. But none with real product-market fit. So this year, will I find a product with PMF?

• Revenue: Will I finally achieve $10,000/month in product revenue? Not including freelance income but purely from my SaaS and indie products. That’s the dream really… to be free from selling time.

• Family: End game dream for family - work half day, spend rest of day with kid and family. Will I be able to get there?

• Travel: Wife and I had been brewing an idea of traveling and living overseas not just for a week but for extended periods, like a few weeks to a few months. Will we be able to do digital nomading as a family?

And here are the answers:

• Thrive: I managed to get past survival and scarcity. Will I be able to switch to thriving and abundance?
  – ✅ ✅ ⚠️ Yes I did get past survival! Signing up to do tech support for Carrd in early Jan this year got us past survival to comfortable. For that I am eternally grateful. Am I thriving and in abundance? Nope. Call me when I reach $20k per month…
  
  
• Products: Past years had shown that I can ship new products, I can do it with consistency, and they can make (some) money. But none with real product-market fit. So this year, will I find a product with PMF?
  – ❌ ❌ ✅ Total fail. No new SaaS. Some productivity tools, a video game. That’s about it. Nothing that’s profit-generating. Not even a social impact project. This was not the year to try new things. But on the other hand, I shipped 12 plugins in 12 months again. Again: Carrd, my saving grace.
  
  
• Revenue: Will I finally achieve $10,000/month in product revenue? Not including freelance income but purely from my SaaS and indie products. That’s the dream really… to be free from selling time.
  – ❌ ❌ ✅ Achieved $9k+, not $10k. And not entirely through product, but mostly freelance. Product revenue makes up only about 20%. Can’t complain. At least it feeds the family. At least the panic is over. At least we can breathe now. But much more to go to my dream…
  
  
• Family: End game dream for family - work half day, spend rest of day with kid and family. Will I be able to get there?
  – ❌ ✅ Nope, not there yet with lifestyle goal. This would be the endgame. But I still blocked family time, in evenings and definitely on weekends. So not all is lost. With our travels every school holiday, those count to quality family time as well.
  
  
• Travel: Wife and I had been brewing an idea of traveling and living overseas not just for a week but for extended periods, like a few weeks to a few months. Will we be able to do digital nomading as a family?
  – ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ And we did! Committed to our massive goal of moving out by July 2027. Did our first recce trip to Chiangmai in September this year to scout things out. Likely a 3-week stay in June next year to test things out on a longer term. And maybe even in November again to go to open days of international schools. Not forgetting to mention, we travelled to five places this year – Melaka, Osaka, Batam, Chiangmai, Sapporo. Best open question answered ever.

It’s been another difficult year, to be honest. Money only solved part of all the problems. But there’s solace in those I answered.

And looking forward to being able to answer more next year.