goatee

Nora and I have lived in our current apartment longer than anywhere else in our lives – as a couple and individually. Highland Avenue was to be our modest apartment during a one-year Harvard fellowship, but it has been our home for 13 years. Though we love Cambridge, the expense and issues with the apartment’s leaky walls have led me to think that we should, at some point, move on. We were able to save money while here, but we won’t be able to live here forever.

I’m sure we’ll think of this period as the Casper years, who passed a few months ago. This felt like the closing of a significant chapter in our lives. And while I greatly appreciate aspects of my job, I feel as if I’m about ready for one more thing, for something else.

Given all this – and that Nora now works at home and Boston is expensive – I’ve been researching places we might move. I won’t conduct a job search that is hopefully in a place we’d like; I’ll find (a less expensive) place we’d like and figure something to do once there.

This sense of change is also prompted by a financial goal: to FIRE myself (“Barista” style). During my research on life hackers, I delved into the Financial Independence and Retire Early (FIRE) movement. There are different levels of FIRE: “barista FIRE” means you still work part-time or on a passion project; above that is “lean FIRE,” which means you must live modestly. (Lucky are those who can “coast” or “fat” FIRE.)

Being in your 50s is hardly early – savvy techies can do so in their 30s – but it’s less than 65 or 70. My father died before he hit 65. I could live longer, but I might not.

I’ve long been an advocate of a “good life, good death.” Should I be faced with extended or ruinous ill health, I believe I would exercise my right to die. I’m not so presumptuous as to predict the future, or even how I might feel, but I don’t feel obliged to save enough money to live my last years in a dementia care facility.

But I get ahead of myself. The current chapter is not yet over. The market downturn and inflation have changed my calculations. And I have another book project that I want to make a solid attempt at. I hope to remain on Highland for another three or four years. Then, depending on fate, I will turn a page to the next chapter, whether it’s the penultimate or concluding one.