Living The Semi-Retired Life: Putting Down Roots, As In Staying In One Place Till You Die
Different ways to do it
A newsletter post from more than a month ago, my recent 48th birthday, my parents getting older and thoughts of my daughter turning 20 later this year prompted today’s story on roots. Putting them down and pulling them out. The push and pull between the two. And my desire to put down roots once and for all.
A couple responses to the aforementioned post resonated with me.
One from
who made a—Confession. At last count I think I moved 41 times in 65 years.
Amazing. And I thought I had something going with 14 moves (combined between cities and apartments) in the nearly 29 years since I left my hometown. Add in three moves between one apartment and two houses with my parents and we have 17 moves in 48 years.
And this response from the great
—I agree wholeheartedly. Some countries have a military requirement. In the United States we should have a go live somewhere other than your hometown and preferably somewhere that’s very different from your hometown requirement.
I experienced culture shock in the best kind of way when I left Niagara Falls, New York for South Florida in 1995. Pains me to say it, but I wasn’t a very tolerant or open-minded person growing up.
It’s a town full of losers and I’m pulling out of here to win.
—Bruce Springsteen
While I knew there was something wrong—even mean—with the words some, though thankfully not all, of my family members used, they were all I knew. I grew up in a working class culture where respect for your family and elders was of utmost importance. So I pretty much had no choice but to follow. Any dissent resulted in raised voices or, worse, vitriolic anger that felt like it could turn physical at any moment. Plus, I looked up to them. But that’s another story I will tell another day.
Bottom line—I’ve made peace with that part of my childhood and fully understand why some people in my family were the way they were. For the record, my Mom and Dad weren’t like that much, if at all.
Relevant to today’s discussion, moving changed me. Moving around a lot changed me even more. After stops in Pittsburgh, Dallas and Las Vegas, I ended up in San Francisco in 1999. Living there—and staying in California ever since—turned me into literally the opposite person I was politically and socially growing up.
So, today, in that regard, I pretty much am who I am. And I know what I want. But this doesn’t mean I stand still. Far from it.
Which leads to the idea of roots that we’ll further explore in a second.
But first, as promised, going forward, each newsletter installment will include a tangible, if not practical personal finance thought, idea, goal or concrete strategy.
Today’s plays off the one I introduced on Sunday.