Life up in the air

So...what happens when you get a windfall on a regular basis?

For me, at least right now, life gets somewhat suspended. I have been working a lot over this past year as an editor for a journal. Halfway through, I ended up a managing editor. Then in October, the COO up and left, and the owner with the pursestrings decided he didn't want to bother selling it at fire sale prices, which should tell you how he felt about the quality of the journal. He also hasn't bothered paying me for my last month's work. (I'm getting riled up and my blood is beginning to boil at this.)

A month or so later, I wound up going to my family meeting—one that happens more or less yearly. At this meeting, I learned that based on the amount of money I have in a trust and the amount which I can pull from it without damaging what could be considered the principal at this point, I could live fairly comfortably, if not extravagantly, for a while. This could even preclude work for money. I could actually just live off of this and hang.

This is wild. What does this mean? Well, how would you live if you could live this way? Given, say, $80K a year?

I could potentially see me just chilling for a while. I have little ambition, which I have brought up before, so that could manifest in some negative ways. Stagnating, perhaps. Just sitting and reading. Or taking up gaming. Doing little to contribute to society and just floating. It's weird to think of this.

There's also evidence that contributions/disbursements would be entering my trust on a biannual basis to the tune of up to $333K each time, but more likely half that ($167K). Which adds to the padding and adds to the amount I could withdraw. This also does not take into account the fact that the account is being well-managed and likely to bring in more money if/when/as the markets improve. Yeah, I've been left in a good place.

At the same time, I feel a weird parallel, if not kinship, to the character of the Duke of Windsor (the former King Edward who abdicated) in The Crown. (See the previous post I made about this.) Left with money to live fairly well but living in exile, apart from his family, he lived a sort of half-life. And when he tried to make something of his life, some sort of meaningful contribution to the country he had once led, he was brutally (and, yes, deservedly) turned down. At least according to the show, which as we all know, plays loose with reality.

I don't deal with exile from the family. But there is a division that will take time to overcome. And my offer to help out the family has not been turned down at all. I think time will help with this.

But in the meantime, I feel a bit of floating in gel, a sort of inertia in my life.

In related news, simply because I am writing this, we are approaching the time when I turn inward and do a lot of thinking and writing about the year past and the year yet to come. Looking forward to this. And I look forward to reading what I have written in the past as well. It's...well, if it can be called Yule Eve, that's what it is. Not only that, it's the night before a tremendous if short-lived cold snap is going to strangle us for a few days. Possibly the coldest wind chills in recorded history here—down to -50. A high in a few days below zero. It will be crazy. I'm taking Teva to the dog park tomorrow morning so she can get a bunch of energy out before the blast hits, since none of us will want to go outside in a few days. It's going to be wild. And a great opportunity to do a LOT of baking, which is my MO for Christmas anyway.