Consider Living Near Your Kids

There’s a poster by Tim Urban that shows your entire life in weeks. 4,000 little boxes. It’s sobering.

But for parents, there’s a more specific version of this exercise: How much time do you actually have left with your kids? Conventionally the math people scare you with assumes they leave at 18 and are never under your roof again. Reasonable assumption - but neglects the benefits of living close by, or even together during their adult lives. This is something that has really been made clear to me when I moved back to Singapore 7 years ago, and had the opportunity to live with my parents, and for them to live with their grandchildren. It’s a whole different dimension of parent/child/grandchild togetherness.

Play with the toggles. Add a period where you live nearby. Watch the dots light up.

The childhood years feel urgent, but they’re already half-spent by the time your kid is 9. The real opportunity is the decades after they leave home. If you stay close - geographically, not just emotionally - you get that time back.