Likewise, thanks a lot for sharing about your work setup! What you have described is almost identical to my own preferences (including home office, creative work and travel) and how I approach strategy, financial planning etc. So you have given me inspiration to progress more in that direction and not exist in the current duality/dilemma forever. I don't expect the dilemma to go away as I've had it off and on since around the end of grad school. I have never been averse to taking sensible, calculated risks; many of my research projects have also been pretty risky and I have learned how to balanced them with more secure ones. I imagine I could do the same completely self-employed as well and I also have history and skills that could likely earn me jobs again in the future if I needed them.

I already decided not to apply for very long-term grants and not to recruit new people early last year and am currently in a situation where I could most likely wind down and make that transition fully within the next ~2 years. I really think I should do it, if nothing else, for the adventure and stimulation coming from novelty and diversity

You are a lawyer, right? I met a very good lawyer this past summer, he has a small private firm and works with a very small team, all pretty interesting people as far as I can tell. The focus is an area that brings him a very diverse set of clients but from the variety that are not fairly qualified and do not struggle with very basic life issues - employment-based immigration. He works both for individuals and organizations, I think it's an area where one can easily juggle those. That's how I became his client as well and it's been a wonderfully efficient and successful collaboration. We also developed a more personal fondness toward each-other, I think because we are quite alike in many ways, but none of us pushed the relationship to progress into something more personal - it would be a loss to do so perhaps as it was such a wonderful professional collaboration and will always be a nice memory as is. He has an office in the big city but lives in a house with his artist wife, including a studio for the wife and a peaceful, spiritually-oriented garden. They also have two adult children with great careers. It looks like a pretty good life to me, even though I would not want to live in the suburbs and a nice apartment in the city is perfect for myself at least now. He also appears like a well-adjusted, secure person who is able to understand life and human nature with depth and compassion, I believe in part because he had his own struggles as well. He does not seem to have "big needs" and is humble but quite self-confident. A good example for the kind of people I like to surround myself with, even if only temporarily, individually or in groups.