Metaphorically, to Peter his father's death meant that he could ‘come home’: although he had been there all along, he could now move into his father's rooms. Søren, by leaving Løvstræde, and not moving out of Nytorv again until the end of the following year, came home literally. But it was also a homecoming in the sense that he felt himself once more beside ‘father’, beside rather than under. However, in spite of sharing one roof, both psychologically and careerwise the two brothers had already gone their separate ways. The roof itself they had both bought with their inheritance at the winding-up sale, Søren's share being 33,594 rixdalers, about a quarter of the whole and more than four hundred thousand U.S. dollars today.

Economic independence meant that Kierkegaard could embark on a writing career without having to earn a living from that either. In the event he was able to live quite comfortably for the next ten years, covering the costs of publication of his first nineteen books, only one of which sold out. Really there was no need, either, for him to take his university exams. But the same economic independence also made it possible to think again of Regine, or at least less possible to banish the thought out of hand. The fact that the money was there was no argument against becoming a respectable bread-winner and performing a useful function in society, and for that he would definitely need to complete his education.