It makes sense to start with the year zero when you want to do any calculations that involve dates that where before and after year one. If an empire was founded in 50 BC and dissolved in 50 CE to calculate its age when it was dissolved you have to acknowledge that there is no year zero so instead of just calculating 50 - (-50) = 100 you have to substract one which is counter intuitive. Because it went from year 1 BC straight to 1 CE.

You can look for ESD heel & shoe straps. They are relatively cheap and help you discharge while walking around or buy shoes that are ESD rated in the first place.

But with a million bucks you wouldn’t really be bound by location anymore. You could just retire somwhere that is cheaper and without the need to work most of your waking time you aren’t even really limited by language as you have plenty of time to learn a new language.