
Dilbert and Bogart On “F#(& You” Money - justinchen
http://www.mymoneyblog.com/dilbert-and-bogart-on-f-you-money.html
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jonpaul
I love the mindset behind the advice of having a little saved up. I currently
have about $15k saved up. I fully intend to one day have real FU money. In the
meantime though, having a small emergency fund that I'm adding to each month
makes me feel like I don't have to take shit from my day job. I truly am not
worried that if some day I was asked to do something completely unreasonable,
I could essentially say FU and quit and work on my side business.

This is only one small reason why people should have a small fund saved up.

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erikstarck
That's just one kind of money. There are other kinds.

Like Fat Money. Money that drags you down and makes you slower. This is money
from that investor that refuses to change.

Or Sweat Money. This is money you’ve worked hard for to earn. This is the best
kind. You value sweat money much higher than any other kind of money.

And of course Ramen Money. The minimum amount of money you need to survive
each month.

More kinds of money here:
[http://blog.opportunitycloud.com/2010/06/30/different-
kinds-...](http://blog.opportunitycloud.com/2010/06/30/different-kinds-of-
money/)

~~~
benatkin
Nice post! I especially like the concept of Lazy Money. It describes what a
_stable_ situation is like. (Having a position which inspires true confidence
would be a _healthy_ situation.)

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Tycho
I thought this was going to have something to do with F# the language. Like if
you save up enough money, you can afford to program exclusively in a
functional language without going bankrupt. 'F# money.'

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rbanffy
Alan Perlis once said "LISP programmers know the value of everything but the
cost of nothing". It applies very nicely to other functional languages (much
more than to Lisp)

edit: BTW, there is a whole lot to discuss over this subject:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2265349>

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boredguy8
I always liked this list of money metaphors. The difference between "renewable
resource" and "fuel" or "building material" really hit home with my own bad
perceptions of money.

[http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/03/02/fools-and-their-
money-m...](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/03/02/fools-and-their-money-
metaphors/)

~~~
gxs
Nice read, you should submit it on its own.

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pyrhho
I'm curious what the opinion of people here is as far as how much F-U-Money is
"enough". Obviously it probably depends on your goals, but is there a reliable
way of calculating the amount needed?

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petercooper
In the context of this article, $50k was my level where I stopped doing work I
didn't necessarily "want" to do. Once I had that amount of money, I stopped
hunting out for work and let work hunt me out while working on things that
mattered to me.

In terms of the larger "for life" FU money, that's one helluva calculation but
it's been attempted in several posts on HN I believe. Paying off the mortgage
and $50k p.a. for life would do it for me because I'd keep doing things that
earned more money anyway. That'd just be enough to live reasonably comfortably
if I got ill or whatever.

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pyrhho
For those curious on where those calculations are (like I was), some of them
are here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=295822>

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jasonkester
Well said. Personally, I make a point of never letting my liquid savings drop
below $10k. That's a full year's travelling money, so it keeps me perpetually
in a state of "I can drop everything and go", thus protecting me from toxic
consulting clients.

If a relationship starts going downhill, I can simply retract my last invoice
and wish them luck.

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CallMeV
droz asks a good question. Who else has calculated their "fuck you money"
threshold to the last penny, such that if they received that much cash from
one or more jobs in a given period they can spend the rest of the year just
going to expos and networking, or just sitting on some beach somewhere,
knowing that all their bills and living expenses are covered?

Considering where I live, my threshold's surprisingly low. If I double it, I'd
put aside that surplus for my retirement. It's good to have the ambition of
living without ambitions.

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jleyank
This also featured in the Soul of a New Machine.

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droz
what amount would you guys consider to be FU money? How long could you live
off of that amount?

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relequestual
Awesome, just really awesome! =]

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TheSOB88
You guys all have your own definitions of 'fuck you' money, but for me this
one has the best ring:

<http://www.violentacres.com/archives/41/fuck-you-money/>

Some kind of collector is trying to extort money from her, so she, well, I
don't wanna ruin it. But she uses the money in a very creative way.

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lwat
I'm surprised $100 in 1920 translates to only $1000 today!

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pzxc
I'm surprised it's that much. 1000% inflation over 91 years is almost 11% per
year. That's pretty serious inflation.

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petercooper
11% inflation p.a. over 91 years on $100 would be $1331653. Calculation: 100 *
pow(1.11, 91) - where ^

$100 to $1000 over 91 years is 2.56% inflation p.a. Calculation: pow(1000 /
100, 1 / 91)

Please correct me where necessary math whizzes!

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dandelany
This is correct. Average annual returns are not as simple as taking an
arithmetic average of returns over the time period. This is because your first
year's 2.56% return is not the same amount as your next year's - because the
second year's return is 2.56% of the original capital PLUS the 2.56% you
earned the year before... And so on and so forth. Hence your correct
derivation of the "compound annual growth rate".

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edw519
Like "Quick and Dirty", "Moral Majority", "Jumbo Shrimp", and "Military
Intelligence", there is no such thing as "Fuck You Money".

By definition, everyone I know who claims to have "Fuck You Money" doesn't
have enough money to buy themselves class, humility, kindness, or inner peace.
They're never happy because everyone else either:

\- has more "Fuck You Money" than they do, or

\- doesn't know how much "Fuck You Money" they really have

If you really want more money so that you can say, "Fuck you" to others, you
may want to consider an attitude adjustment before going after any more money.

~~~
DerekL
You're misunderstanding what "Fuck You Money" is. It's not so you can say
"Fuck You" to everyone they meet. The purpose is to be able to decline or quit
jobs you don't like.

