What Is FU Money?
If you want to be really free you need to understand the concept of “F*ck you money”.
In our days we are all, more or less consciously, slaves to someone else.
Each of us, from our childhood, is forced into a hierarchy where we have to ask the people above us for permission to get what we want.
When we were kids they were our parents, then it was the teachers, college admission officers, professors, our company’s staff manager, our bosses.
A life defined by the people who have power over us is extremely demeaning and frustrating: it can create great repressed anger, strong resentment, and deep disappointment.
This leads to the “F*ck You fantasy”.
In this fantasy, you imagine yourself saying aloud to your boss he’s an *sshole, to your hated colleagues to go to hell… then you go out the door, having the wonderful feeling that your person belongs only and entirely to you for the first time in your life.
Virtually everyone has had this fantasy at least once.
This is why people spend money playing the lottery, hoping to finally change their sh*tty lives.
The FU Money is simply the amount of money needed to purchase freedom and escape wage slavery.
F*ck you money & Antifragility
FU money is the only tool that can break your invisible, but extremely heavy, chains.
Reaching this number means that you can get away from every bad situation.
You can tell your boss to go to hell, you can fire an annoying customer, you can turn down offers that conflict with your ethics, or report any evil behavior of your company, instead of being reduced to fear, kept in enforced silence, held hostage of your monthly salary.
Nassim Taleb, in his book, Antifragile, describes the FU Money as “a sum large enough to get most, if not all, of the advantages of wealth … but not its side effects, such as having to attend a black-tie charity event and being forced to listen to a polite exposition of the details of a marble-rich house renovation”.
FU Money is the level of security you need, in order for you to be able to tell anyone to f*ck you without it having a direct impact on your earning potential or what you want to do in life.
Ultimate freedom is the ability to wake up every morning and tell the World to f*ck you. You’re doing what you want that day, and every day thereafter, and theres nothing and noone that can stop you from doing that.
Types and grades of FIRE
There are different grades of FIRE related to the concept of FU Money: the main ones are three.
The minimum to have F-You money is to have a sufficient amount of money to be able to pay daily expenses and bills, but living in an extremely frugal way: no expensive entertainment, no unnecessary expenses, no latest iPhone model. (LEAN FIRE)
A second step is to reach an adequate amount of money to never have to work again, but with a reasonable lifestyle: a beautiful home, health care, holidays, enough to send your children to good schools, etc. (FIRE)
How much depends on who you are and where you are.
In the Silicon Valley you need about $ 10 million, in other parts of the United States it could be 1 or 2 million, in other countries of the world it takes much less, even just 300,000 / 500,000.
This sum of money will not allow you to own and maintain a house with 10 waiters, 5 Ferraris, or a private helicopter, but it will be enough to never have to depend on someone else again.
And it is certainly enough that you will never find yourself working in a disgusting place with horrible people, to count the days until you have accumulated enough of your three weeks of vacation to escape from the office for a week, checking your smartphone all the time and fearing your return.
The third step is the FAT FIRE. You’re in the Fat Fire when you’re able to retire without sacrifice your spending, because your investment income covers much more of your monthly living expenses (E.g. 200k/year of passive income and 80k/year of expenses) .
The path is here. The choice is yours, based on your possibilities, your monthly salary, your ability to save and invest your money.
