The joy of FU money

bluenose1

Johnnyy_Boy said:

Sorry for being a little dim but what does FU money mean ?

It literally means you have saved enough money that if work gets bad enough you can just say the profanity  “f**k you” and walk away without any worry of financial consequences. It’s liberating being in a position that you can’t be forced to do anything you don’t want to as you can just leave. 

I’ve found it really difficult to leave as every month was another £2,800 net in the pension pot, but now I have made my decision it just feel a great sense of relief. Think the time is right, I will have worked for 39.5 years since  leaving school at 18.

Was reading the average person lives to 80 (approx 4000 weeks). At 57 I am close to having lived  about 3000 weeks. Going to spend my remaining 1000 or so doing what I want to do not what my employer wants me to. Cannot wait for the 3 months to pass by so I can start my 7 day weekends

cfw1994

It is very liberating!   Can make a big difference in your perspective on work.  Suddenly really irritating things just don’t matter!

It is also massively important to be able to say “no” to unreasonable work demands.

I had a great boss once who could see the stresses on our team (and me), & told me bluntly “just make yourself less available”.
That was such good advice.  

The power of silence would lead people to solve their issues without constantly “abusing” our team!

Once you have that countdown timer ticking….happy days 😎👍


I also kind of agree you need some sort of plan…but my specific goal for my first *year* was to not really plan.  Or at least, to not make any big commitments.

Sure, get out of bed, but hey, that could be “by 10am some days” 🤪👍

Albermarle

bluenose1 said:

Johnnyy_Boy said:

Sorry for being a little dim but what does FU money mean ?

It literally means you have saved enough money that if work gets bad enough you can just say the profanity  “f**k you” and walk away without any worry of financial consequences. It’s liberating being in a position that you can’t be forced to do anything you don’t want to as you can just leave. 

I’ve found it really difficult to leave as every month was another £2,800 net in the pension pot, but now I have made my decision it just feel a great sense of relief. Think the time is right, I will have worked for 39.5 years since  leaving school at 18.

Was reading the average person lives to 80 (approx 4000 weeks). At 57 I am close to having lived  about 3000 weeks. Going to spend my remaining 1000 or so doing what I want to do not what my employer wants me to. Cannot wait for the 3 months to pass by so I can start my 7 day weekends

The average age a person lives to gets longer as you get older.
So a 57 year old can expect to live on average until around 83 for a man and 85 for a woman.
So that means 50% will live longer, and approx 25% will reach their Nineties.

Eldi_Dos

@bluenose1
         I hope you can forgive me for saying, the concept of FU money does not seem to me conducive to making the               best decision about your future wellbeing, the phrase has a cutting off your nose to spite your face chain of                   thought to it, I would prefer to think of the situation you find yourself in at the moment better described as I am               alright jack, pull the ladder up, that may help put things in perspective and help make the decision when it suits             you.
         Sorry to hear of problems you are having with new colleague, difficult problem, can you not put some distance               between yourself and them in your working day.

Bostonerimus1

When it comes to leaving work the diligent are often also under the misapprehension that things will go to pot if they leave. In the vast majority of cases things will go on just fine without us. FU money is nice to have went leaving work, but a vital component of retirement is to be looking forward and being confident in your new situation and stop worrying about work and the poor sods still having to grind away ;-)

Bostonerimus1

Eldi_Dos said:

@bluenose1
         I hope you can forgive me for saying, the concept of FU money does not seem to me conducive to making the               best decision about your future wellbeing, the phrase has a cutting off your nose to spite your face chain of                   thought to it, I would prefer to think of the situation you find yourself in at the moment better described as I am               alright jack, pull the ladder up, that may help put things in perspective and help make the decision when it suits             you.
         Sorry to hear of problems you are having with new colleague, difficult problem, can you not put some distance               between yourself and them in your working day.

I take FU money to mean that you have enough saved so that you no longer need to worry. You don’t need to work and don’t have to deal with any BS that comes along. 

theoretica

Long before you have enough to retire permanently, you can have enough to not feel trapped - to be able to walk out of a job without something to go to, take a break, see how self employment suits, take time to find a new source of income.  When your life would not come crashing down without your next few paychecks your job has much less power over you.

And if you don't decide to take up that freedom you get to use the same money later, for early retirement or whatever else you choose.

badmemory

It can be quite fun working when you could well be retired.  I could have retired at 60 (with a pathetic pension so wasn't going to happen) so I stayed on doing the same job for a couple of years.  Fortunately HO was down south & they had problems getting people to do what they needed (wouldn't pay the southern price more like).  Then someone realised that when I started working for them many years before & before they had taken things in house I used to do them.  So for the next 3 years I learned 3 new jobs whilst they trained up someone to do them.  It was fun & very good for an over 60 brain, I didn't have time to get demetia!

MallyGirl

theoretica said:

Long before you have enough to retire permanently, you can have enough to not feel trapped - to be able to walk out of a job without something to go to, take a break, see how self employment suits, take time to find a new source of income.  When your life would not come crashing down without your next few paychecks your job has much less power over you.

And if you don't decide to take up that freedom you get to use the same money later, for early retirement or whatever else you choose.

This resonates. After a particularly rubbish day I vented at my OH and he simply asked 'how long is your notice period and could you get another job in that time? If not, how long could we keep going with a bit of belt tightening?'. My answer is that would would be fine for a couple of years at least without the belt tightening. Not quite ready to push the big button but the FU one is hovering close!

ex-pat_scot

Its the knowing that you are in control.
That's hugely liberating.
There are few things worse than feeling absolutely trapped and helpless - utterly dependent on the continuing monthly pay cheque to support your lifestyle and your family. Knowing that Your boss/ employer knows this, and can do what they want.
Delegating the rubbish client / work? Over to you.
Cancel holiday booking, or making you work over weekends / Christmas / Easter etc? They know that they can tell you.
No pay rise this year? No promotion? "sorry not this time." knowing you aren't able or willing to do anything about it.

The golden handcuffs - white (mainly) collar servitude.
We build our own cages.
We enable our families to reinforce them.

Having "FU" money means you don't have to take the !!!!!!. 
You can sleep easy at night, not worrying about job *(in)security, performance appraisals.
Not having to come down to the head office because someone thinks it's a good idea for you to be a bit more visible. not for any tangible personal or business reason - just simple presenteeism.