Young & Not Enough Nest Egg - What's your minimum FU Money ?

[Senator]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RISP This. The job can't be so bad that I'd quit without having something lined up. But then I'm risk averse, having a family to support.

+1. And if you cannot find a better job, odds are you are in the best job you can hope for already.

[Jack_Pine]

Whatever cash I eat up in transition hurts my ability to FIRE later in life. I never would or never have left a job without another offer already accepted.

Alos agree with never burn any bridges by making rash statements. JMHO

[Sarah in SC]

Dang, y'all must have a higher BS tolerance than me, or more mouths to feed, or something. I've left 4 jobs, and wound up with better opportunities because of taking the leap. But then again, I've also quit a job to go sailing, so apparently I'm both reckless and feckless, lol.

[karen1972]

I'm outside the poll window, but the only job I had that put me in that situation, There were serious ethics issues on the job, potentially even criminal, so I ran, not walked out the door. I had 2 years of reserves, but would have walked out with 3 months and just dealt with the consequences.

[cyber888]

LOL. I agree. I know some people will tolerate all BS and follow the boss even if it means the boss tells them to jump over the bridge naked. That's because of kids and dependents and obligations, I suppose. I can take some BS, but not to a certain extent that your boss treat you like a pimple on his butt to sit on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarah in SC Dang, y'all must have a higher BS tolerance than me, or more mouths to feed, or something. I've left 4 jobs, and wound up with better opportunities because of taking the leap. But then again, I've also quit a job to go sailing, so apparently I'm both reckless and feckless, lol.

[cyber888]

I had one colleague who took in all the BS from the boss, and he was one who will stay in his job to the end. Well, guess what, he stayed until now .. but at a great cost to his health. It started with irregular heart beats because of the BS he was bombarded, and he after a few months - he had 2 heart operations. And after these heart operations, he could no longer leave the job, because he fears his healthcare cost will go up as his last heart operation was $900,000, and he feared that no insurance company will cover him (this was before ACA). Last time we talked, I told him that ACA will probably cover his condition now. But he said he'll stay 2 years and retire.

[Big_Hitter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RISP This. The job can't be so bad that I'd quit without having something lined up. But then I'm risk averse, having a family to support.

agreed - getting pissed and leaving a job without one already lined up is the kiss of death in business


"so why did you leave your last job?"
"oh, I got fed up and left"
"k thanks for coming in"

[Sarah in SC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big_Hitter agreed - getting pissed and leaving a job without one already lined up is the kiss of death in business "so why did you leave your last job?" "oh, I got fed up and left" "k thanks for coming in"

Lol, there's a lot more finesse in it than that.
AKA be a better BSer than the above exchange.

My daddy did not raise me to take anyone's crap, for money or for love.

[hnzw_rui]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarah in SC Lol, there's a lot more finesse in it than that. AKA be a better BSer than the above exchange.

Lol, I don't know if it's my ISTJ personality but I suck at dissembling and will probably blurt out Big_Hitter's dialogue verbatim.

[Teacher Terry]

When I was young I quit a few crappy jobs with no job but my hubby was working making decent $. After I got my degrees I always had a job before quitting and then like manyothers got a state job with great bennies, pensions,etc and there was no amount of BS that could make me leave. I wanted that pension which I am now enjoying.

[Closet_Gamer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kgtest FU I am done working period, is a lot different than F U I am done working for this company/industry/the man etc.

I'll offer a useful distinction:

There is "Go to h*ll" money and then there is "FU money."

Go to h*ll money is about leaving the situation but staying in the industry.

FU money is really saying "I don't really care about the damage i leave in my wake, its no longer relevant to me what anyone in the industry thinks."

[Closet_Gamer]

This short video from the movie The Gambler sums up the concept of FU money perfectly.

WARNING: EXPLICIT. Not for tender ears.

https://youtu.be/xdfeXqHFmPI

[cyber888]

"FIRE" Money and "FU" Money are just 2 different things to me. The FU Money is the $ you have to comfortably to tell you boss to FU and quit so you can do something else .. but no rush to find another job .. but eventually you're not retiring and still want to work. You work on your own terms and what you want to do. FIRE money means, you do not work forever. I think Money Moustache got FU money to quit in his 30s, but not really FIRE money because he's still doing some work here and there to survive.

[Keim]

I guess my answer has to be about $300k.

That's what I had in 2008 when I-suddenly and very publicly-left a very high profile job in my community. My departure made the local newspaper and radio.

Two weeks later Lehman brothers collapsed, and the major local employers instituted hiring freezes.

It was an anxious time, but I got picked up by December-despite the hiring freezes.

I never regretted the choice. Some things simply can't be tolerated.

[Keim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarah in SC Lol, there's a lot more finesse in it than that. AKA be a better BSer than the above exchange. My daddy did not raise me to take anyone's crap, for money or for love.

In my case the line was "The newly elected Board President and I had major differences in philosophy..."

Left implied was "I chose to let him fail on his own."

[ESRwannabe]

I kind of stumbled onto the concept of early retirement specifically because of my saving up FU money to reduce job stress.

To answer the question though, I would just need a year's worth of living expenses.

Anyway what happened is I have always lived below my means. So saving up a year's salary for FU was easy and I still had lots of savings coming in. So then I thought what would be even better would be if I could generate extra cash flow in addition to the FU money held in cash. The reasoning being that even though a year is a long time, you never know if that is enough. So it would be better to build up cash flow to replace living expenses for FU money.

Well, eventually it became apparent that this was no longer just for FU money, but I could actually retire this way...

Right now my taxable account dividends bring in around $23k and my living expenses are $28k. My w-2 income is around $60k.... So, I'm in pretty good shape on the FU money...

[aaronc879]

I walked out on my job in 2011. It was unplanned. One day I just had enough, walked out, and didn't go back. I was 31 at the time and had about $150K and a paid off condo(worth $40K) and was spending under $20K/yr. I never went back to full time work, now 36, I just do contract work about 80 days a year to cover my expenses and let my investments grow untouched.

[cyber888]

I just saw 'The Gambler' again. And when he paid off all his debt and the loan shark (Goodman) said 'here's your extra $100,000, because you're still not in a Fk U you position'. The Gambler goes 'No Thanks, Fk You'. He runs and he felt totally free .. no money, but no debt as well and he can't wait to see his girl.

[r2021t]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hnzw_rui Honestly, I think management has more problems with employees who abuse the system than there are employees who have really horrible supervisors.

Hear, hear. I worked in local government for 30 years. I had my share of crappy bosses, men and women who were the definition of the 'Peter Principle', but the comment above is so true.

Ron

[Options]

Research has shown that managers/supervisors have the most stress in an organization: they are "sandwiched" between the directives from above and the people they supervise. It's not easy supervising, for a number of reasons.

My ex (very good) boss and I used to say if you haven't had at least one bad boss in your career there's something wrong with you. OTOH, Brian Tracy says you can make more progress in your career in one year under a good boss than in five under a bad boss. I saw this so many times I stopped paying attention.

IMO, focusing on "f/u" $ is a mistake. Viewing work this way demonstrates you're taking your career personally, instead of strategically. A million things can go wrong with a job: you lose it without warning because company merges, restructures, a new CEO with much fanfare launches an "exciting new direction" (read: layoffs) the company is taking (which turns out to be fruitless after a few years and his/her several hundred $ golden parachute), your good boss leaves and you get one whose head never leaves a very dark place, your job is eliminated--even one of your so-called "stakeholders" could make life miserable for you.

The key is, if you have personally identified goals and are working on/towards them--the organization and all of its dysfunction will disinterest you. Focus on where you're going, not where you are leaving. You could ask yourself some important questions like: what's the opportunity in this situation and how can I use what's going on to my advantage?; what's my next miracle gonna be?; a year from now how will I be proud of how I handled this situation? Then get busy creating your next awesome job/best-boss-ever situation. I know this works because it is exactly what I did.

Viewing bad work situations from the perspective of what's next for you will allow all the crummy (and quite meaningless) stuff to flow through you like water. Yes, even that bossfromhell will sound like a wah-wah Charlie Brown character because you have made the situation insignificant (once you've realized there's nothing constructive you can do to fix it, of course).