To me, F-YOU money means "enough to retire today." It means you can live your current lifestyle using just 3% of it per year, which is a pretty normal retirement draw-down rate. Anything less, and it's not really F-YOU money, it's "I can take a brief sabbatical at the cost of adding N more years of work before retirement" money.
Yeah, that's closer to my understanding as well. Not necessarily retirement but a few years of runway perhaps. The 6-12 months thing I've always seen being called an "emergency fund" which in turn is different to your savings which may not be liquid.
There is a HUGE difference between emergency fund and FU$
If my lifestyle currently is:
- summer vacay in Bali
- two ski trips, one US, one in the Alps
- eating out once per week
- daily Starbucks
- …
FU$ means I continue doing EXACTLY this, for 6/12/18 months.
Emergency fund would be I cut down all my expenses to a bare minimum until I find new source of income. Can’t say FU if I can’t go to Bali (I love Bali :) )
Sure, I wouldn't advise taking any expensive vacations or anything of that nature. But what caught my attention were the terms "pants-on-fire emergency" and "I would be interviewing 24/7". I mean I get it would be a stressful situation and may cause anxiety or panic but having those strong emotions could also lead you to end up working in a bad workplace which would make your mental health even worse. I am not judging, but those words just left me wondering what am I missing. And this is speaking as someone with a family to support.
I agree with the zen masters description though. I wouldn't be so zen about it either.
