As defined by the “Urban Dictionary,” “F_ _k you money” is “the exact amount of money required in order to tell an individual or organization to go f_ _k themselves without facing repercussions.” In more polite company, I would call it walk-away money, which will allow you to walk away from any job, business, investment, transaction, relationship, anyone or anything without any terminal consequences for your actions.
The thing with walk-away money is that there is no fixed amount of how much you need: it depends on the individual on how much he can manage to live on, or perhaps even if the person is willing to live with certain sacrifices to be able to walk away from something. In many cases, particularly for less capable individuals, they are not interested in walk-away money; they just want to keep their jobs and cash flow and are willing to simply swallow their pride and follow the orders of their boss, not rock the boat and not take risks.
What then are the types of people who are willing to walk away? First are principled people who will walk away from something if it goes against what they believe in, and they will do it regardless if they have money or not. I have seen such people quit their jobs with no backup plan or walk-away money. Certainly strong willed people with character! Perhaps not the most practical way of going through life, but they have my admiration and respect.
Then we have those people who slowly accumulate and build up their resources and take all the crap thrown at them until they are able to have enough walk-away money. Are they any less principled than those people who are able to walk away without a parachute? I will certainly not be the judge of that. Perhaps their obligation to their families who depend on them prevents them from taking unilateral action.
Being fortunate enough to have earned, inherited or in any way built up walk-away money is equivalent to having freedom. The big question is if financial independence is equivalent to freedom. Of course money cannot buy everything, but it certainly comes close. The freedom to travel, live anywhere you want, choose your friends, have a good life and do anything you please as long as it is within the bounds of law is made possible by having money.
The key is to be able to have walk-away money when it still matters and under your own terms. It does not make sense to put your walk-away money to good use when you are already at your deathbed. The true purpose using walk-away money is to prove a point—yours! If you have a boss that gets on your nerves and acts as if he was the rain maker, you could do something about it by walking away and watching the house of cards collapse.
The risk is when the business you walked away from does not suffer but actually thrives, which shows that perhaps you have been giving yourself too much credit.
At any rate, having walk-away money is always a good thing to have. It allows you to keep your options open, keep your dignity, principles and live with yourself. However, being able to have enough walk-away money is another matter.
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