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I'm curious what the opinion of people here is as far as how much F-U-Money is "enough". Obviously it probably depends on your goals, but is there a reliable way of calculating the amount needed?

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In the context of this article, $50k was my level where I stopped doing work I didn't necessarily "want" to do. Once I had that amount of money, I stopped hunting out for work and let work hunt me out while working on things that mattered to me.

In terms of the larger "for life" FU money, that's one helluva calculation but it's been attempted in several posts on HN I believe. Paying off the mortgage and $50k p.a. for life would do it for me because I'd keep doing things that earned more money anyway. That'd just be enough to live reasonably comfortably if I got ill or whatever.

For those curious on where those calculations are (like I was), some of them are here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=295822

It depends on where you live, and what your minimum standard of living is. I will accept a low standard of living when its in pursuit of a goal, but just normal living here in Florida, I want about 50 k per year. Not a vast sum of money. Once I've got that, its hard to get me to change what I'm doing, unless its something I want on my own.

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