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Comment by ryandrake | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

Yes, AND if you're using your emergency fund then you should be in an emergency mindset, not chilling out surfing in Bali.

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.

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