Calculating Your FU Money Amount

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Yesterday’s post What’s Your FU Money Amount prompted several great comments and tweets. Stephen Flemming chimed in with his target FU money amount from several years ago:

http://twitter.com/#!/StephenFleming/statuses/75752957307658240

Seeing Stephen reference $42 million made me think it would be interesting to calculate FU money assuming a “Buckhead fabulous” lifestyle. Here’s how that might be calculated assuming a 30 year horizon with no inflation and no interest/appreciation:

House – $1.5 million
Beach house on 30A – $2 million (@lance prefers Rosemary Beach)
The Westminster Schools for three kids ($20k/child/year) for 12 years – $720k
Ivy League college for four years @ $50k/year/child – $600k
Living expenses/property taxes/etc @ $150k year for 30 years – $4.5 million
Two nice cars @ $10k/year/car for 30 years – $600k
Two $50k angel investments per year for 30 years – $3 million
Total: $12,920,000

So, a little south of $13 million of after tax dollars in the bank gets you a “Buckhead fabulous” lifestyle in one of the wealthiest communities in the Southeast with extra to spare.

What do you think? How would you calculate your FU money?

Comments

15 responses to “Calculating Your FU Money Amount”

June 1, 2011

Mike Schinkel

“Two $50k angel investments per year for 30 years – $3 million”

Looks like you are planning for all your investments to fail…? 😉

Reply
1. June 1, 2011
  
  David Cummings
  
  Good point :-). Yes, it assumes those are “donations”
  
  Reply
  1. June 1, 2011
    
    Mike Schinkel
    
    Well, then while you are handing out those $50k “donations”… 😉
2. June 1, 2011
  
  Ajai Karthikeyan
  
  Sounds like my version of Vegas math! Play with what you are ok with losing. And then start playing with the winnings (if and when they happen but don’t account for it).
  
  Reply
  1. June 1, 2011
    
    Mike Schinkel
    
    Yeah, but if you can’t get at least a few good 10x returns from 60 investments: Ur reely doin sumtin rong!
June 1, 2011

Jon Birdsong

David,

Love this series. We are talking about FU money! FU money is gaudy, opulent, and over-the-top; I’m assuming FU stands for what I think you think it stands for — but perhaps not.

“FU!” money includes:

– Private Jet (10-15 mil)
– Hunting Lodge in South Georgia – (15 mi)
– Yearly campaign contributions – (50-100k)
– Memberships at Peachtree, Seminole, Augusta, Pine Valley, Merion, Cypress Point, Shinnecock (750k)
– Yearly vacations (30-50k)
– – Lastly, your readers know the best education in Atlanta isn’t at Westminster. For well-rounded students, send them to Pace.

So what is that? Let’s just ballpark it around $60-$75 mil — on the conservative end.

Best,
Jon

Reply
June 1, 2011

Stephen Fleming

Inflation will eat you alive. Factor that in, and even a more modest lifestyle over a longer life expectancy will produce surprising numbers.

Reply
June 2, 2011

Kenji Kuramoto

Love this post! I’ve run this calculation over the years and I wish I had kept better track of it so I could have plotted the FU amount against my age. I’m guessing the peak of that data set was around age 24 where I actually needed less (no kids and unmarried) but had that ever so dangerous combination of shameless ego and complete naivety. Funny how that number seems to go down now not just due my continued shortening time on this planet but also my greater ease in giving an FU to a situation when needed! 🙂

Reply
June 2, 2011

Stephen Fleming

Alright, I decided to recreate my long-ago spreadsheet as a Google Doc so everyone can play. My assumptions are not carved in stone, and you should use your own. In particular, I suspect that both inflation and total taxes will be higher as the US slips into a European-style social democracy.

http://bit.ly/FUmoney

Please only change the cells in blue. (No per-cell locking in Google Spreadsheets… boo!)

You might be surprised at how much money you need to live in the style to which you would like to become accustomed. Compound interest is a bitch.

Reply
1. June 2, 2011
  
  Stephen Fleming
  
  Mostly now I’m screwing around to see if my gravatar shows up. I should be sleeping.
  
  Reply
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January 13, 2012

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