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2 HN recommenders · recommended in 9 months, 2018–2023
4:44 · 1.6M views · Jul 17, 2015
A short clip from the film The Gambler in which John Goodman's character gives a monologue about the 'position of fuck you': building enough financial security that you owe nobody anything. The scene is a compact statement of financial independence as freedom.
HN points to it as the source and best distillation of 'fuck you money', in threads about FIRE, windfalls, layoffs and financial literacy.
9 comments from Hacker News
First of all, congrats. You are in a great situation, now you just have to manage it to allow you to live your life the way you want from here on out. The very first thing I'd do is watch this video (it's a famous scene from the movie The Gambler ). this video The basic idea is to establish your "position of 'Fuck You'". You basically have that already... house paid for, cars paid for, etc. Put enough of your money aside in conservative, safe, long-term investments that you'll never be hurting for money. Include things like your kids college tuition or whatever things are important to you. Once you have that, even if you blow the rest of the money on toys, sex, drugs, rock 'n roll, whatever, you always have the ability to say "fuck you" to anybody who hassles you. Beyond that, you can decide if you want to try and grow your wealth by investing and actively managing your money. Maybe you would want to do some angel investing, who knows? Or maybe you want to engage in some philanthropy. You probably don't have enough money to get a hospital named after you, but you could buy uniforms for the local high-school band group, or donate to a local volunteer fire department, or any number of things. Should you continue to work? It's up to you... my guess is that if you flat-out retire at your age you'll find yourself bored pretty quickly, but it depends on what kinds of things you choose to engage in. Maybe there are some hobbies that have been latent in the back of your mind, that you w
You might accuse me of being glib in saying this, but this scene from the movie The Gambler[1] contains a lot of wisdom. The movie as a whole is moderately OK, but this scene really distills a lot of good stuff into a few minutes. this video [1]: [LINK]
Lots of great answers in this thread about finding meaning after your base needs are taken care of. I'd like also include this clip about setting up a Position of Fuck You (a stable base from which you can launch riskier endeavours) this video
Anyone have tips to avoid this? Avoid? No. It probably can't be avoided in the long-run. But you can mitigate the effects. A great take on this can be mined from this little rant by John Goodman's character in The Gambler : this video
this video Frank: You get up two and a half million dollars, any asshole in the world knows what to do: you get a house with a 25 year roof, an indestructible Jap-economy shitbox, you put the rest into the system at three to five percent to pay your taxes and that's your base, get me? That's your fortress of f ing solitude. That puts you, for the rest of your life, at a level of f you. Somebody wants you to do something, f * you. Boss pisses you off, f * you! Own your house. Have a couple bucks in the bank. Don't drink. That's all I have to say to anybody on any social level. Did your grandfather take risks? Jim Bennett: Yes. Frank: I guarantee he did it from a position of f * you. A wise man's life is based around f * you. The United States of America is based on f * you. You have a navy? Greatest army in the history of mankind? F * you! Blow me. We'll f * it up ourselves.