The Fuck-Off Account by Agnes Török

I give this video 10 out of 10 acorns!

I love this video by Agnes Török, because I find this concept to be impactful and meaningful in my own life. Keeping a little bit stashed away is an important factor in being able to get out of sticky situations. and for going out to gain experiences, being able to tell others "fuck-off" when I think the exchange has gone south will be of the utmost importance for being able to maintain my own independence and prevent myself from getting take advantage of at any point.

My life would be much easier, if every broke ass employee I've ever had, had one of those accounts. I'm sure that many of them wanted to tell me to just fuck off, but because of their brokeassness, they remained a thorn in my side, and I in theirs. We could have parted as friends, or at least with me having some shred of respect for them. :-)

Shortly after I moved to British Columbia, I worked for a guy named Brian. He used his superior financial position to walk all over broke employees. He started to make some noise about not wanting to pay me the full amount for a deck I built. He simply offered me 60% of what I had earned, thinking I might take it. I called him many creative names, in front of the customer and then I told the lady that I would be forced to take the chainsaw to the deck, if he didn't pay for its construction. Then I pointed out his nice expensive truck and explained what would happen if I didn't receive the last few hundred dollars. He paid right then. I didn't care about losing that no good job. I had some money saved, that I invested in a better business.

The first " perk" i offered as a new business was a simple ira.

The conversation went like this.

We offer a retirement plan. Each week you put a few dollars in and i match it dollar for dollar (up to x% of your income.).  The brilliant thing - it is your money. You can tell me to screw off next week and quit and that money is yours. I can't get mad and take it back.

I take a different approach in not getting involved in interactions with the potential of needing to tell anyone that in the first place. If you look, you can see where things are headed long before you ever get there, so it's far easier to simply not go there because those words are far too expensive.

I also take a similar approach to personal finances... it's way easier to stay out of debt than it is to go into debt and then try to get out of debt.

I think having an emergency fund is immensely useful. It allows you to handle life's craziness without nearly as much stress. It's good for sudden car troubles, medical emergencies, job transfers, needing to relocate, freak weather, appliance breaking and flooding your house, roof leeking, dealing with horrible people that hate you for no reason and want to sue you, etc, etc, etc.

But, the term "emergency fund" isn't very, shall we say, "sexy." Neither is "retirement funds." A lot of people might not be motivated to do something so drab as to save for a rainy day. They don't want to think about life being uncomfortable or hard...much like people don't want to make a will and reserve a funeral plot. They just don't want to think about that type of reality.

But, if the "emergency fund" gets renamed and reframed into a way of getting back at someone else, it's a whole lot more fun and desirable. It's kind of empowering in a different sense. By renaming it, it changes it from being a defensive fund, to an offensive fund. Being on the offense can be motivating in and of itself.

Honestly, I like the term "emergency fund" better. But if calling it something different is the thing that motivates people to have such a fund, all the more power to them! Sometimes we have to trick our minds to doing a good thing. Sometimes its more fun to do a good thing when it's worded differently. I'm just glad more people are finding a way to get themselves to save money!

I'm going to start calling mine the noose fund or the Sling Blade fund, or the poison dart fund. :-) But, if cooler heads prevail, it could also be used for a phone call and bus fare.