My f*ck-off fund changed my life. Do you have one yet?

Guest blog by Jenna Thomas

“Have you thought about quitting your job?”

It was a reasonable question from my therapist. I was a crying, burnt-out wreck sitting across from her, but I still managed to scoff through my tears.

”Quit? Without another job lined up? Absolutely not.”

With threats of recession looming and the tech industry going through massive upheaval, quitting a well-paid job that I was good at seemed like a crazy financial risk…that is, until I remembered the f*ck-off fund that I had started on a whim several years earlier.

What is a f*ck-off fund?

I learned about saving as a young kid, but it wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned about “the f*ck-off fund.” 

The idea is that one day, you’ll need to f*ck off to get out of a relationship, or quit a job without something else lined up. Your f*ck-off fund is there to catch you, to be spent guilt-free when you need it. 

This is real self-care—having the resources you need to make a healthy decision for your future or save yourself from a situation that’s destroying your mental health.

How is a f*ck-off fund different than a traditional emergency savings?

Emergency savings or a rainy-day fund are meant to cover unplanned, urgent, non-optional expenses—a sudden leak in the roof, a car accident, losing your job, maybe a sudden need to move so you can take care of a sick relative.

Deciding it’s time to quit a job for the sake of your mental health doesn’t meet the traditional parameters of an “emergency.” Leaving a relationship and needing to move out on short notice might not be an emergency either. But they both cost money.

Having money that’s separate from your emergency savings means that when it’s time to put yourself first, you can spend your f*ck-off fund guilt-free and leave that rainy-day fund untouched.

Starting a f*ck-off fund

When I first heard about the idea of a f*ck-off fund in 2018 or 2019, I was (and still am) happily married and was then employed in a full-time job. But I knew that life is unpredictable, and it’s always a good idea to have some money set aside. I couldn’t afford to contribute an additional amount beyond what I was already sending to my 401(k), Roth IRA, and emergency savings, so I decided to get a little creative.

My first step was moving my emergency savings into a money market fund, where it would generate a higher yield than the high-yield savings account where it already was. Plus, from this brokerage account, I would be able to invest any cash that exceeded my emergency savings threshold (for me, this was $5,000).

Managing and growing a f*ck-off fund

When I had $5,000 in emergency savings cash stashed away in this account, I didn’t stop contributing to it—I kept sending whatever cash I had leftover at the end of the month, and I invested those additional contributions (I chose a mix of index funds and ESG funds focused on gender equality).

After a little while, there were two sums of money in this account—the cash and the investments. The cash in my money market account functioned as emergency savings—I didn’t touch it, but it remained liquid in case I needed it at a moment’s notice. The money I had invested grew as I continued contributing more, and it also generated dividends, increasing the amount of cash I had available as emergency savings. I continued contributing and investing for several years, and every so often I would re-invest the dividends.

Deciding to use a f*ck-off fund

When my therapist posed that gentle, meaningful question—”have you thought about quitting your job?”—it was nearing the end of 2022 and I was in the midst of the most intense burnout episode I have ever experienced. 

Ten years into my career, five years into a switch to the tech industry, and nearly three years into a global pandemic, I was at my wit’s end. As much as I loved my job, I had spent the pandemic giving it 100% of my attention. I had gone through multiple acquisitions and mergers, survived layoffs, and continually added new projects to my “other duties as assigned” list so that I’d be indispensable to my team. And on top of my full-time job, I was devoting another 10-20 hours a week to finding a new job, one where I could get promoted. I was miserable, the pace was unsustainable, and something had to give.

After I went home from that (very emotional) session, I thought about my options. I was  opposed to quitting without another job lined up - but I knew I couldn’t make a healthy decision about my future when I was so burnt out. My f*ck-off fund occurred to me…if I hadn’t started it with this very scenario in mind, then what was it really for?

Several more weeks passed while I weighed the decision to quit, calculated budgets based on how much I had already saved, and continued applying and interviewing for new jobs. Finally, I made up my mind—I decided to work for two more months, putting every extra dollar into my f*ck-off fund so I’d have enough for six potential months without income. When I hit that date, I gave my notice and also stopped applying for new jobs. My first month of unemployment was a gift—no work, no thinking about work, and no trying to get work—a gift that I couldn’t have afforded without my f*ck-off fund.

That month-long break from my career gave me the space I needed to see things clearly, and when it ended, I knew what I wanted to do next—or more accurately, what I didn’t want to do next. 

I couldn’t stomach the thought of another full-time, in-house job. I wanted to keep waking up in the morning and spending a couple of hours on something other than work. I wanted to log off at 4pm and not have a list in my head of all the people who were probably still online and might be emailing me. In short, I wanted to work for myself. The idea had seemed radical to me when I was employed full-time, and I never would have considered it without the space to re-evaluate my priorities.

When I felt like the worst of the burnout was behind me, I started freelancing. I’ve been taking it slow, so the money has been slow to follow. But that $5,000 in emergency savings is still untouched. I’ve been using a combination of dividends and proceeds from selling my investments to pay the bills. 

More importantly, I’m embarking on an entirely new chapter of my career: learning new skills, determining and enforcing my own boundaries, and showing up for myself in ways I didn’t know I was capable of. All thanks to my f*ck-off fund.

Do you need a f*ck-off fund?

Maybe you can see yourself in a similar situation to mine—burnt out and needing a career sabbatical—or an entirely different situation that may require some funding. Or maybe you feel like you’ve got it all pretty much figured out, you’re settled in your career and your home life, and you’re not sure you’ll ever need to f*ck off out of a bad situation.

The reality is, you never know what the future brings, and a f*ck-off fund is merely one more path to financial independence. And if you’re a member of The Pledgettes or reading this blog, I have a hunch that financial independence is important to you.

Setting a goal to simply start a f*ck-off fund is a great first step. If you’re looking for accountability and support while you set financial goals, learn more about The Pledgettes here.

Disclaimer: The Pledgettes is a financial community where people share their financial experiences. Experiences are powerful to share but this is not financial advice or what you “should” do. The Pledgettes does not provide specific investing or financial advice. The Pledgettes does not guarantee future results (our crystal ball to the future is broken today). You are the CEO of your money: learn from other’s experiences, build your Financial A-Team and confidently go forth.