Are you interested in learning about the secret to perfect happiness? The answer is to make over $500,000 a year, a top one percent income.

In an amazing Gallup poll highlighted by the Wall Street Journal, it says that 100% of those who make more than $500,000 are “very happy”! That’s right. Not 98%. Not 99%. But a pure 100%.

This is a breakthrough research finding that has amazingly received little publicity. When you find perfection, it must be revealed!

Surely this study is more earth-shattering than a University of Alabama PhD finding that those who ate more fried chicken had a higher chance of a stroke. More money, more delirious happiness, not more problems, silly Biggy.

Read: Evidence Making Money Has Never Been Easier

Perfect Happiness Will Save The World

The simple solution to eliminating wars and eradicating all levels of sadness is to make over $500,000.

Folks like Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg, Li Ka Shing, The Walmart clan, Ray Dalio, and anybody who just inherited a bunch of money can make a difference in the lives of so many. All they have to do is donate $425,000 a year to median families given the median household income is roughly $75,000 in 2023.

I want to see a tag-team cage match between Princeton economist Angus Deaton and Princeton psychologist Daniel Kahneman who say that $75,000 is the ideal income for maximum happiness vs. Michigan Public Policy professor Betsey Stevenson (currently serving as a Member of the Council Of Economic Advisers) and Michigan economist Justin Wolfers who conclude that $500,000 is the magic number. Don’t you?

If what Kahneman says is true, that $75,000 is the ideal income for maximum happiness, then why aren’t all Americans truly satisfied with what they have? Ah hah!

F you money. FU money. F*ck you money. It’s all the same. F You Money is having enough money to tell others to F Off without fearing financial repercussions.

I’m sure some of you have dreamt of telling your annoying micromanager to F Off. But you can’t because you still want that raise and promotion.

If you spend any amount of time online, you probably want to tell some folks to F Off as well. But given online is generally forever, you tend to hold your tongue unless someone really offends you.

If you live in an expensive city, you need at least $3 million per person to have F You money. If you live in the heartland, where I continue to buy real estate, you may only need $1 million per person to have F You money.

Hence, one way to get F You Money is to conduct geoarbitrage!

The Origin Of F You Money

The term F You Money seems to have first been mentioned by Johnny Carson in a Rolling Stones interview in 1979 and then by Burt Reynolds in the 1986 movie, Heat.

I’ve heard the term since the 1990s on Wall Street. When Goldman Sachs finally went public in 1999, there were plenty of partners with F You Money walking around the halls.

In fact, I still remember randomly bumping into a 20-year GS partner in Montreal post IPO. He was at a coffee shop on a date with a young woman other than his wife. I was there taking an Asian company management around visiting Caisse de dépôt, a Canadian money manager.

I guess the partner said F You to his marriage! Or maybe not. We never discussed the encounter upon our return to HQ in NYC. That might have been a career-limiting move.

All I know is the GS partner was living it up with his tens of millions in new liquidity. He couldn’t give a damn what anybody thought of him, let alone some peon second-year analyst!

How Much Is Considered F You Money?

Based on over 9,000 votes in the Financial Samurai poll below, $5 million is the #1 vote-getter to feel financially free. To be clear, $5 million is the minimum net worth hurdle, not the maximum.

I personally chose $10 million because $10 million is what’s necessary to generate ~$350,000 in risk-free income based on today’s risk-free rate. However, by taking slightly more risk, $10 million should be able to generate $400,000 – $500,000 a year to live the F You Lifestyle.

When your investments can generate a top 1% income by themselves, that’s clearly F You Money.

Therefore, between $5 million to $10 million seems like a reasonable minimum range before you can consider having F You Money.

The more expensive the location you live in, the higher the hurdle and vice versa. Just don’t forget to keep up with roaring inflation.

Getting ahead based on merit is the ideal scenario. Having success given to you based on anything else strips away the satisfaction of earning what you deserve.

Since 2020, however, there seems to be a growing “war on merit.” The San Francisco School Board voted to end Lowell High School’s entrance exam so that every student could attend in the name of opportunity and equality. As a public school, I understand the rationale.

Over on the east coast, Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High School also decided to eliminate its entrance exam. TJ, as the school is commonly known, is also a public school and is consistently ranked one of the top high schools in the nation.

Growing up in Northern Virginia, I never considered applying to TJ. My parents didn’t push me nor did I have a particularly keen interest in math or science.

I just remember losing a tennis match to TJ’s #1 player, who went on to attend Harvey Mudd College. He’s now a computer engineer at a tech firm and probably makes about $500,000 a year.

In 2022, I published 156 posts on Financial Samurai. Every post is written based on firsthand experience because money is too important to be left up to pontification.

For background, I worked in finance from 1999 – 2012. Along the way, I got my MBA part-time in 2006 and started Financial Samurai in 2009. Since 2009, I’ve written over 2,100 personal finance articles.

Check out my About page for more details. You can also subscribe to my free weekly newsletter where I discuss all things personal finance.

I still haven’t hired a staff writer to help with the workload. But I might in 2023 if I can find a great storyteller who can tackle different personal finance perspectives from firsthand experience.

Given I’m a man, finding a woman, preferably with a finance background is a logical choice. Hit me up if this sounds like you. Hmmm, maybe I can convince my wife to write more in 2H 2023 as well.

In the Fall of 2023, our daughter will start attending preschool three times a week. She’ll be our last child, so we will spend as much time with her as possible before then. In the meantime, I’m sure I can convince my wife to do more podcasts with me, like this Apple episode on loneliness.

My goal on Financial Samurai is to help you achieve financial freedom sooner so you can do more of the things you want. Without further ado, here are the top Financial Samurai posts of 2022.

Not only are we born with creativity, but we also have the power to become more creative with effort. The more creative you are the happier you will likely be. There is a tremendous amount of fulfillment when you create something from nothing.

Being more creative could make you more money as well. It takes creativity to solve problems and start companies. Once you shift more from being a consumer to a creator, good things start to happen.

After all, we are living in the “creator economy” where anybody with enough courage to put themselves out there has the ability to make money online. Sure, we might get ridiculed. But those who ridicule are too afraid to try themselves!

Making money only from your day job is so 1990s. Now, having a side hustle that harnesses our creativity to bring in extra income is more commonplace. With extra income, we could ultimately achieve financial freedom sooner. And once we achieve financial freedom, then we can take even more creative risks!