It seems that FU Money is mostly about confidence and attitude, which you shouldn't need a ton of money at Vanguard to assume. Has anybody ever done something or see someone else do something that you'd want FU Money for and then have it backfire? Have you ever been fired or see somebody else get fired because you put your foot down on something or other? I'm curious how much of the fear that people have at work is truly justified.
If I was lucky, I had enough non-retirement savings to last ~2 years at this point. There is no bluff here, this was me doing what is right, come heck or high water. My responsibility is to be a good steward for shareholders (which means delighting customers, et al). But it also means there has to be accuracy in what we do. Keep in mind, summaries of these values discussed below had appeared in public reports, so this was serious business - post-Enron, SEC level corporate statement serious. So I took these discussions and the analysis very seriously, as I could have to defend the numbers in a court of law...
In July of year Y, after being transferred into a role in a reorg and after being in the role for a reasonable time (>18 months) I spoke to my manager, effectively saying "I'm not sure I'm fit for this job, can I get your support in trying to find something new within the company". Manager borderline threw a temper tantrum - "You're too valuable", et al. Okay, maybe my performance wasn't as bad as I thought...
In October of Year Y, I received my full sales compensation for the Nth quarter in a row (quota based, not direct commission, but the management can tweak the $ value)... indicating I was on target (and at that point I didn't think much of the July discussion anymore)
In November of that year, we closed Deal E. Manager thought it was worth $D. I thought more like $D/10. However, since it required a non-sales person to sign off on the value, I ended up in that negotiation. I believe it settled something around $D/3. (Keep in mind $D>>$10M, so this is definitely material $ we are talking about)
Come December 31, manager, for the first time in 15+ years, did not achieve 100% of quota. Manager would have, if deal had been paid at $D.
First week of January, I'm now an underperformer (despite growing sales >50% YoY). Third week of January, I receive worst possible rating for Year Y, with a severe cut to my quota based $ payment. Fourth week of January, I'm out of that job. All because, as best I can tell, my ethical standards about being accurate in sales prediction.
Now the "happy accident" here is that back in the September time frame I had started to look for other roles myself, but had not received a committed offer... but in the time between Dec 31 and late January, another manager I had been talking with pulled some strings. So actually when it came to that fourth week of January, the discussion wasn't "Your role is eliminated", it was "Your role is eliminated, but we're transferring you over to department T effective tomorrow. Don't let the door hit you on the way out"
p.s. Was promoted the following year (Y+2)
p.p.s. My forecast was aggressive. Actual value was <$D/10