How I Built My FU Money (And Why I Still Needed a Push to Use It)

I planned my way out of corporate for years.

Built the system. Hit my number. And then kept showing up to work anyway - until the decision got made for me.

That's the part I don't talk about enough. Not the strategy. The stalling.

But let's start at the beginning.

It started with FIRE

In 2018, I stumbled into the FIRE community - Financial Independence, Retire Early. And I got obsessed - these were "my people".

Not because I wanted to retire to a beach somewhere. But because for the first time, someone was talking about money as a tool for optionality. The idea that you could build enough that work became a choice - and that hit so close to home.

So I did what any high-earning overachiever does. I went all in.

I maxed my 401k. Maxed my HSA. Set up a Backdoor Roth and maxed that too. Once the tax-advantaged accounts were topped off, everything else went into a taxable brokerage. I stopped buying individual stocks - I'd made some decent picks over the years, but I didn't have the time or bandwidth to do it properly. Index ETFs. Keep it boring. Let it compound. (As us FIRE peeps like to say: "VTI & Chill").

Then I hit CoastFIRE - and everything shifted

CoastFIRE is the point where your existing retirement investments will compound to your target number by traditional retirement age - without adding another dollar. You've done enough. The math takes over from here.

When I ran the numbers and realized I was there, something clicked.

I didn't actually want to retire early. I wanted to retire from work that was not autonomous. I wanted to own my own days. Those are two very different things.

Early retirement sounded like an ending. What I wanted was a beginning - the ability to build something on my own terms without a two-year runway of terror.

So the question changed. It went from how do I reach full FIRE? to what do I actually need to buy myself 2-3 years?

I knew my monthly expenses. I calculated the number. And I started building what I call a "gap plan" - a separate pool of money designed specifically to fund the transition out of corporate and into whatever came next, for the gap before retirement.

I had the plan. I kept stalling.

Here's the part that's harder to admit.

I built the system. I hit CoastFIRE. I had a gap plan. And I still didn't leave.

I told myself I was waiting for the right moment. Waiting until the gap fund was a little bigger. Waiting until the market was better. Waiting until I felt ready.

The truth is I had enough. I just wasn't willing to jump.

Then I got laid off. And the decision I'd been putting off for years got made for me in about twenty minutes.

In hindsight, it was the best thing that could have happened. But I spent a long time building a plan I wasn't willing to execute - and I think a lot of women I work with are sitting in exactly that same place right now.

You have more than you think. You're just waiting for permission you're never going to give yourself.

Here's where I broke my own rules

Once I was out, I was living off the gap plan. And here's where I have to be honest with you.

I kept most of it in equities.

The standard advice - the advice I give my own clients - is to keep 0-3 year money in a High Yield Savings Account. Stable, liquid, boring. That's the best practice for a reason. "Short-term money shouldn't be exposed to market volatility."

I knew this. I teach this. And I made a different call.

I was bullish on the markets. For most of the time since I made that decision, being in equities worked in my favor. The growth more than made up for the risk.

Right now, with the markets down a bit, I'm watching money I need to live on lose value. Not hypothetically. Actually. I know the number and it is not abstract.

I made this decision with open eyes. I understood the risk when I took it. And I'd probably make the same call again given what I knew then - but I want to be clear that this is a real consequence of a real decision, and I'm living it.

Why I'm telling you this

Because I think the most useful thing I can do as a financial coach isn't to give you a perfect playbook. It's to show you how decisions actually play out - including mine.

Here's what I tell every client when we get to questions like this:

How much should I keep in a HYSA? How big should my emergency fund be? Should I pay off debt or invest?

I can give you the textbook answer. I can show you the best practice and explain why it exists. I can also show you what you're giving up by being conservative, or what you're exposed to by being aggressive.

But the decision is yours.

Want to keep 0-3 years in a HYSA because it helps you sleep at night? I'll show you exactly what that costs you in potential growth - and then fully support the decision.

Want to stay in equities because you're bullish and you can stomach the volatility? I'm not going to tell you not to. I literally did the same thing.

Some people want someone else to make the call for them. That's a completely valid preference - and that's what a financial advisor may be able to do for you.

But if you want to understand the framework well enough to make the decision yourself - and own it either way - that's what I do.

I left corporate because I built a system that gave me options I had the plan long before I used it. And honestly, I needed a push.

But the system was there when I needed it. That's the whole point.

That's all I want for you. --

I'm Alana D'Angelica - former tech executive, Fractional CCO, and Financial Coach for high-earning women in tech. If you want help building a financial system that creates real options, give me a shout.