“F* You Money” and What Every Person Needs to Know to Build Their
By Peter J. Merrick, TEP® and Adrian C. Spitters, CFP®, co-authors of the international bestseller It Starts With Gold™ and the forthcoming book Guns, Gold & Land™
This analysis continues a series of long-form investigations published in The Merrick Spitters Reset Report™
By Peter J. Merrick, TEP® author of the #1 International Bestseller It Starts With Gold™
This morning, I was walking along the San Diego harbour, a coffee in one hand and my notepad in the other. The water was calm, the sun was just beginning to rise, but my mind was replaying a scene from the night before.
It was from the 2014 film The Gambler. Mark Wahlberg plays Jim Bennett, a literature professor with money, style, and intelligence… but no will to live. He chases bigger and bigger risks, not for the thrill of winning, but because he doesn’t care if he loses. This is what happens when a person decides that nothing matters.
That belief is called nihilism. It’s the idea that life has no meaning, no purpose, no intrinsic value. I’ve seen it up close… in wealthy clients, in successful business owners, in people who had everything they could want… except a sense of peace.
But there is another way. A better one, shown to the world by a man named Viktor Frankl.
Frankl was an Austrian doctor who was sent to Auschwitz during World War II. He lost his wife, his parents, and his brother in the Nazi death camps. Yet he survived. Not through physical strength, but through meaning. He observed that the people who endured weren’t the strongest; they were the ones with a reason to live. A purpose. A “why.” After the war, Frankl wrote Man’s Search for Meaning, where he introduced logotherapy… the concept that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.
Another thinker who explored this drive was Abraham Maslow, the American psychologist who created the “hierarchy of needs.” At the very top of his pyramid is self-actualization: becoming the fullest version of yourself, realizing your potential, and living with purpose. It isn’t about being rich; it’s about being real and true to the only person that counts… yourself.
This brings me back to the scene in The Gambler. John Goodman, playing a loan shark named Frank, sits in a steam room and delivers one of the most brutally honest monologues in modern film:
“You get up $2.5 million… any asshole in the world knows what to do. You get a house with a 25-year roof… an indestructible Japanese economy shitbox. You put the rest into the system at 3% to 5% to pay your taxes… and that’s your base… your fortress of fucking solitude… That puts you for the rest of your life. That’s your fuck you money. Somebody wants you to do something? Boss pisses you off? Own your house. Have a couple of dollars in the bank. Don’t drink. That’s all I have to say to anybody in any social event.”
I paused the movie. That line hit me hard. After 34 years in finance, working with entrepreneurs and professionals, I know exactly what that kind of freedom looks like. It’s not about the money itself. It’s about owning your time, your choices, and your life.
After my walk this morning, I looked up the full quote and read it again. It crystallizes why so many people feel trapped and what it looks like to finally build a life you don’t want to escape from.
Today, I see too many people gambling on hollow promises… Bitcoin, crypto, the dream of a fast win… hoping it will set them free. But hope without a strategy is just another bet. It doesn’t lead to peace.
That’s why Adrian C. Spitters, CFP® and I wrote It Starts With Gold. Since its release in March 2025, it has become an international bestseller by giving people something solid. No hype. No fear. Just the truth.
In our book, gold has two meanings. First, it’s a real, physical asset that can’t be hacked or inflated away by governments. It exists outside the system. Second, it’s a symbol for de-risking your life and rebuilding it around what truly matters: your relationships, your knowledge, and your freedom.
Now, Adrian and I are finishing the sequel, The Last Asset Standing, set for release in January 2026… if the door hasn’t been closed by then. In it, we explore how digital currencies and centralized control are threatening true independence, and what you can do to protect yours.
Here is the bottom line:
You don’t need $2.5 million. You need your number. The number that buys you breathing room. The number that lets you sleep at night. The number that gives you the foundation to become who you are meant to be.
When a person reaches that point, they stop chasing. They stop pretending. They start building. You can feel it when you’re around them. They have a presence. Because when someone lives with purpose, it shows.
If that’s the life you’re working toward, or if you’re ready to start, I’m here.
To set up a consultation, book me for a podcast, or have me speak to your group, visit the site above. And when The Last Asset Standing is released this January, read it. The world is changing, and now is the time to build something that lasts.
