When I told my parents I was heading up to Minnesota for Camp FI Midwest this year, I found myself having to answer an interesting question back from them.
You see, while I’ve told my parents about my goal of Financial Independence in my 30’s (and they are very supportive), I haven’t mentioned anything about other people in pursuit of this, just that based on the math it can be done.
So when I found myself having to explain just exactly what it was I was going to, they asked me a pretty funny question in return:
“Are you joining some kind of cult?”
I couldn’t help but laugh at that comment and assured them I was not getting caught up in some kind of scam.
Thinking back on it though, perhaps this whole movement really is a cult.
We’re a relatively small group of people that are brought together by this movement towards Financial Independence. The outside, consumer driven world does not understand why we do what we do.
While individuals may differ, we all have a common goal that we are working towards and in which we can share tips, methods, strategies or simply encouragement along the journey.
Maybe we’re one of the rare good cults out there!
Armed with this knowledge, I braced myself for an experience differing from anything I’ve ever done before.
Camp FI Midwest
So what does it look like when a cult has a 3-4 day gathering?
Here’s a copy of our actual schedule:
As you can see, it’s not all spreadsheets and retirement calculators (though those aren’t discouraged!)
Along with getting the chance to listen to some excellent speakers and their presentations, there was plenty of free time/socializing time built in.
While the presentations were fantastic and I took away many things from them, it was really during meals and the free time which was so great. It was here where I got to meet so many new people and speak with them in a socialized setting!
Conversing with everyone and just listening and learning their stories was super inspiring.
The journey to Financial Independence can be a slog at times, but it’s invigorating getting encouragement and advice from people who have already been there and done that.
Presentation Takeaways
We were extremely fortunate to have the line up of speakers we had. All were extremely popular and influential bloggers, most of which I’ve followed more or less since finding out about Financial Independence.
As a history guy, you could say this was a Mount Rushmore line up! (if there were 6 slots on Mount Rushmore of course 🙂 )
Physician on FIRE gave a great speech on FIRE with children and the unique benefits and challenges they’ve ran into along the way.
Most assume that in order to become financially independent early on in life you can’t have children, but he and his family are walking proof that’s not necessary!
Chad from Coach Carson talked about how to use real estate to become financially independent. Chad’s story is amazing and this topic was extremely relevant for me as my next big goal is to purchase my first real estate property.
Cait Flanders was next up, and her presentation was all about her story and #minimalism. This was super inspiring to me.
Although I don’t consider myself having a ton of things, there’s still plenty of stuff I have which I probably don’t need. I need to do a spring cleaning soon!
The next day, Anthony from Break The Twitch spoke about intentional living and breaking the “twitch” – the involuntary physical reaction that happens such a when you look at your phone standing in line, or purchasing something online “just because”.
This speech really resonated with me, as I’ve been working on decreasing my smart phone and social media usage throughout the year, to mixed results.
Tanja from Our Next Life gave a very in-depth and personal look at the expectations vs reality of early retirement. She also led a fantastic breakout session about healthcare which touched on a ton of things that I did not realize.
Last, but certainly not least, Carl (aka Mr. 1500) from 1500 Days gave a very humorous and memorable take on some of the things he’s learned in early retirement. He calls himself an introvert, but it was tough to tell based on his speeches!
Other Takeaways
– Being a first timer and hardly knowing anyone, it was a little intimidating to go up and speak with some of the big name bloggers that were there. What was amazing was just how down to earth, normal and helpful they were. With people like these as the faces of the FIRE movement, it’s no wonder it’s seen as an open, welcoming and encouraging community.
– The diversity in the paths to FIRE at camp were truly amazing. I met people from all over the spectrum. Single income with kids/no kids. Dual income with kids/no kids. Single people, married people. There were even some people in college that came! Getting to hear all these different perspectives was truly amazing.
– Mixing alcohol + Cards Against Humanity never fails to be a good time.
– It was surprising to see where everyone traveled in from. Though obviously most were within driving distance, it seemed there were people that came from all over the country, including a few from nearby myself in the DC area!
– Noah from Money Metagame really knows his stuff when it comes to travel hacking. As I am pretty new to it, it was great to bounce ideas and strategies off him. Also – if you think you are good at corn hole (or bag toss) you clearly have not played a game with Noah before.
– After speaking with Kevin from Financial Panther in person, he may have convinced me to start up a small side hustle similar to the things he’s been writing about. Doing this ain’t gonna make me rich, but it’s a little extra cash that wouldn’t be too inconvenient for me and can certainly help out! Stay tuned!
– On the one hand I’m sad I didn’t get a ton of pictures of the retreat center and presentations as it was a beautiful place. On the other I was happy as that meant I had my phone put away and was taking full advantage of meeting and speaking with as many people as I could! Here’s the one good photo that I got down by the river:
Concluding Thoughts
There were so many good things to take away from my first Camp FI experience.
While a lot my my takeaways from camp were things to focus on in the future, I’ve already taken some steps to help me out currently (such as FINALLY moving my phone charger off my night stand to across the room so I don’t look at my phone first thing in the morning anymore).
The weekend was an absolute blast, and I’m hoping the new friends I made are ones that last a long time!
I’m already looking forward to the 2019 Camp FI Mid-Atlantic in Virginia that I signed up for back in June. Hopefully I can make even more friends there as well!
Special thanks to Gwen at Fiery Millennials and Erik at The Mastermind Within for being so welcoming and such great hosts before and after camp. It was appreciated more than you can imagine!
Have you or would you ever consider going to an event like this? If you have attended one, how was it different from what you expected?
*Cover photo cred to Kevin and his awesome drone!
Man, that’s a lot of white people! Welcome to Minnesota, darn tootin! 😉
Sorry I missed a golden opportunity to meet you while you were in my backyard, YFK. Maybe next year!
Glad you got to meet Carl, Bianca, Gwen, Erik, and Kevin. I’ve been fortunate to meet these class acts in person. I’m betting Erik won at Cards Against Humanity. I’d put my money on him every time. 🙂
Haha yes it was definitely a bummer to have missed you while up there! I’m sure our paths will cross some time in the future 🙂
But yes I was so happy to meet them all and make some new friends. Jealous you get to see most of them whenever you want!
Hah the lack of pictures/having your phone also meant you don’t have any surprise pictures of dinosaurs like I did!
While obviously our DC meetups are awesome, I’m glad you got to go to a larger event this year instead of having to wait until next year for that. Welcome to the cult! 😉
Haha yep.. I’m always paranoid I’ll lose my phone if I set it down somewhere unfamiliar so it stayed in my pocket all camp which was good by me!
Yes I was so happy the opportunity came up!
Sounds like an interesting event! Now your parents are going to google the “cult” and come across your blog 😂
I’m not sure my shy, introverted self would have the courage to attend something like this, but glad you liked it and learned a bunch!
Hahaha I certainly hope not! I’ll tell them eventually, but for now I’m ok with keeping this my little secret.
Ah you should definitely give it a shot sometime! There were tons of introverts there, but the format is extremely welcoming and open which makes it a fun time for everyone!
Great to meet you at CampFI. And let me know if Bird works for you!. They added some Bird nests that are on my way to work, so I’ve now added it to my daily routine. I grab a bunch the night before, ride them all to the Bird nest, then bike the rest of the way to my office.This can add up when you think about it – I’ve been stacking 3 or 4 at a time and making $15-25 each morning on my way to work. I think it’s possible to do this every day. Make $75 a week, or $300 a month while you’re commuting to work for free on a scooter.
Absolutely! Just captured my first ones the other night! We’ll see how often I do it, but the opportunity to make a few extra bucks each month can total up to something much bigger and really help out. All for doing something I would normally do on my own!
This sounds like a great experience. Just from what you posted, I have found a ton of great resources. Thank you. This now has me thinking about such events that must be in my region. I’m going to have to look around.
Absolutely! Yes there are tons of amazing bloggers out there and I’m sure there’s some kind of FI community in your region!
I had a hard time explaining FinCon to my parents… I just keep saying it’s my “money nerds conference.”
Glad to hear it was another awesome CampFI experience. I’m going to have to attend someday!
Haha yes money needs was also a term I used to describe us..
Definitely should try to attend though! I think there are a couple Florida camp FI’s in January so it could be worth checking out!
Gainesville is still mighty far away for those of us in South Florida, or I probably would have attended the past 2 years
Ahh gotcha, yea Florida is definitely quite long, couldn’t remember which part you were in!
Unfortunately I didn’t get the W! Bianca was the big winner 🙂
Next time you’ll have to get there!!!
Great time meeting and hanging out with you and everyone else at Camp!
I’m excited to chat again in the near future about our corporate job FOMO and wanting to take time off. Looking forward to seeing where you go in the coming months financially with a great foundation 🙂
Had great times with you as well Erik! Thanks again for everything you did.
I’m sure we’ll definitely be talking more in future months, and it’ll be great to see us both develop along this journey!
Such a fun weekend!! So looking forward to Cents Positive in November.
Yes I’m sure it’ll be a great time! Jealous I can’t go to meet you there! (I know it’s just for women 🙂)
Ha yeah, not this one, but hopefully at a meetup or conference someday! Perhaps we will both go to fincon next year.
You are more than welcome! Having you and Erin there was a nice way to ramp up and ramp down around the weekend. See ya around!
Definitely! I’m sure we’ll see each other again sometime in the near future! Will totally be working on my euchre skills in the meantime 🙂
Sounds like a great time. It’s on my goal list for 2019!
Yea definitely gotta go to one of them if you can! Either in your region or go check out a new city like I did!
Great to read an account from a Camp FI newbie considering it’s only been 9 months since I was writing about my first one. I’m definitely hooked and looking forward to the next one; definitely planning to be at the mid atlantic again next year. Looking forward to meeting you there or at one of the DC meetups if I ever finally make it to them…
Yes I’d love to meet up! Heard you’ve been ducking us at the DC meet ups 😉 if not, definitely can’t wait until next years mid Atlantic camp!
We should have a guys “FOMO” event the same time as Cents Positive 😁
Do you get a long white robe with that cult membership? Nice write up, everyone said it was a great event!
Yea it was! You should sign up for the Mid Atlantic event in Virginia next year 🙂