I may have been a little nervous about attending CampFi Rocky Mountain during the Coronavirus. I had no interest in accidentally catching the Rona from one of the attendees, but I did know what the Coronavirus mandates were in the state of Colorado and because it was in my state and a quick drive from my house, I felt it was worth going to. I’m glad I did. For four days and three nights I had the opportunity to connect with other F.I.R.E. focused folks, time to relax and reenergize in beautiful Colorado Springs, and the chance to share my views on lifestyle design and slow F.I.R.E. in my session “10 Lessons I Learned from Accidental Slow F.I.R.E.” If you’re thinking about going to a CampFi event near you give this show a listen!
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Listen to the Show
Show Notes
- What exactly is CampFi? It is a series of small in-person F.I.R.E. focused events hosted through out the United States. It’s the creation of Stephen Baughier and has grown in size and visibility since its inception a few years ago. Stephen is an incredibly nice guy and super chill btw so it’s hardly surprising that the vibe of the event echoes his energy.
- For me, CampFi’s charm is in it’s building of community, simplicity of focus (all aspects of F.I.R.E.) and the fact that the events are purposely small and cozy.
- The event that I attended had about 30 attendees but would typically be around 50 or 60 pre-Covid. The range between 30-60 is ideal for me as an attendee because it’s so much easier to have substantive conversations with the other attendees and to avoid overwhelm. The fact that there were 30 attendees actually was reassuring to me because I felt that it would be easier to manage our interactions during this time.
- There is an intentional focus on the overall cost and I appreciated that the venue, the St. Francis Retreat Center, that we were at served 3 meals a day. It was not cordon bleu but if the nuns can eat the food every day so could we. I should mention that the nuns and staff were wonderful and we saw deer and fawns all day long. I couldn’t get enough of those cute little babies!
- Each event has different content because each speaker has a unique spin that they bring to the conversation. J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly shared a new talk focused on the history of F.I.R.E. I got to share my theory that Thoreau, who wrote Walden and Civil Disobedience was into F.I.R.E. it was confirmed that he was. J.D. actually texted Vicki Robin, co-author of the book Your Money or Your Life, to confirm. Mr. Refined by F.I.R.E. shared how he is teaching his kids about money and creating future millionaires during the process. I will now be sending my future kids and my friends to his content about this because it was so good. And Mr. Slowly Sipping Coffee talked about hitting F.I.R.E. and then the unexpected happens like: divorce, Black Swan events, or something that changes or affects your long-term numbers.
- Some thoughts about attending F.I.R.E. events and what I’ve noticed.
- I’ve attended Cents Positive, CampFi, and have connected with a number of Mustachians and what I keep noticing is that I’m often one of the few, or the only, POC at these events. I know that there are POC F.I.R.E. folks and so I’m trying to figure out why they aren’t attending these events. By the way, we are dealing with a pandemic currently so I 100% understand if people are reluctant to travel. However, most of my observations are based on experiences prior to the pandemic.
- There is a high percentage of high income earners at these events which makes me ask the following question-if you’re not a high income earner is F.I.R.E. even possible? I think it is, but I think it’s dependent on having a low debt load and financial knowledge plus discipline and career/job longevity.
- Representation matters-I belong to a number of online financial communities. One of the things that I noticed right away is that different questions are asked in the different communities and the responses to those questions are different. In the Women’s F.I.R.E. groups you’ll have questions about access to funds, spouses who suck at money, or conversations about negotiating raises and navigating childcare. I belong to a group for POC women in F.I.R.E. and they often talk about lived experiences as women of color in addition to various aspects of money. I also notice a much hire percentage of community members discussing how they are factoring in family obligations into their F.I.R.E. number.
- My point in bring these things up is that these events are so important in creating an eco-system that helps F.I.R.E. focused folks hit F.I.R.E.
- I’ve decided to add 2 days of F.I.R.E. focused content to my event “Money on the Mountain” to help highlight POC F.I.R.E. community members and get a chance to learn from them as well.
So, should you attend CampFi? Yes! I had a wonderful time and it was just what the doctor ordered as I finish a huge part of my financial journey. I’m just about done paying off my unsecured debt in the next couple of weeks and about to go all in on wealth accumulation. While I still have student loans, the simplicity of my current financial life blows my mind. I’m looking forward to attending another CampFi and learning more from people who’ve achieved paper and bank F.I.R.E. I still have a lot to learn.
Resources
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