Captain DIY Goes to Camp FI-Again!

That brings up a solid example of why I have gone to two of these camps in the first place: it’s all about community. I made real friends in Arkansas, and I had the opportunity to further kindle one of those friendships in Virginia. I can honestly say, after my experiences at these camps, that I now have friends across the country who would welcome me into their home. I would do the same, but for some reason no one seems to want to come to Massachusetts.

By the way, he would never say anything like that about himself. In fact, he will do everything he can to steer the conversation to someone else to avoid the limelight, which really shows the honesty of his community-building intentions. If you are thinking of Camp FI as an opportunistic business venture and nothing else, I invite you to put yourself out there, go to one of the camps, and have a chat with Stephen. You’ll soon see what I mean.

As people started arriving, I was pleasantly surprised by some familiar faces from Arkansas, while still being introduced to a bunch of new ones. Oddly enough, a handful of those new faces were from Massachusetts! Some from a town less than 20 minutes from my house! We just had to fly to Virginia to meet each other!

This camp started much like the other one had, with introductions, jokes, and small talk. The crowd was a bit larger this time, which made it more difficult to get to know everyone, but it was still a small enough group to avoid feeling overwhelming.

That being the first day, the scheduled activities were limited to the meet-and-greet, which was followed by dinner and partying by a campfire. My kind of Friday night!

Tanja and Mark of Our Next Life fame each gave inspiring talks about the 4% rule and life after retirement.

Doug Nordman of The Military Guide spoke about raising financially smart children (which led me to be more proactive about the Bank of Mom and Dad when I got home).

Grant Sabatier of Millennial Money regaled us with his harrowing journey from nearly penniless to financially independent, along with handing out free copies of his new book Financial Freedom.

Brad and Jonathan of Choose FI spoke about designing your life in an optimal way before you reach FI, which really provoked me to try a lot of new things upon returning to life.

Justin from Root of Good spoke about ways to enjoy life when you are post-FI. Unfortunately I missed this talk, as the lure of the pool and the beautiful weather was simply too strong for my poor tired mind to ignore. Sorry Justin! I really do feel guilty about that, mostly because there are pools everywhere, but Justin isn’t giving speeches in my in-laws’ backyard. Oh well, lesson learned.

I want to point out here that I am giving incredibly brief descriptions of the talks here because I’m no good at recounting stuff like that, and also because Deanna from Ms. Fiology, who is someone I had been really hoping to meet and is absolutely awesome in person, did a way better job than I could ever do. I highly recommend checking out her Camp FI recap article when you’re done with this one.

Beyond that, the Camps are sprinkled with a couple of big chunks of free time, in which there were all kinds of recreational activities, not the least of which was drinking epic amounts of beer and playing Slam Ball, or Spike Ball, or whatever it is the kids are calling it these days.

My main takeaway from this second Camp FI experience, if I had to pick something to focus on, would be the power of community. The Financial Independence journey can feel daunting at times, boring at times, even a little bit pie-in-the-sky at times. That’s a real expression, by the way. Look it up. Anyway, when you’re feeling a little bit put-off by the whole thing, that is the time to seek out community. The right people will pick you up and point you in the right direction again, and you might even have fun in the process!