Quick note: I’ve been thinking a lot about happiness lately. I’m at a good place in life, the best I’ve been in decades, so have a lot to say on the matter. On Monday, tune in for Part 1 of a 3 part series on happiness…
Getting Mired In FIRE
When I discovered FI way back in October of 2012, I thought that it would go like this:
- I’d read up a bunch on investing/personal finance. (When I discovered FIRE, I didn’t even know what an index fund was.)
- Mindy and I would optimize our money (jack up our savings rate) and life (move to a simpler, cheaper home).
- Early retirement!
FI would be an important phase of my life, but that’s all it would be. And now, here I am 11 year later, still attending money events and writing about them.
California Dreaming
I just got back from the Camp FI in Southern California. Camp FI is an informal event where people gather for a long weekend in beautiful parts of the world.
At this camp, someone asked me this:
Why are you here? You’re already retired. What do you get out of these?
I thought about for a bit and came up with this:
- Travel: Camp FIs are usually held in pretty neat parts of the country. It’s an opportunity to experience something new.
- People: The folks who come to these things are a fun bunch. It’s usually not stuffy money talk. This time, there was a lot of talk about happiness and what comes after reaching financial independence.
I also noticed something about Camp FIs that I think is incredible:
At any given Camp, about 1/3 of the attendees are folks who have attended a previous one.
Returnees aren’t coming to learn anything new. They’re coming for one thing: The Tribe
Finding your place in the world is such an important happiness factor. The biggest part of finding your place is finding your people.
In my case, I felt out of place for much of my life.
Why doesn’t anyone want to talk about rockets or neural nets?
I had conversations about both at this camp! This is my tribe.
I’m glad that FIRE showed me how to get my money together. Much more importantly, it gave me a path to get my life together.
More 1500 Days!!!
You can also find me (and the dinosaurs) at:
Mile High FI podcast:
Also here:
- Facebook: Facebook group and page
- YouTube: My channel is mostly devoted to home improvement, but I have some other material coming up soon too.
- Instagram: Pretty pictures of dinosaurs, sunsets, and nail guns!
- Twitter: Spontaneous, often insane, ramblings
- Coworking space: On the surface, MMM HQ is a coworking space. Look a little deeper and you’ll see that we’re really building community. The members of MMM HQ are some of the finest people I know.
FIRE bloggers are burning out these days -MrTakoEscapes, GoCurryCracker… pretty soon there won’t be any newbies joining our tribe! I don’t think we have much new to say to encourage those just starting out…
Hard do disagree. I feel it myself.
But, in my case at least, I feel like I have a lot more to say about life post-FI, especially happiness.
To a certain extent what you say is true. However, in another way it’s really just evidence of the fact that we humans tend to change over time. And I have to disagree with your statement “we [don’t] have much new to say to encourage those just starting out”. To take ChooseFI as one example, I started listening to them I think at episode 4 or 5 and have listened to every single episode of the show. In the last 6 years the focus has shifted from “nose to the grindstone for 10-15 years then you retire” and more towards a perspective of maximizing happiness along the path.
Others in the community have made a similar shift. The ones you cite, however, for whatever reason have seen their interests shift elsewhere. That’s wonderful for them, and I really mean that. They are probably off enjoying family, travel, life, whatever. In the meantime, others have become voices in the community and they certainly have lots to say alongside those old timers who are still around.
I often try to listen to podcasts as though I was a newcomer to the community. I do this so that I can gauge whether something might be worth sharing with a friend or family member who doesn’t “get it” quite yet. I can assure you that there is still a great deal to be said to encourage those who are starting out. If anything, just look at Carl’s own writing and what he has said on Mile High FI. One recurring theme is that he often reflects on the fact that he wishes he would have not pushed so hard on the money side of things and been a bit more focused on the happiness side of things. That’s a big encouragement to those late teens and early twenties types who might be at a stage in life where it can help make the difference between a decade of miserable grinding away to build up a nest egg and two decades of not pushing so hard but enjoying life while still putting away plenty of money to investments.
True that Carl, true that……
Every time I hear someone say “neural net”, I always think back to those old Arnold Schwarzenegger Soundboard prank calls. If I ever achieve the singularity or whatever, I’ll dedicate a small portion of my processing power to prank calling people with said soundboard, lol.
OMG, I remember those prank calls! That was funny sh*t!!!!