FinCon is a
bloggermoney nerd conference. It used to be just for media creators, but now, many fans of the community also attend. While I’m still not quite recovered from the conference, I’m publishing a post before the already blurry memories escape my head.
Pink Flamingos. Everywhere.
When I think of FinCon 2018, I think of pink flamingos. Because, well: They. Were. EVERYWHERE.
Here is Even Steven Money modeling the latest in Flamingowear:
Frugalsaurus and Spendosaurus cavorted with this one:
Is that a flamingo or are you happy to see me?
The giant inflatable flamingo survived a weekend of partying and a groping by the Saving Sherpa:
This conversation happened about 3,498,587 times over the course of the conference:
- Someone: Let’s have drinks.
- Someone else: OK. Where?
- Someone: The pink flamingo.
Five minutes later:
Amazingly, no one was injured getting into or out of the inflatable avian. In a move of deft dexterity, Michael (the Wolverine looking dude in the photo above) executed a back roll to get out. Why didn’t I capture it on video?
FinCon Panel
Despite the 8am start time (and the morning after The Beer Party)…
Despite the fact that my brain had to come up with interesting things to say to a large crowd…
…one of the highlights of the conference was participating in a panel with Jillian Johnsrud, the Physician on FIRE, J.D. Roth and Mr. Money Mustache. The last two were the ones who inspired me to pursue FIRE in the first place, so it was slightly surreal sharing a stage with them. Sometimes, life has a funny way of coming full-circle in fun and interesting ways.
Attention Ma’am, You’ve Been Dinosaured
Causing minor mischief is something that I excel at. Some don’t know that even if a phone is locked, it’s still possible to access the camera. I use this knowledge to exploit unattended phones including Mrs. Waffle’s:
I’ve been ‘Saur-ed. Your phone is never safe when @retirein1500 is around. #Fincon18 pic.twitter.com/J5XrU32fJC
— Waffles on Wednesday (@wafflesonwed) September 29, 2018
And French TV, You’ve Been Dinosaured Too
My secret blog goal is to get Frugalsaurus and Spendosaurus on big media sites. When someone wants to photograph or film me, I discretely work the dinosaurs in. Here they are on Farnoosh Torabi:
A big opportunity for mischief presented itself at FinCon when a TV crew from France filmed us. At first, nothing looks out of place:
Zoom in a little closer and BOOM! DINOSAURS!
Life is more fun when you just don’t care.
Tattoos, Beer, and Community
People are what makes these conferences fun and FinCon wasn’t a let-down.
I loved the shirts that Accidental FIRE creates:
One of the curious things about this year’s FinCon was all of the non-bloggers who attended. I had incredible fun meeting loads of people from all over the world who had no media presence. They just wanted to hang out. I made lots of new friends and I’m thankful for them.
FinCon 2019 is in Washington DC. In the meantime, I still need to catch up on sleep from this one.
See ya’ll there!
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It was great to meet you in person and chat even briefly. As I said, your blog is the one that became my gateway drug to the FIRE movement. Thanks again for the Thursday night party!
Freedom 40 Plan recently posted…FinCon2018 – Meeting My Tribe
Thanks again for the kind comment!
And the party… Still recovering… *yawn*
Ah the big pink flamingo. It’s a shame we never did sneak it into the pool
I know, right? That was the rightful destiny and we failed. Oh well. We’ll pull something off at the 2019 edition…
Getting the flamingo to the pool would have been LEGENDARY! Future attendees would have sung of our heroic antics for years and years at all of the FinCons we’d never be allowed to attend.
It was awesome meeting you two! Love the post and can’t wait for next year, already bought our tickets!
Make sure you post the link to your French tv interview. I wanna know how to say fart, butt, poop, and dinosaur in French.
Otherwise, it was great to see you guys as always… we need to make it happen again here soon.
Oh man, it was probably whatever The Onion is in France. French Onion Soup?
Hope to see you and Mrs. Waffle again soon too!
Love the photos.
If any of your readers is looking for a blog inspiration, here goes:
Mix stoicism and FIRE. Love the stoicism shirt. In my mind I own this blog and am happily writing 2-3 posts per day. In real life I am still working and don’t have time (won’t spend the time) to do it.
firestoic.com
stoicfire.com
fistoic.com
stoicfi.com
The tenants of stoicism meld perfectly with financial independence. Ready, set, go!
Whoah, quit the job and get on it. Seriously.
Hehe, I love that you sneak your little dinosaurs in everywhere. It’s like a Mr. 1500 easter egg!
Cheers for sharing the fincon photos. Maybe one day I’ll be able to attend one.
Mr. Tako recently posted…Your Money Or Your Migraines
Fincon is not for sleeping! (or keeping your voice)
If that ain’t the truth…
Voice? Ahem, we’ve almost forgotten what ours sounded like before they left us! Great, fun post!
Mr PoP was pooped for about 2 days after spending one evening with you kids in Orlando! What did you do to him?!? =)
Mrs PoP recently posted…Happy Friday – Vows
We still have Mr. PoP’s underwear… #EnoughSaid
THANKS Carl for the shout-out and free advertising! It was such a pleasure meeting you and Mindy and hanging out. It’s no wonder your blog is so popular, you’ve payed it forward with your kindness and generosity.
I think this recap about sums it up! Nice job on the FIRE panel – I liked that one a lot. It was also great to chat with you – though I might have been slightly intoxicated on that last evening… Ok maybe all the evenings!
Another successful FinCon!
— Jill, er, I mean, Jim 😉
Nice one carl. Great too see the dinosaurs pop up everywhere. Pretty sweet.
Glad you (and many others) had such a good time again af FINCON. Kind on jealous on this side of the pond. Seriously considering doing something similar around here!
Team CF recently posted…September 2018 Cheesy Index & Savings Rate
Thanks for joining me on the FIRE panel, organizing and funding the official unofficial beer party, and for being an all-around good guy.
By the way, flamingos are basically just highly-evolved pink dinosaurs. The theme of FinCon18 was a celebration of you!
Cheers!|
-PoF
Great write up. I love how you dinosaured French TV haha.
It was great meeting you! Thank you for organizing the beer party! Definitely a highlight of #FinCon18 🙂
I love how you DinoBomb (Dinosaur Photobomb) everything haha.
That is cool how life comes full circle. I have been reading and listening to Mr. & Mrs. 1500 for sometime and as well as Mr. & Mrs. WoW and many others. It was cool to be on the inside of the pink flamingo and meet y’all who have influence my life so much. Thank you for putting it all out there. I am impressed how humble my virtual financial mentors are in the real.
And don’t cause too much Mischief …A video of Mr. 1500 with a pink flamingo balloon animal hat, chasing people around the giant pink flamingo, pecking them on the head could leak to the press, if indeed such a video exists. “Life is more fun when you just don’t care.” #LivingYourValues.
Thanks for the kind comments Mr. Refined!
Also, I must find every copy of that video and destroy them! Wait, it’s on the internet? I can’t do that? Oh shit!