1500 Days to Freedom

Think different and escape the rat race.

FinCon 2018: Random Tales From The Pink Flamingo

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FinCon is a blogger money 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?

Name withheld to protect the perverted

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:

 

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.

Matt from Pour Not Poor

I loved the shirts that Accidental FIRE creates:

Shirts available here!

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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Comments

  4. mrWow says

    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.

    Reply

  5. Wade says

    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!

    Reply

  9. Dave @ Accidental FIRE says

    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.

    Reply

  10. Jim @ Route To Retire says

    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 😉

    Reply

  12. Physician on FIRE says

    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

    Reply

  13. Juan says

    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 🙂

    Reply

  15. Mr. Refined says

    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.

    Reply

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