What happens when you spend a weekend with fellow travelers on the FI path?

Why I Finally Invested in the CampFI Community (And What I Found)

The CampFI website sat in my bookmarks folder for three years. Three years of “maybe next time” without allowing myself to talk action. I noticed that I was feeling a mixture of social anxiety and a nagging feeling that it was too much money to spend on myself. Which is silly of course. It’s reasonably priced and I can afford to do it without noticably affecting our budget. For the social anxiety, I baby-stepped by attending a local ChooseFI meetup. And I loved it. People were so nice and liked to talk about all the FIRE things most people have never heard of.  I want to live a life where someone looking at my time and spending choices should actually see my values reflected back. Extended family visits, friend connections, ocean time, daily walks. . .  and yes, finally saying yes to that CampFI community weekend I’d been overthinking.

Why did I finally green light going to CampFI?

For years I’ve been hearing people in FIRE community podcasts talk about CampFI, what a great experience it was, how they made lasting connections, how they received help problem solving their unique FI challenges and opportunities. The overall message seems to be, “You should go!” But when I started Googling to find out more, there wasn’t a lot of info.

This year, I set the intention that if someone looked at my/our time choices and spending choices, that they would reflect my personal values. I committed to goals for spending time with extended family, meeting up with friends, traveling, spending time near the ocean, and daily walks outdoors. I’ve also been feeling the swiftness of time plassing, with the sense that I need to grab on to all the experiences I want to have in life, squeezing in as many “Great Life Goal” as I can, while I can.

This helped me finally click the submit button and sign up for a CampFI weekend.

What happened on Friday: Strangers to Carpools to Friends

We were picked up from our hotel by another camper who had a car and kindly offered to make carpool runs between the airport and camp. It was late morning and we had about an hour to spare. Already immersed in chatting about FI and our personal stories, we stopped at a Target with a supercharger for the Tesla, fueling the car for the trip and allowing us to grab some snacks and supplies for the weekend. It felt pretty surreal (in a good way) to have already dived into a bunch of topics around money, purpose, future dreams with someone who was a stranger an hour ago.

Next stop was the airport to pick up two additional passengers. It was now early afternoon and we were not supposed to be at the venue until 4:30pm. So as the five of us continued our introductions, we stopped at a Trader Joes, en route, for snacks and drinks to share. The loose plan was to be dropped off in Stillwater, MN, which is near the CampFI location, for a late lunch and to kill time before arrival. We were serendipitously able to connect with another camper who was already in Stillwater and had 4 seats in her vehicle. We transferred luggage and our driver went back to the airport for another round of carpooling, while we headed to lunch with our carpool driver #2.

By 4:30 we were pulling up to the camp, checking in for name tags and room assignments, and getting the lay of the land. As a shy introvert, it was great to already have a few relationships established within the crowd. I really appreciated the time spent in transit with the 4 other campers. We were given one of the few 2 person lodgings on site, which was a surprise. I was fully expecting a room of my own in the “dorm”. Instead we had a small garage “apartment” that was a short walk from the main buildings.

Dinner was at 6:00pm. A buffet line with basic offerings. I think it was pasta with meat sauce, salad and brownies. Stephen announced that there were more campers than there were seats in the dining room (sold out event). So rather than sitting in the increasingly loud and raucous dining room full of FI nerds introducing themselves to like minded others, we slipped outside where a number of people were enjoying equally enthusiastic but quieter conversations at outdoor tables overlooking the lake.

After dinner, we gathered upstairs for about an hour in a giant circle of chairs. I’ve been told to expect the Name Game, something I definitely dreaded as a name challenged shy introvert…. and was so relieved when Stephen skipped it due to crowd size. We simply went around the room with a mic for brief introductions. I was glad to be in the later half, as I had neglected to prepare my FI elevator pitch ahead of time. Then my partner went first and shared much of the things that I would have said. Scrambling to find fresh commentary I tried to be coherent but actually have no idea what I said. Several people throughout the weekend remembered my introduction and let me know that I seemed calm and confident on the outside at least.

After reminding everyone that while it’s tempting to stay up way too late talking with everyone, it was worthwhile getting a good night sleep on night one so you have stamina for the next few days, we were released for an unstructured evening.

My partner being who they are…. an extroverted instigator, we ended up with a small crowd invited over to our lodging for old fashions, shenanigans, and fellowship. We were supposed to also be starting a bonfire outside but ended up settling into comfy chairs in the livingroom to talk about life. Around 10:45pm I was beyond tired, despite loving every bit of the day, and called closing time on our little gathering. Several went off in search of the next thing, but we went to bed “early”.

What happened on Saturday:

Breakfast was at 8am, but let’s just say I’m not a morning person. So I skipped it and arrived just before 9am for the first presentation.

There were two presentation in the morning, we took a group photo near the lake, then a break for lunch and optional breakout sessions. Topic ideas were crowd sourced during the morning presentations, and then early afternoon breakout session were run on the top voted topics, lead by camper volunteers.

The rest of the afternoon was free time. We opted to take out canoes in the river with a few new stranger friends. It’s a weird sensation, as an adult, to be speed-friending people in a “summer camp”-esque setting. But it works. As a introverted introvert, it’s well out of my comfort zone to initiate conversations and navigate initial small talk. But it’s a warm audience. Pretty much everyone there is looking to make friends, and specifically friends who understand the “against the flow” choices they are making with money, lifestyle, and ethos in pursuit of the goal of Financial Independence. With or without the Retire Early part.

We opted again to eat dinner outside and struck up conversations with yet another set of couples. After dinner, a podcast was being recorded, so most of the campers headed upstairs to the meeting room. We were in such an interesting and engaging conversation with some new friends, that we all looked around and decided. . . we could listen to the podcast when it was released later in the year, lol.

As night fell, we moved things inside. Because I have some neuro-spicy sensory sensitivity, I mostly stayed outside of the main lunch room/game areas. There was great energy in the room, with so many great people having great conversations and bonding…. but it was too loud for me to feel comfortable. I know I missed out on being in the heart of the socializing, where people were playing board games, ping pong and pool. But I found the little meeting room tucked off the main room, where it’s quieter and has seating for a more intimate crowd of 6-10 people. People swapped in and out around the table over the evening, and I appreciated the smaller group setting. We stayed up later, but I finally called it a night around midnight. There were plenty of late nighters the kept things going for anyone who wants to go late into the wee hours.

What happened on Sunday:

The general schedule was the same as Saturday. Breakfast. Presentations in the morning. Lunch. Breakout sessions. Free afternoon. We spent most of the afternoon in a circle of chairs on the lawn. That evening there was a bonfire outside.

During the morning presentation session, rides were worked out for people needing rides to the airport the next day. My takeaway is that CampFI planning is very loosey goosey. Everything is casual and most things come together at what a “planner” might experience as. . . last minute. But it did work out and everyone that needed a ride was able to get one. 

For me, Sunday was a bit of a blur. In the afternoon, I got a text about some really bad news on a personal/extended family front. It was a complete surprise, felt like a betrayal of trust, and was really upsetting. Somehow, exactly the right people were put in our path during the event. From previous discussions, they already know the circumstances, and were uniquely qualified to offer advice. And they were so supportive and generous with their wisdom and time. They and my partner brought me drinks, snacks, hugs, and a safe place to feel all the feels. Enough that I could recenter, make it back to dinner, have bonfire chats, and finish out the night with good people and great conversations. It’s shocking how fast you can create connection, in less than 48 hours, when you come with openness and built-in common ground. And I’m so grateful.

What happened on Monday:

After breakfast, people cleared out quickly. We had a late flight so we were able to join a group that didn’t need to be at the airport until the afternoon. We stopped in Stillwater for a walk around town and along the riverwalk, and lunch at a restaurant overlooking the river. Then we dropped one occupant at the airport before exploring a few parks in St Paul and checking out a local bakery. We grabbed some snacks there to take on the plane, and then we were dropped at the airport with plenty of time to catch our flight home.

If you want a little window into CampFI, CBS just dropped a story about it. They were filming at a different location, but the essence of the events is the same over all the locations: CBS News – How The Fire Movement Is Inspiring Early Retirees

Here are a few reflections about the logistics of the experience:

1) Everything is casual and might be a bit stressful if you’re a detailed planner. There’s a “Don’t worry, we’ll all figure it out” (at the last minute) mentality about shared rides to and from the airport, leisure time activities, etc. I ended up having a great experience with carpooling, but it all came together on fairly short timetables. A few days before the event, I was scrambling to find alternate transportation in case finding a carpool opportunity it didn’t work out.

2) If you have ANY particularities about food, it’s worth mentioning ahead of time. I figured it would be fine, but didn’t account for the fact that I generally don’t eat red meats like ground beef or pork, or dark meat chicken. Consequently I found myself mostly eating vegetarian meals made up of the relatively slim options of sides with the meal. It was totally fine, but I saw that there were options I would have happily eaten being prepared for vegetarians and others with specific dietary needs. You just have to ask ahead.

3) There didn’t seem to be a lot of casual visual documentation happening. I kind of love having people be very present, and we always want to be careful about photographing strangers who may not want their images shared. But I also wish I’d taken a bit more time to document our experiences. We made a point to take quick snapshots with some of the people we connected with, and I’m valuing having those now.

4) Our campers delivered on having yummy snacks and drinks of all kinds. The snack tables were epic. That being said, as everyone was cleaning up to leave, we noticed that there were quite a few open bags of things that were mostly full but being trashed because of going stale, etc. It might be a use case where individually packaged snacks make sense.

5) There are a surprising number of introverts there, which can be hard to identify because introverts are still chatterboxes when around “their people”. If you’re like me, you will need to plan time to get away for a bit, even if you love all the conversations you are having. Unless you are an extrovert who can run on little sleep, it’s likely that you will only get to know a fraction of the 50-70 people at camp. This is normal. Taking notes is a great idea to refresh your memory later, as all the conversations can get fuzzy after 3-4 days of nerding out on FI with fellow campers.

What I’m Taking Forward

Three years ago, CampFI lived in my bookmarks folder as a someday goal. Now I understand what I was actually hesitating about: the vulnerability of showing up as yourself among strangers and hoping to find connection.

You might feel the same hesitation, especially if you’re an introvert. It’s natural to wonder if it’s worth the time and cost, or if you’ll actually connect with people beyond surface-level FI talk. What I found is that when you’re surrounded by people making similar choices (choosing freedom over status, intentionality over consumption), real conversations happen quickly.

I came home with new friendships, practical insights, and a clearer sense that this journey doesn’t have to be lonely. The people I met aren’t just online usernames anymore; they’re real humans with their own struggles and victories on the path to financial independence.

If you’ve been researching CampFI like I was, my advice is simple: stop overthinking it and just go. The experience won’t be perfect, the logistics will be loose, and you’ll probably feel awkward at some point. But you’ll also find people who understand why you make the choices you make, and that understanding is worth more than you can calculate.

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#CampFI #FinancialIndependance #ChooseFI #SurprisingWealth

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Our journey began with humble beginnings. We’ve navigated through the challenges of creating a life and a living we love, while earing low to median incomes. What started as a modest dream of being able to retire someday has turned into a concrete plan. We've been on the SlowFI path, consistently saving and investing for 20+ years. Our income over time has stayed roughly in the 50th percentile, so we are truely everyday Americans. We've achieved remarkable results through living below our means and consistently investing the difference. Now in our mid-40s, we are in the top 20% for U.S. household wealth for our age group. This has been possible through conscious spending, consistent saving, strategic investing, and a commitment to lifestyle design where we spend generously on things that bring us value and contentment, while cuting back on things we are ambivalent about. It can be daunting when you hear the stories of tech workers or doctors or other people with large income shovels. We want to share how an everyday couple with median US income has built wealth for the future, while also creating a life we love today.

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In January 2021, I ran some calculations, projected our investment growth, and analyzed our current spending levels. After adjusting our spending assumptions for future inflation, I realized we could replace our earned income (trading time for money) with investment income (our money making money for us) in approximately 10 years. With 90 months left to go, we’re solidly on that path and we want you to join us. Whether you're just starting out or well on your way to financial independence, Surprising Wealth is here to support and inspire you. Together, we can make every month count and turn dreams into reality.

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Disclaimer: All the tips and stories here are from my own journey toward financial independence. Remember, what worked for me might not work for everyone. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial, legal, or tax advice. Always consult with a professional before making any significant financial decisions.