FinCon18 and so Much More

FinCon18 was an incredible experience! This year it was held at the lavish Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel and Golf Resort in Orlando, Florida. For a guy that lives on oatmeal and rice, that level of opulence made me feel like I was in the movie Crazy Rich Asians munching on bricks of gold for the week. Except of course, when the bell porters tried to commandeer our craft beer.

For those that don’t know, FinCon is where media meets money. It was started by PT Money almost a decade ago. The idea was to hold a convention for financial bloggers and other lesser known public finance personalities to gather together from the far corners of the earth, and the most distant layers and mom’s basements. It is like Comic-Con, except instead of comic nerds we are finance nerds, often with tech addictions. As media has evolved the conference has grown to be much more than bloggers. It has now added a large percent of podcasters and YouTube video personalities to the fold. The event is growing large enough to attract a ballroom of vendors and heavy hitter speakers such as Chris Hogan and Rachel Cruz. This year alone over 2,000 people attended FinCon.

I Tripled My Net Wealth – Thanks to These Titans of FI

I had the chance to meet many of my virtual financial mentors. These people have inspired me and completely changed my life through the life changes I implemented after reading their blogs and listening to their podcasts. Changes that TRIPLED my investable net worth in the first year of FIRE. I met the lion’s share of people that I have listened to for months or years who revealed to me, the path to financial independence.

Early on when I arrived at the meticulously manicured Rosen Shingle Creek Resort, I identified the voice of one of the personalities on my Mount Rushmore of FI, Mindy Jensen from Bigger pockets and “Mrs. 1500.” from 1500 Days [to retirement]. She assured me that I will have a great time at FinCon because there are only about three dou$hebags there. Given that there were over 2,000 people attending, that meant the cool kid to dou$hebags ratio is about more favorable than anywhere else in the world, including Susie Orman’s private island. I spent some time with her husband “Mr. 1500” who was constantly causing mischief sneaking up to anyone that left their phone unattended for a moment and taking a series of photos of Savosaurus and Spendosaurus. He got Mr. & Mrs. WOW even Coach Carson admitted being a victim later at our ChooseFI meetup this month.

I got to meet other members of my Mount Rushmore of FI, Brad and Jonathan of Choose FI. I was able to share my net worth graph with Jonathan, showing him the significant impact FI has had on my net worth already in under a year.

I sat next to Paula Pant of Afford Anything and in the session where Brad and Johnathan explained how they have achieved over five million downloads of their podcast. I had the chance to thank Paula for the encouraging messaging in her podcasts, that after you squeeze every last drop out of your budget there is still hope to increase your savings rate with additional income from side hustles and real estate. She shared with me a few of her favorite podcasts such as “Optima Finance Daily” which I subscribed to and I told her about one of my favorites “We Interview Billionaires” that I noticed she did not listen to.

I got to listen to Pete of Mr. Money Mustache pontificate on many of the subjects of FI. He is even more philosophical in person, than on his blog. Marla, who I will hereby refer to as the Queen of Travel Reward Points, saved me from a rookie mistake of opening the wrong credit card to earn the Southwest companion pass next year. I sat in a session where the grandfather of financial blogging JD Roth of Get Rich Slowly presented about the evolution of his writing style and blogging in general form about the Jurassic period to present. Yup, he has been around that long! You would not guess it from the picture would you? That picture does a good job capturing not only his spirit but the spirit of the collective bloggers of the FIRE movement.

Satire, Camaraderie and Vomiting Glitter

I am amazed at how much satire and camaraderie and practical joking there is within the FIRE community. You know someone was having a good time when they vomit up a pile of glitter. What is the common thread that allows people to take such an intricate topic such as investing and tax strategies and make such light fun of it? There seems to be a common thread, a theme of personality type-casts of somewhat introverted characters with a lighter comedic thirst. Add a slash of craft beer for social lubrication and that introverted candy shell melts away like a scoop of ice cream in the hot July sun, to reveal the fun-loving inner kid, happy to meet other personalities of the same rare cast of core values.  This cast of characters is banded together by a lack of career title base fulfillment or perhaps a refusal of identity based on career title that American society tries to impose on us. This is a collective group that is able to reject the prestige of their current social class and job title status for the luxury of time and freedom that the social class they are moving towards has to offer later on. I despise even referring to it as a social class when it is more of a lifestyle choice.

This subculture understands the power that money can bring to one’s life yet they choose not to wield it for more power but rather for personal freedom. This strata of betterment seekers strive not for clout or prestige as those on Wall Street do, but rather to have more time to invest into humble genuine relationships and mutual aid and assistance. Jillian from Montana Money Adventures described picking up her almost-as-old-as-I-am Honda Civic from the mechanic. Apparently, the young technician who serviced her vehicle delivered her keys with a look of pity for her, for having to drive such a small and old car. A car which was even older (more economical) than the one that the much younger mechanic drove himself. The mechanic’s look was so despairing that she wanted to cry out to him “It is OK, I am not actually broke. I am a millionaire and I choose to drive this vehicle so I can be a millionaire and invest in assets that don’t depreciate.”

FinCon, though I was a first-time guest, felt like a home filled with family. You know, the place you go for the holidays with a warm fire roaring in the background and a dozen people pass by in a receiving line of hugs and welcoming smiles as you enter. Perhaps in part because of the common mindset or perhaps because I felt a natural connection of knowing them from their podcasts. I met Brandon the Mad Fientist and his wife and was easily able to strike up a conversation about optometry. I open the conversation with so much detail and personal information that I had to postscript my conversational open with “Isn’t it weird being in the blog-o-sphere and having people know so much about you whom you have never met before?”  to which thankfully we all laughed. I don’t think the general readership understands what kind of emotion bloggers sometimes poor into articles such as “Overcoming Passions of Disadvantage.” Witting is a way of reliving an experience and some experiences can be emotionally exhausting to relive.

A Comment Can Last a Lifetime

Even the seemingly most formidable or intimidating of internet personalities have a heart gold. I was grabbing a sandwich at the nearby grocery store, in line behind the girls from B1+che$ Get Riches. (They’ll prolly slap me for calling them girls not women! 😜) As the gal behind the counter was making our sandwiches one of the B1+che$ Get Riches girls (with a crazy loopy hair braid that looked like a mesmerizing puzzle ring) leaned over the counter and said “You are doing an outstanding job on that sandwich.” Even the most B1+chy of characters at FinCon complimented the gal behind the counter for making her sandwich. Isn’t that what the world should look like? Imagine if a big wig bossy powerbroker on Wall Street took the time to compliment the barista that made his Starschmucks coffee, rather than scoff at the $10 New York price as he hurried out into the cold dark twilight morning rain to his 29th floor office to log another 12 hour day on the hamster wheel of despair.

One simple comment can alter the course of a person’s life. I recall trying to negotiate a position of debt once. I tried every approach, every pressure and delay tactic I could think of. I had made an exhausting number of calls. I don’t give up easy, but I didn’t see anything else I could bring to the fight. After rhetorically venting a few minutes to the girlfriend of the day I felt a little better and was ready to put it behind me. But then she said one thing that made me think a lot as a fell asleep that night. I even resumed thinking about it when I woke the next morning. I couldn’t get it out of my head! She said “I know you will overcome that tomorrow. You are never one to give up until you have found a solution.” The fact was the reason I was venting is because I felt I was out of options. After that comment, I could not let my reputation down. I thought about it from the third-party perspective. If I heard someone vent that same story to me what advice would I give them? With first-hand emotions and discouragement no longer clouding my mind, I was able to think of a new angle. An angle that propelled me to the phone to try again. I ended up negotiating an agreeable deal that day. Imagine that, I almost gave up the day before the victory. I wonder how many people have quit the day before they would have broken through. A debt that I never thought I could conquer now had an attainable payment plan but that is an article for another time.

Wisdom of the Roundtable

As I ate with Joel from FI180 and Gwen from Fiery Millennial and the Fire Drill Podcast the next day I listened closely for those subtle little comments that can amount to the pivotal moments and alter the course of someone’s life forever. Those comments are yet to come in another article so stayed tuned, but two themes stood out to me or perhaps are they one-and-the-same? The pivotal moment in most journeys begins with the line “That’s when I choose” or “That’s when I decided.” Listen for this phrase, you will find one of them in almost every great story. The inflection point comes from a decision to stop blaming extremal factors and taking initiative despite the conditions of adversity. Change come the moment you stop using difficulties, challenges and adversity as a metal wall and resolve to correct your limiting belief that they are nothing more than a hurdle or speedbump which can only slow you down or cause you to stumble but NOT stop you. This seminal moment where all layers of excuses meltaway to revile a core virtue of commitment is the concept of extreme accountability. When your laser-focused on the factors that are in your control you can make incredible progress. It is not easy, but it is possible. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. If it were impossible no one would be achieving it. Any mountain in your life can be moved. Are not the largest of the mountains that earth can heave toward the heavens eroded one drop of rain at a time?

Later sitting around a table debating the topic of commitment we all confessed the challenges that were most difficult to commit to. For Mrs. WOW it was waking up early. It just so happened that 5am Joel was there and interjected with a lot of constructive advice. 5am Joel committed to sending me the book “Extreme Accountability” and indeed it came in hasty fashion. Persuaded, Mrs. WOW asked for the book when I was done reading it. Keep an eye out for this book review. I can’t wait to read this book! I have found in life that anything that I commit to, can be accomplished no matter the difficulty. J-Money from Budgets are Sexy confirmed that notion when I asked him how he can be so consistent to posting day after day for over a decade. He said you have to simply commit. Even if you remember after you have crawled into bed you are still committed and have to get out of bed bang out a post before you can finish your day.

Weak men are defined by their circumstances. Strong men are defined by their commitments and all strong commitments start with extreme accountability. For the sake a financial independence and/or retiring early, what are you willing to commit to? Cutting expenses, a side hustle, setting goals, writing your obituary and then planning a life around living up to it?

Actionable Takeaways:

1. Find your tribe and set up your tent there.
2. Make a refrigerator list of what you are committed to.
3. Make a refrigerator list of what you stand for. Start the list like this: I ___Mr./Mrs. Lastname___ am the kind of person who always _______ and _______ and ______s.
4. Always show gratitude to the people that have help you get where you are, whether they know you or not. Make a call or write a letter today to someone you are grateful for.
   
   

Keep the FIRE burning my friends.