Mindy: Welcome to the BiggerPockets Money podcast, my dear listeners, where we interview my friend Stephen Boyer and talk about Camp Fi and steps for anyone to start their financial journey. Hello, hello, hello. My name is Mindy Jensen, and with me, as always, is my could-be Fi, but loves the grind co-host, Scott Trench.
Scott: Thanks Mindy, great to be here with my loves the camp fire in a literal and metaphorical sense, uh, co-host, Mindy Jensen.
Mindy: I do. Scott and I are here to make financial independence less scary, less just for somebody else. To introduce you to every money story, because we truly believe that financial freedom is attainable for everyone, no matter when or where you are starting.
Scott: That’s right. Whether you want to retire early and travel the world, go on to make big time investments in assets like real estate, start your own business, or just get a chance to connect in person with other like-minded folks pursuing financial independence or who might already be there. We’ll help you reach your financial goals and get money out of the way, so you can launch yourself towards your dreams.
Mindy: Scott, instead of a money moment today, I am going to tell our listeners about a super cool event that Bigger Pockets is doing. It’s called the virtual summit. You can join Dave Meyer and other real estate experts in a brand new virtual summit from December 11th through the 14th, 2023, and get prepared to be successful in 2024. This four-day summit is exclusive for our pro members with some access for our free members. Visit biggerpockets.com/virtual summit to get all the details on how to access this exclusive event and register to get ready for next year.
Scott: So we’re about to talk uh with with uh Stephen Boyer from Campfi. Mindy and I have both attended the events in the past, uh, and we kind of gush about how much we appreciated Campfi. And we just wanted to make sure that ahead of that, you guys knew this is not an endorsement, uh a paid endorsement for Campfi. It’s just a genuine, we like the event. We’ve been in the past. We’ve made some friends there and had a great time and this is our experience. I hope you enjoy the show and you know, consider attending a local meetup or Campfi or some sort of event uh as part of your journey to financial independence because you’re going to get really great connections, valuable advice and realize you’re not alone on this journey. Here. There’s a lot of other people who are pursuing it and many people who have arrived um and love to connect.
Mindy: So, without further ado, let’s bring in Stephen. Today we are talking with Stephen Boyer, who is the founder of Camp Fi. Camp Fi hosts a myriad of local events around the country to bring people together who are on their journey to financial independence as well as people who have already reached their goal. Stephen, welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. I am so excited to talk to you today.
Guest: Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Mindy: Stephen, people know you from Camp Fi, but you actually also have a really super interesting money story. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey with money?
Guest: Yeah. So back in my early 20s, I would read all the the Suzy Orman books, the Rick Edelman, the rich dad, poor dad, those types of books and um so I was always interested in personal finance. Uh actually following following through with the uh with the necessary actions, you know, is another story, but I was always like intellectually um like interested in the topic. Um and then as years passed by, uh you know, you got did the typical thing where you know, got the the bigger house and some credit card dead and, you know, dug myself into a little bit of a hole and um you know, got in my mid 30s and I wasn’t like terrible shape, but I wasn’t you know, I was to the point where I would look back and think why am I not further along financially? And so, um soon after that for however, I don’t even know how it came across my my phone or my computer screen, I came across the early retirement extreme, you know, Jacob Lund Fisker, um, the Mr. Money Mustache blog and and sort of kind of got sucked into that uh that that rabbit hole, I guess, go down the rabbit hole and um you know, one thing after another. And so after a while, I got to where I was surrounding myself with just some really cool people and then that really just is probably the single most thing that made me start following through and and making good decisions or better decisions um and start making progress financially.
Mindy: So you said something very interesting. You said I read all of this, but doing the work is a different story. And then you get down the road a little bit and you’re like, well, why am I not further along financially? Because you didn’t do the work. And I’m not like yelling at you. I know Stephen and I are friends outside of this show, so I know him and I’m not yet, he knows I’m not yelling at him, but like, that’s why you weren’t further along financially because just because you know what you’re supposed to be doing doesn’t mean it’s magically going to happen. You have to do the work. So, Stephen, when did you start doing the work?
Guest: Well, I think probably my early 30s, I remember making a comment to my my then wife, I was like, you know, why aren’t we, we’re both accountants, we have accounting backgrounds. like why don’t we or why are we not um, making like personal financial statements, like we do bookkeeping for businesses, you know, we do the profit loss statement, the balance sheet and all that stuff, monthly, quarterly, annually, whatever to prepare tax returns and things with, but we don’t do that for our personal finances. So, I remember making a comment then like, you know, we really should be doing this and that could even be a good service for other people, you know, down the line because seems very useful, but I don’t see anybody doing that unless, you know, like say we have a client that wants to get a loan from a bank and then they come in and say, let’s prepare this balance sheet and um, you know, for loan purposes. Um, other than that, it’s not just a regular sort of personal financial uh maintenance task that’s done. So even then, I mean it’s probably 10 years, 7, 10 years after that that I actually started doing it. So, I mean, you again, you know things that you could be doing, but you don’t. So, um, you know, it really was and not to get like too personal or whatever, but you know, I was going I went through a divorce about 10 years ago and at that point it was a very um, I don’t know it was a, obviously it’s a turning point, a pivotal point, you know, in life as it is with anybody going through something like that, but it made me re-evaluate a lot of things. And so, um, instead of making decisions like on a compromise or, um, you know, I could finally just make decisions based solely on what I thought was best for me and my kids. And, um, so to me that was really, really sort of it. I make good money. I was a bridget controller for a defense contractor here in Georgia and, um, so the income wasn’t an issue, but as soon as I started reading those blogs and listening to podcasts and I was also looking at that point in my life of how I can shape, um, not just my finances, but just my, my my life period. Uh, like what kind of house am I going to move into, what sort of things am I going to spend my money on from here on out? Am I going to start saving a higher percentage, those types of things. So as soon as it became clear that whatever my life looked like in five years was all because it’s going to be because of just me, it’s not going to be because I have somebody to blame things on or or someone to pull me along forward, you know, with them. It’s going to be all on my shoulders. As soon as I had that accountability and I you know, I was just faced with that, it was an exciting moment, I mean a scary moment. um sure but exciting to know that whatever, again, whatever your life is going to look like five years, 10 years from now, it’s all because of the decisions that I’m making now.
Scott: Stephen, could you give us a an overview of kind of the the the key key points along your financial journey following this divorce and and and um what you’ve been able to achieve over the last 10 years?
Guest: With some of the changes that I’d made, I was able to start accumulating um a decent amount in retirement accounts and I got to a point in mid 2016 where I decided I was going to take a break from full-time work. Um, so I think it was June 2016, I turned in my security badge at work and I was like, okay, well, I have this time free up. Uh, my plan at the time was I had a friend who’s a CPA, um, who has a firm here and I was just going to work tax season. And then if I need didn’t make enough to cover all my annual expenses during tax season, I would just dip into my savings and then as long as I didn’t go negative by the time my kids were 18, and I was happy and if I was at zero by the time they were 18, I was just going to, you know, call somebody up and say, can I sleep on your couch and go get a good job and save all the money up again. And I was really, that was, that was like my plan. I was good with that. Uh, but I didn’t know things like uh, like Camp fi were going to come along and like passion projects were going to turn into income, uh, you know, producing endeavors. So, I mean, I’ve not been working down to zero thankfully. I’m still able to spend as much time with my kids as they’ll let me and I uh, you know, I’ve been able to save, save more into my retirement over the last, you know, six or seven years. So, so it’s nice.
Scott: Awesome. can let’s talk about your your this awesome role that you’ve kind of carved out for yourself and built over time in the the fi community. You know, you you can you tell us about what you do, um, one of your your passion projects here, what it is, how you started it and play you can get involved.
Guest: I am the founder of Camp Fi. and we’ve been doing that since 2017. And so basically uh that’s a weekend long personal finance retreat for people on their financial financial independence journey. Um just to kind of hang out. It’s a community builder primarily. And every now and then we learn something new about money, we might talk about money a little bit and uh it’s just a good time. It’s a good community builder and the reason that I did that is because I experienced a a similar event called Camp Mustache. It was in 2016 in Seattle, Washington. and to me, um, at that place in my life, and just tapping in to this community which I felt like I was all alone until I went to one of these things and I was like, oh, there’s other people who have similar values and think similarly and this is great. Um, and it just put a lot of wind in my sales and made me feel super optimistic about all the things that I ever wanted to do, like, you know, I I think I’m a dreamer and so I you know, there’s a lot of a lot of dreams that kind of get put on the back burner and uh for whatever reason, just that weekend was magical to me and it just felt like it opened up the world. So, it’s like, I really think that this experience should be available for other people. I spoke with the three original organizers of uh the camp mustache up there, asked them, can I bring a camp mustache down to the Southeast? I’m from Georgia. and uh like selfishly I was like, maybe I can find other people around me in the Southeast that are like-minded and I can connect with them in real life. And uh they were absolutely supportive of it. We did it. It was an a hit and then I wanted to, I was like, you know, we have a camp mustache up in the Northwest, we have one in the Southeast, why don’t we just start putting camp mustaches everywhere? And so Emma who was one of the original organizers, she went back to the other two and they discussed it and understandably they they just didn’t want to take that on. And so I changed the name to Camp Fi and just sort of ran with it and so we’ve opened up camps over the all over the country.
Scott: Yeah, could you could you describe one of these kind of early camps and the the what what it was like, how many people showed up, you know, where it was, speakers, all that kind of stuff to get a feel for, you know, because these these were awesome events. I remember, I’ve I’ve been to a couple of them like you said.
Guest: Yeah, so the I will just talk about the first one. It was a at that time it was called Camp Mustache Southeast and it was just outside of Gainsville, Florida where we still have the campfires down there now. So the first half of the day we have speakers that sort of semi-formal and then the second half of the day it’s super laid back, chill, we do recreational things. this particular one we did uh I think we had canoe, kayaks, archery, some team building uh courses in the woods and so really how that shaped up was I wasn’t, you know, like I said earlier after an accountant uh by background, I I’m not an event planner. Um, I sort of created the the event that I would want to attend. I didn’t know how it was going to go. if it was going to be my first and my last event ever. It was just like different topics. Uh we had JD Roth come down, uh Pete Mr. Mustache came down. uh there’s a few other speakers came down and uh it was just a really cool thing. We had 38 people show up at that one. and um yeah, it it was good. I was so nervous the whole time. I was like, I don’t know if people are enjoying themselves, I don’t know at all. And then like Saturday I walked by the open door of the cafeteria and I just heard like everybody talking, like’s like a a rumble of everybody talking and and I was like and then I just let like this deep deep sigh of relief. I was like, okay, this is going to be an okay weekend. Again, no experience. it just kind of I was just kind of going by my gut and it and it worked out.
Mindy: Okay, Stephen, I love you, but this is the worst advertisement for campfi ever. It is not just an okay weekend. Uh Campfi is like my most favorite event and I would go to every single one all year long if I didn’t have this job. Um so it is so much fun. You say it’s a weekend and that sounds like it’s two days. It is Friday night, all day Saturday, all day Sunday, breakfast on Monday and by when Monday comes around, you’re like, ugh, I really don’t want to leave. First of all, the food is great and all these people are great and there’s so many people that you’re connecting with from all around the country or like kind of all around wherever you are. I fly to Florida to do it and I live in Colorado. I also go to the one in Colorado. I have so much fun at these events because I meet so many people from all walks of life who have questions, who have something to teach me, who have an interesting story. I love talking. So it’s fun for me just to talk all the time. and I have such a great time when I’m there watching people, I especially love new attendees because they come and they’re a little nervous, they’re like, oh, what’s this going to be about? And then they start talking, they’re like there are other people just like me, and that’s like like there comes a point just like you’re Saturday when you walked past the the cafeteria and you’re like, oh it’s going to be an okay weekend. It’s not an okay weekend, it’s an awesome weekend.
Scott: All right, let’s ask a let’s, let’s, let’s get some established some basics here. Stephen, who can attend camp fi? Is this only for you know, financial podcasters or people who are already financially independent?
Guest: Anybody who’s interested in financial independence, whether you are um new to it, you’re in hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, or if you’re already financially independent and you’re just looking for some people to hang out with and share your knowledge. like anybody on the uh financial independence uh journey, no matter where you are is is welcome.
Scott: Awesome. and that’s what I really enjoyed about some of these is meeting folks that were just getting started and meeting, you know, folks with millions of dollars of net worth who were doctors going through the very real pain of like, well, I struggled to become financially independent. Now do I actually like give up my identity as a doctor? Those are really cool real problems that people have um across that entire spectrum that is really fun there. Um where are they located?
Guest: Well, we have them located all over the country. Um we have I I name the campfires after regions so we have Campfi Southeast is in Florida. We do two of those a year. We have Campfi MidAtlantic, which is in Virginia. We have Campfi Rocky Mountain, which is in Colorado Springs. We do two of those every year in the summer. Uh we have Campfi Midwest, which is in Minnesota. We have Campfi Texas, which is in Texas. And uh we have Campfi Southwest, which is in Julian, California, which is kind of in the mountains, about an hour northeast of San Diego. So we have six locations and a a total of eight camps throughout the year.
Scott: What is the price point to attend one of these camps?
Guest: Uh as low as I can possibly make it. Um I do uh I do want to keep it as affordable um as possible so that people who can get the most value out of it can still afford it. Um most of the tickets are between four and $500 and that includes lodging for the whole weekend, includes all the meals, you can put your wallet up for the whole weekend. Um, you know, everything else, the talks, the recreational uh activities, all this, everything comes with your your one ticket.
Scott: And what should campers expect?
Guest: I think campers can expect to be pleasantly surprised at the the uh the sincerity and the authenticity of the people they meet there. Uh to me that was my biggest thing the first time I experienced something like this and that’s what I continuously um I hear, I’m sorry, and that is what I consistently hear over and over again is just how nice everyone is and how generous they are with their their knowledge. Um and so you can expect to come away hopefully with two or three at least two or three really good friends and people that you can call on. um and maybe even accountability partners on your financial journey.
Mindy: Well, Stephen, speaking of journeys, you mentioned that you aren’t fi yet, but you’re well on your way. How has creating Campfi and bringing people together helped you on your personal journey?
Guest: I think it gives me a purpose. Um so it’s on my personal journey. uh you know, I I feel, it’s very fulfilling. I feel like I have a I have a purpose that’s meaningful, that’s like part of my identity and I think that I’m improving the world in some kind of way. As far as my financial um journey, you know, it’s, like I said earlier, I’m able to uh still invest towards retirement. uh all the the lifestyle choices that I made post divorce decreased my cost of living to the point where I don’t really have to make a lot of money to pay my bills, which is great. So I don’t have a pressure to just maximize profits at every at every turn. Um so I could you know doing this and some other passion projects, it and uh it provides enough income to pay my bills, save a little bit. I’m not on a super speedy track to accumulate millions and you know, two years or anything like that. So I’m not in a hurry to get uh to financial independence or to reach my fi number. Uh but but I’m on my way. I there’s progress every year and uh and that’s not really my priority anyway at the time. like I said earlier, my my priority is to maximize time with the kids, be able to maintain like a peaceful household, keep myself in a in a mindset where I can be the best dad and and calm as I can possibly be. uh and so as long as I’m doing those things and not going backwards financially, I’m good. But thankfully I’ve been able to go forwards a little bit financially.
Scott: Awesome. So you know, from a financial standpoint, you know, I I look, the the the the goal of maximizing time with your children is abundantly clear um from that. but what um what is the why to continue accumulating wealth? Like what is the end goal um for the time that you do devote to building a financial position?
Guest: My end goal is I don’t know what I want to do whenever my kids are grown. So, am I going to want to keep working? I currently work as an independent contractor as an accountant at a CPA firm here in town. Um am I going to want to keep doing that once once my kids are grown and maybe they’re off to college? Um or do whatever they’re doing, who knows what they’re going to do. Uh I might not have roots here in Georgia anymore or in this particular area. I might want to do some travel. I might want to pursue other things and to me, the reason why I continue to save towards retirement uh is to have the flexibility of hopefully, um I could be close to financial independence or have enough built up to where uh I won’t be limited to doing some of those things that I want to do whenever being a full-time dad is really no longer the thing that I’m doing. So, I three years out from that, uh my my son is a senior, so we’re doing the whole college application thing now, which is fun times. Uh and my daughter is a freshman. So we have three and a half more years or so until she’s off to college. So to me, that’s what I’m looking at. It’s, you know, hopefully I’ll get to a certain point, maybe not completely financially independent, but pretty close uh after she graduates and then we’ll see, it’s just really to give me options. I don’t know specifically what those will be or what I will choose, but I just want to have the option.
Mindy: You’ve heard a lot of money stories. You’ve heard a lot of presentations. From everything that you’ve heard, from everything that you’ve learned, from your own personal experience, how aggressive do you recommend a person get to fi after finding or uh figuring out what their living expenses are and determining their fi number?
Guest: Um whatever’s comfortable for them and I know that’s kind of like a cop out answer. Um I am. But you know, there are things more important than money, right? We all can agree there are things more important than money. So, as long as you know what your values are, what your priorities are, if you’re meeting those, then then save everything else. Uh you know, that’s that’s probably what I would say is like as long as you’re, you’re living consistent with your values, um then, then you could just save the rest, but really it’s just intentional. uh people being intentional with with almost all like all the decisions, you know, whether it’s money, whether it’s how they spend their time, whether it’s hobbies, I mean this probably the limit of regrets later too. You know, like they just want to know that whenever their time comes, whenever their ticket’s punched, that they lived a good life that they’re they’re proud to have lived.
Mindy: I think that’s really important. So I see people uh who shall remain nameless who kind of just let life drag them by. Oh, I guess I’ll do this, I guess I’ll do that. They don’t have any thought behind it. They’re not doing anything because they want to. They’re doing it because everybody else is doing it or they’re doing it because you know, it was there and having the intentionality. I am going to do this. I am going to make this decision hopefully with some thought behind it and see what happens. Or I am going to, you know, I could have spent every dime that I ever made, but instead, I decided to put some of it into the stock market and look, it grew. Oh, I want to do that again. So I’m going to now that I’ve seen that success, I’m going to do it again. I’ve made this intentional decision to continue saving towards my future. And now, you know, I am struck with a different problem of I have to make intentional decisions to not be so tight fisted. Um maybe you heard and that’s something that I’m working on right now too. But doing something on purpose is is a calm approach to life as opposed to like frantically trying to keep up or frantically trying to figure out what it is you’re doing. So I love that idea of just being intentional about what you’re doing. Try just because you’re intentional about going down this path doesn’t mean that you have to continue going down that path forever. You try it because you’ve done some research, you’ve done some thought, you’ve you you’ve given it some thought and you’re trying something out. and then if it doesn’t work, then you pivot and you do something else.
Guest: There are things more important than money, right? We all can agree there are things more important than money. So as long as you know what your values are, what your priorities are, if you’re meeting those, then then save everything else. Uh you know, that’s that’s probably what I would say is like as long as you’re, you’re living consistent with your values, um then, then you could just save the rest and whenever you get there, you get there.
Scott: What what are however this, what are some consistent themes that you see, like values that seem to be shared among the people who attend these these camps, um, that that you think are uh consistent probably by and large among people who who actually achieve financial independence.
Guest: I think the the main quality I see most consistent consistently is just intentionality. Um, you know, it’s they want to be efficient with the decisions they’re making with, you know, they people put a lot of work into making money, you know, they value their own time. They don’t want to put all the work into making money just to waste it on things they don’t care about. So they’re very intentional. So to me that’s that’s the one thing and that goes back to what I was just saying earlier. It’s like, as long as your values, um, are being reflected in the life that you’re living and you’re able to live consistently with that, then, uh, then you could just save the rest, but really it’s just intentional. uh, people being intentional with with almost all like all the decisions, you know, whether it’s money, whether it’s how they spend their time, whether it’s hobbies, I mean, it’s
Guest: probably the limit of regrets later too. You know, like they just want to know that whenever their time comes, whenever their ticket’s punched that they lived a good life that they’re they’re proud to have lived.
Mindy: I think that’s really important. So I see people uh who shall remain nameless who kind of just let life drag them by. Oh, I guess I’ll do this, I guess I’ll do that. They don’t have any thought behind it. They’re not doing anything because they want to. They’re doing it because everybody else is doing it or they’re doing it because you know, it was there and having the intentionality, I am going to do this. I am going to make this decision hopefully with some thought behind it and see what happens. Or I am going to, you know, I could have spent every dime that I ever made, but instead, I decided to put some of it into the stock market and look, it grew. Oh, I want to do that again. So I’m going to now that I’ve seen this success, I’m going to do it again. I’ve made this intentional decision to continue saving towards my future. And now, you know, I am struck with a different problem of I have to make intentional decisions to not be so tight fisted. Um maybe you heard and that’s something that I’m working on right now too. But doing something on purpose is is a calm approach to life as opposed to like frantically trying to keep up or frantically trying to figure out what it is you’re doing. So I love that idea of just being intentional about what you’re doing. Try just because you’re intentional about going down this path doesn’t mean that you have to continue going down that path forever. You try it because you’ve done some research, you’ve done some thought, you’ve you you’ve given it some thought and you’re trying something out and then if it doesn’t work, then you pivot and you do something else. Stephen, you have any other tips to make the fi journey more successful and enjoyable?
Guest: I think one of the one of the things that um I found to be much more um enjoyable and probably has contributed to to me continuing to make progress is just being connected with people who sort of know what I’m know about the fi journey, know about the end goal financially wise, whether it’s you know, forums on blogs or if you’re, you know, going to the Bigger Pockets forums or comments in the youtube section or whatever, uh, work on surrounding yourself um, with like-minded people and with people who know more than you, like who are smarter than you. There’s a reason I haven’t spoken at any of my camps of the 42 that I’ve done. Scott and Mindy has spoken at more camps than I have. I’ve never been a speaker at a camp because I like hearing from all the people that are way smarter than me and I don’t want to waste people’s time. but, um, it’s a really cool, like selfishly just being surrounded by people who know so much um about so much.
Scott: even um, I we’re we’re getting close to wrapping up here but I’d love to to ask you as a final question, where can people find out more about you and where where can people find Campfi?
Guest: Yeah, you just go to the Campfi website, you can see the, I’ll try to keep the schedule as updated as possible. Right now we have all of next year’s events at the website. It’s campfi.org, c a m p f i for financial independence.org org and uh I mean if you want to email me, you can email me at campfi.org@gmail.com.
Scott: Awesome. Well, thank you so much Stephen for for coming on. Thanks for putting together such a great program. I know it’s it’s I haven’t been in a couple years but it’s had a big impact on my life, made a lot of friends. Um, met a lot of folks that I I had only ever connected with digitally before.
Mindy: Thank you, Stephen. This was a lot of fun. I really appreciate your time. I appreciate all that you’ve done for the community, the financial independence community because your campfi are changing lives. So thank you so much and we will talk to you soon.
Guest: Thank y’all for having me. Had a great time.
Mindy: All right, Scott, that was Stephen. That was so much fun. I love talking to Stephen. I love can’t, I don’t know if you could tell Scott, but I really like Campfi. I love connecting with other people on their journey to financial independence. I love talking to them about where they’re at, what hurdles they’re facing. I just I really love this stuff.
Scott: Yeah, me me too. Um, Mindy, let let’s let’s do a quick, you know, favorite memory from a campfi.
Mindy: Oh, okay. My favorite memory was a couple of years ago, Dan Sheeks was giving his presentation that we actually turned into a podcast episode for this show. He was talking about how you teach your children about money, your older teens about money before they go away to college by actually giving them all the money that they’re going to need for their life and forcing them to figure out how to budget. So if they’re going to spend, you know, $700 in a month, you give them $700 at the beginning of the month. And then they’re responsible for clothes and shoes, and their phone bill, and perhaps paying you rent, and they buy their own shampoo, and they buy all of these things. And if you’re going on a vacation, they have to budget that into, you know, use that that money that they’ve got to help budget for the vacation going forward. And it’s a really great way to teach them how to walk a tight rope with a safety net underneath. That was my absolute favorite moment at Campfi. How about you?
Scott: Let’s see my my favorite moment. Um, I would say besides the the million conversations. One that just sticks out to me is uh I had a conversation probably like from 12:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. with Doug Nordman. Um Doug Nordman is a a uh uh author of the military guide to financial independence and retirement. He’s been on the podcast in in in previous shows. Um but I am a big sucker for all things naval and you know, I we just basically talked about Admiral Rickover and the submarine nuclear Navy for two hours and I just had a great time doing that. It’s just those kinds of connections in addition to the the great discussions about, you know, finance of course that are always happening. So,
Mindy: Scott, what’s the best advice that you have heard at Campfi?
Scott: Uh best advice. Um well, I I I think that the best, the thing that I picked up is uh that was really important that sticks with me is a lot of conversations or a good chunk of them had to do with folks that were already fi but couldn’t quit their jobs. And for whatever reason, like couldn’t there there was an it wasn’t there’s a financial component to it, there’s an identity component to it. There’s a what am I going to do component to it. And I think that um the actual transition from having hit your number to then actually becoming fi is really a challenge that we haven’t we we’ve explored a little bit on Bigger Pockets money, but is a real step in the journey that I think that that has always stuck with me out of out of numerous conversations for various reasons, folks really struggle with that and that’s a uh opportunity to really to really help folks and these types of events can be powerful motivators or ways to kind of get through that.
Mindy: On that same vain Scott, Joel from FI 180 said, what’s the worst that could happen if I quit my job? I’ll just go back and get another job. So my worst case scenario is everybody else’s everyday life. That’s not a bad way to frame quitting your job and and early retirement.
Mindy: All right, Scott, should we get out of here?
Scott: Let’s do it.
Mindy: That wraps up this episode of the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. He is Scott Trench and I am Mindy Jensen saying, Adios, little ghost.
Mindy: If you enjoyed today’s episode, please give us a five star review on Spotify or Apple. And if you’re looking for even more money content, feel free to visit our youtube channel at youtube.com/biggerpocketsmoney.
Mindy: Bigger Pockets Money was created by Mindy Jensen and Scott Trench, produced by Calen Bennett, editing by Exodus Media, copywriting by Nate Winetraub. Lastly, a big thank you to the Bigger Pockets team for making this show possible.
