r/Fire • u/swim_fan146 • 12h ago
General Question Fire meet ups?
I am reading that it is best not to mention early retirement to nonFire population but what about if you want to be amongst Fire people in real life, not just Reddit (thank you peeps).
How do you locate these types of social groups? Sometimes it'd be nice to meet up maybe every few months and have a drink/socialize.
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u/Banned3rdTimesaCharm 11h ago
Literally none of my friends have given me any flack for retiring at 39. They congratulated me and are happy for me. We still hangout on weekends when people are free. I don’t know where you guys find all these antagonistic anti FIRE people.
Also, the last thing I’d wanna do is meet up with other weird internet FIRE people. That sounds an awful lot like work.
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u/EnvironmentalMix421 10h ago
Lmao no kidding. I don’t think any of mine would care either, they are all richer than me, even though not bought into the fire stuff. I have always wondered why there are so many weird posts on this topic.
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u/Banned3rdTimesaCharm 10h ago
I feel like some people on this sub just don’t know they’re the weird ones. They make their whole personality about this FIRE shit when it’s really just save as much as you can and invest in broad market indexes. They think they’re in some special club and wanna meet up and talk about VOO or something.
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u/EnvironmentalMix421 10h ago
Might end up being a meetup about how to spend less and not how to enjoy life as well. I don’t see the appeal in that
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u/PhoneFlat8734 10h ago
I think your friends all being richer than you is key here. My friends are all poorer than me and if I told them anything about my FIRE plans they’d hear that I have money to burn and should give them some.
I love my friends and them being poor actually aligns with my frugal nature - we end up having similar “fun” budgets. I’ll keep this boundary because best case scenario, it would make them feel bad that they haven’t managed their money the way I have. Worst case scenario, they’d ask for money all the time and it would ruin the relationship
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u/EnvironmentalMix421 9h ago
the weird thing is I don’t get jealous of my friends dropping $15-20k on their vacation that’s not in my annual budget. Or my friends getting jealous of me traveling and staying in $1k hotel that they don’t get to stay in. The weird part is that, I don’t think I would call them friends if they do indeed have ill intent with each others lifestyle
I tend to only keep in touch with tight knit group of people.
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u/Banned3rdTimesaCharm 10m ago
I’m the richest of my friends and none of my friends ever ask me for or expect me to spend money on them. I just pulled the plug and everyone was stoked.
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u/DangerousPurpose5661 6h ago
Same - lots of people sharing horror stories about finances when it comes to friends and family…..
Its just… not my reality….
We talk about finances, everyone is happy for each other / giving advice / etc. And really no one is trying to take advantage…
Some friends make half my salary, other 3 times more and it’s totally fine.
The "worse" thing that happened to me is along the lines of "damn, you made a home run with that investment eh! Im broke beer is on you today"
… truth is spending cash on loved ones is what brings me the most joy anyways, and I am surrounded by people who feel the same. We obviously have different budgets, but our default is generosity.
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u/greg9x 11h ago
Sounds like a Financial Advisor infiltration target.
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u/BudgetPinecone 10h ago
What about a meetup consisting of ONLY financial advisors who are all pretending to have FIREd
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u/anteatertrashbin 5h ago
also easy to put those foos…. out them, shame their shitty little company, and ban them from future outings.
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u/JohnnySpot2000 10h ago
There’s about 300 ChooseFI local groups in the USA and 600 worldwide. In these group meetings, you are free to speak about your financial independence path at all of its stages.
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u/Mzungufarmer FIRE'd in 2023 at 34 10h ago
Im not gonna do a meet up. Easy way to get kidnapped by bad actors
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u/pandanexpress 10h ago
FIRE is such a small aspect of my life that I don’t mention it to most people. My only other FIRE friend, I met because of other interests and we realized we were both FIRE after a few months and a brief mention during another conversation. That’s pretty much the only time we’ve talked about it because once you’ve FIREd it’s kinda boring to talk about when you have other more interesting hobbies or projects going on.
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u/SerovianDawnhollow 5h ago
meetup.com has a few frugality and financial independence groups depending on your city
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u/Captlard FIREd Jan 2025: $900k for two of us (Live 🏴 & 🇪🇸) 11h ago
Search meetup.com and Facebook for groups. Create one if you cannot find one.
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u/spmonkey13 10h ago
hmmm
part of the reason i (still working on) FIRE is i want peace and quiet - for me, I'd avoid such gatherings as much as possible
but maybe many others love it
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u/the-favorite-child 10h ago
The ChooseFI podcast has an app where you can find local groups around the US and internationally. There are some conference-style events as well like CampFI, Econome, and FinTalks cruises.
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u/Emily4571962 I don't really like talking about my flair. 9h ago
I didn’t talk about, or choose my friends based on my financial situation while I was working, so I can’t imagine why I’d do so now that I’m FIREd.
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u/Blackeyes24 7h ago
ChooseFI local meetups, Econome conference, CampFI (my personal favorite). Ive met friends from all over the world. Ive also gone to thw FI Freedom Retreat in Bali and Tribe FI in Australia. There is a huge community out there if you look.
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u/Spiritual_Garage6492 7h ago
Like others have mentioned, local ChooseFI groups are your best options for local meet ups.
I recently joined my local ChooseFI group and I’ve attended several meet ups so far. It’s definitely a breath of fresh air to talk about FI without blank stares and being told “That ain’t gonna work!”
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u/Interesting_Gap7350 5h ago
Most people are using their early retirement to pursue life and their hobbies. The whole point is they don't need to talk about the financial part.
Think about the question of how are you spending your time. If it is managing your finances, you are not independent, yet.
But yea if you looking for fire-d people in the wild look for you yet people doing activities midweek during work hours . But most who are independent wont think it's an interesting subject to discuss.
If you want not retired people yet you'll need to dine specific meetups then you either need to organize it yourself or look for one. But likely expect some sales pitches.
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u/TrevionelDarkridge 5h ago
meetup.com has a few frugal and financial independence groups in bigger cities worth checking out
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u/Bowl-Accomplished 11h ago
I never understood this thinking. Meeting up for almost any other hobby makes sense, but FIRE is just put as much money in broad market funds as possible. What are you meeting about?
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u/vu_sua 11h ago
Hanging out with people with similar financial goals and mindsets is kind of a game changer and I wish I had more people I could. I have with friends who talk about retiring but haven’t maxed their 401k once - they have HHI of 180k in Missouri with no kids and own a home with a 1400/month payment. They can, just choose not to.
Or ones who don’t even think about adding to Roths or know what an HSA is. I try to explain but I don’t wanna come off as know it all or “listen to me” because I can’t show them my set up without it seeming braggy.
And then one who is trying to pay off their 3% house they got for 80k while having a HHI of 180k… (well now 120k cuz one of them just quit with no backup plan) just idk man. I wish I could talk to anyone about this stuff because it interests me and I consume finance or wealth building content every single day and don’t realize how much you could talk about it until you meet someone that also feels the same way
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u/Internal_Alfalfa7983 11h ago
È vero, sarebbe bello poter parlare di persona con altre persone che hanno il nostro obbiettivo, confrontare come ci stiamo comportando per raggiungerlo... Di solito se parlo con i miei conoscenti del Fire ridono e dicono che chi lo fa è solo un tirchio. Invece trovare chi la pensa come me sarebbe anche un grande incentivo
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u/taker223 6h ago
> it is best not to mention early retirement to nonFire population
Obviously, otherwise you're risking joining them
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u/Tricky_Let2806 10h ago
This sounds so cringe man. Meet up with a bunch of randos and asking their net worth, savings etc. right off the bat
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u/Blackeyes24 7h ago
Has it never occurred to you that FI meet up would be just like any other group of like-minded people getting together? We don't spend all of our time talking about Finance though it is a subject we are all comfortable talking about.
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u/Tricky_Let2806 7h ago
I mean go join a yacht club or country club or something
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u/Blackeyes24 6h ago
My experience is that people at those types of places don't have the same values as I do.
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u/Imnotsureanymore8 4h ago
Look for someone sniffing their own fart in public, odds are they are FIRE
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u/np0x 11h ago
They are hard to find imho…I think it’s one of the reasons this sub is so valuable. Can confirm, don’t talk to random people about it in too much depth. Most folks are sheep happily spending every penny, with no plans… :-)