Recap of Camp Mustache 2025
Exhausted, Inspired, and Grateful.
I literally just got back home a couple hours ago and wanted to document my three current emotions before they start to dissipate.
Exhausted both physically & mentally from lack-of-sleep and all of the social interaction. Can’t wait to rest & decompress a little now that camp is over.
Inspired to do more and to make some changes in my own life. Listening to other campers’ stories and how they are living their lives is truly amazing & inspirational. I’d like to incorporate little tidbits into my own life.
Grateful to have had the opportunity to spend an entire weekend with such a wonderful group of people. I am thankful for the ability to specifically attend Camp Mustache 2025, but also broadly thankful to be part of the FI community.
New Day, Same Habits
Although I had some inkling of what I might expect, the weekend didn’t start out on the best foot.
I’m not going to lie – I was scared when I first arrived at camp. I was like a deer in headlights. I had a similar experience when I attended my first big FI event back in 2023 (CampFI), but that weekend turned out well and I had attended two EconoMe conferences in between. Leading up to the weekend my confidence was high and I even carpooled with a friend, so I thought I had no fear. But as soon as I walked through those doors of the retreat center and saw a room full of strangers, I immediately reverted to my introverted ways.
I checked-in, received my nametag, then tried to mingle for a moment and look “normal”, but I quickly decided to leave and go find my room. What started as “I’ll hang out in the room for a couple minutes to unpack” turned into 20 minutes of “what am I even doing here at camp?” and “I think I’ll just hang out here alone for another hour until dinner”.
I knew these feelings of dread were just temporary and that things would be okay, but I was truly paralyzed with terror. I gathered my thoughts, tried to calm myself down, and then decided to push myself through it.
I took a deep breath, walked out the door, and headed towards the lobby, looking for someone to talk to. Unfortunately I scanned the room and everyone was already in a conversation, so instead of trying to be rude and butt in, I quickly scampered back to the safety of my room.
After a few more minutes I gathered up the courage to try again. I thought to myself “this is going to be a LONG & STRANGE weekend if I stay in my room the entire time”. I also thought it may actually be even weirder if I just hopped in the car and left immediately (especially because the friend I carpooled with would then need to find another ride back to the airport).
This time when I left the room I was able to finally find my friends from EconoMe, which made it a little easier to get adjusted and started building my confidence. From that moment on the weekend became a little easier and easier as far as meeting others and interacting, but there were still many, many, many times when I would still slip back into my wallflower habits.
Reflecting back on it, it was interesting for me to note that each morning would start off with a renewed sense of social dread but as the day wore on things got better until the end of each night, when I was feeling great and felt like I could confidently hang with anyone.
Sharing a Common Bond
The people that I met throughout the weekend were from all different walks of life, different heritages, different personalities, etc. Attendees ranged from typical tech workers to a professional musician from New York City to a college student from Oregon (who happened to be my roommate) and to everything in between. It was cool to be around such a diverse group because in real life, outside the walls of camp, I would honestly never have a chance to meet people like this. What made it all work though was our common bond of Financial Independence.
And speaking of Financial Independence, people from all different phases of the journey were represented. The majority of attendees were still somewhere on their path to FI with a good number of those at the beginning and most somewhere in the middle. A smaller number of attendees were at FI and/or retired. Overall it felt like a good mix because most people could either look back and see others in a spot where they used to be, or look forward to see what their future could potentially look like.
How I Did With My Goals
As you may remember when I documented my expectations for camp, not only was I looking forward to hearing everyone’s unique stories, but I also wanted to practice my conversation skills. And in particular I wanted to work on listening to others and trying to keep the topic of “work” out of conversations.
So how did I do?
I think I did okay. Although I was able to overcome my initial fear from the start of camp, it was still challenging for me to start conversations with others. The easiest times for me to do this were at mealtimes when we were all gathered around the table. Each table had 8 seats and most of the time I would intentionally try to sit by someone I had not talked to yet. At that point I felt like I had “tricked” the people on either side of me because now they “had” to talk to me for half an hour while eating. But in all seriousness these were good openings for conversations because it felt less intimidating and awkward to start talking in this situation vs walking up to someone in an open room.
The conversations throughout the weekend, whether at the dining table or elsewhere, seemed to go well. I tried to remember any little bits of info I could about the person to see if they could expand on it or I would ask them more about their background. As a fallback, I often used the generic questions “How many times have you attended Camp Mustache?”, “Is this your first FI event?” or “How have you been enjoying the weekend?” Of course, I NEVER caught myself asking the forbidden question “What do you do (for your job)?”
While I felt that I did a decent job at having conversations and had improved from past events, I knew that I was still lacking, mostly because my questions still felt quite generic.
I met a woman who asked very interesting/in-depth questions from the start such as “Have you ever tried X?” or “What are your thoughts on Y?” and completely bypassed all of the small talk that I was still trying to use myself. Her questions blew me away and when I complimented her on the last day she actually started crying and said “thank you, this is a skill that I’ve been actively working on and I’m glad someone noticed”. Needless to say, I aspire to be like this woman.
Changes
So what else did I take away from this event?
I learned a lot, but there weren’t any one or two particularly big takeaways that I had. Instead, I picked up little tidbits here & there both from the official content (presentations & sessions) as well as just talking to people, learning more about them, and hearing what kind of things they were doing.
I came away wanting to implement many things into my own life, but there were three specific items that really stood out, two of which were centered around time:
- I’d like to free up more time. Silly as this may sound coming from someone who is retired, I am actually very busy. At times it feels like I am busier now than I was when I had a full-time career. One explanation is that I no longer have discrete boundaries between work-life & home-life – everything tends to bleed together. Also, since I am mostly doing only things that I enjoy and/or that I choose, it’s easy to get carried away with continuing to go & go & go because it doesn’t feel like a chore. I met others who have set up their lives to intentionally slow down and enjoy things (such as taking a daily walk or exercising) and I’d like to get back to having more of that built-in space.
- I need to value my time more. Because I no longer work and time is “unlimited” now, I tend to get carried away with taking on too many things. A lot of these are my own projects, but I also like to help others. Unfortunately I’m at a point now where I have so many obligations and my schedule is so full that it feels like work, just a different kind of work. I met a woman who values her time so much that she’s willing to help others, with the caveat that she gets paid since her free time is so precious to her. I don’t know if I’ll necessarily start charging people to help them, but this has made me rethink how valuable time can be and that I shouldn’t just be giving it away to anything or anyone without really thinking about it first.
- Have more intentional goals/habits. One of the exercises we worked on at camp was putting together our bucket lists, which are a list of activities that each of us want to accomplish before death. I struggled to think of anything more meaningful than some of the generic big-ticket items such as visiting country X or participating in adventure Y. At this point in my life I’m still in the “exploring stage” and trying out many things to figure out what I’m interested in. With limited time though, I want to make sure I find what’s important to me so I can start acting on them soon instead of putting these things off until “one (nebulous) day” in the future. What really put me to shame was that one woman, who is younger than me, said she had already accomplished all the items on her bucket list long ago.
Keeping It Rolling
While the weekend started with a great deal of hesitation, that feeling quickly dissipated and the event ended on such a high note (as I had originally anticipated). My experience at Camp Mustache 2025 resulted in many new friends and deeper connections with existing ones. I learned a lot, but most importantly came away with a stronger sense of community.
Finishing this blog post a couple days after coming home, I still feel the same three emotions that I had when I left camp – exhausted, inspired, grateful. I am hoping that I continue to feel the same way for a long time and that I can somehow pass along these lessons & feelings to others in our small, but growing FI community.
The Nitty Gritty Details
Okay, so I know there are probably MANY readers out there who are seeking more details about the event itself (instead of my random thoughts & ramblings). So for all of those people out there, here you go…
Camp Mustache is a 3-night event that takes place from Friday afternoon to Monday morning over Memorial Day Weekend in the Pacific Northwest. The number of attendees is limited to ~45-50, with people coming from all over the United States (and many times from other parts of the world). The event takes place at a single lodge where everyone eats, sleeps, and interacts. Most rooms are shared amongst 2 people, with a handful of rooms reserved for attendees who specifically request to be alone.
The programming is back-to-back-to-back sessions that run almost continuously from 9:00am until 5:00pm with a 1-hour lunch and multiple breaks in-between. The majority of these sessions are billed as “optional” although technically ALL sessions are optional since everyone is free to come & go as they please. Sessions range from strictly financial topics to individual case studies to diverse topics such as creativity and meal prep. When not attending sessions, attendees usually go off on their own to some other part of the lodge or even gather to talk in small groups about various topics. Evenings after dinner are reserved for more fun & informal activities such as karaoke, board games, sitting by the bonfire, etc. Sidenote: One of the activities I enjoyed the most was improv, which I had always heard about but never tried before.
The format of Camp Mustache differs from CampFI since there are more continuous presentations & sessions planned. CampFI only has Qty 2 one-hour presentations each morning followed by a day full of casual social time and camp activities such as archery, zip-lining, etc. I don’t think there is one superior format, just something to be aware of. I would honestly attend either event again in the future since I’m more focused on meeting people and more focused on the community aspect of it all vs. trying to intentionally learn something.
Links/Resources
Reader Questions
- Have you attended Camp Mustache (or any other FI event)? If so, what was your experience like and what are you looking forward to at future events?
Leave your answers or comments below – or email us directly at info@epicfinancialjourney.com