Edit: The waitlist for cancels is now closed as we make our final preparations for camp. We hope you can join us at CMMW 2025 or that we may meet at another Camp Mustache event, like
CMTO this fall.
What is Camp Mustache Midwest?Camp Mustache Midwest (or CM*MW) is three days of fun, friends, and finances, held outside Cincinnati, OH, from May 3rd-5th, 2024! Two nights’ accommodations and all meals, presentations, and activities are included in the $200 registration fee!
Camp Mustache events are community-run, not-for-profit, not-for-prophet, inclusive, and nature-conscious. CM attendees come from across the globe and from every corner of the FIRE internet. All attendees including the organizing committee and all speakers pay the same price and participate as equals in the discussion.
What will we do all day? Will Mr. Money Mustache speak at CM*MW?Camp Mustache starts the morning of Friday, May 3rd and goes through lunchtime on Sunday, May 5th, with optional outings before and after occurring away from the venue.
There will be both financial and non-financial sessions for all experience levels. All presentations and sessions are led by community members - including you, dear reader! The CM*MW organizing committee is currently planning the sessions. We would love to have you on the agenda! Please reach out if you would like to lead a session or have a request for a topic.
The purpose of Camp Mustache events is to interact with the Mustachian community, not Mr. Money Mustache. Mr. Money Mustache is busy doing squats, carpentering, and living a brilliant retired life thousands of miles away in Colorado.
Why come to CM*MW?Don’t know a Roth from a wrench? Come to camp and learn how to put the building blocks of FIRE in place in your life from other people who are making it happen today.
Are your friends really tired of hearing you rant about buy-it-for-life? Come to camp and make new friends who understand the FIRE way of life.
Have you walked many miles down the FIRE path? Come to camp and share your knowledge with your fellow FIRE folk, and deepen your connection to the FI community.
Where is CM*MW held?Camp Mustache Midwest is held in a rustic outdoor camp setting. For security reasons, the venue name and address will be released only to ticket holders.
Camp Mustache Midwest is physically located in southwest Ohio, outside Cincinnati. You can drive there with your car, or if you’re flying in from further away the camp is 50 minutes from DAY, 60 minutes from CVG, and 105 minutes from CMH.
Please carpool if you are able! Confirmed attendees organize carpools from nearby cities and airports in a dedicated app and on facebook and the private subforum.
What will staying at CM*MW be like?Our venue provides rustic cabins and common buildings surrounded by sports fields, a scenic river, woods, and hiking trails. The venue will feed and house us, and will also provide us with opportunities for badass fitness and naturey enrichment like high ropes, archery, gaga, foraging, and an always-popular campfire each night.
Each rustic cabin sports a front room, two large bunkrooms, and two shared bathrooms. Cabins are climate-controlled. As part of registration you can indicate friends (of any gender) you would like to room with, or let us know you would like to be assigned to a single-gender cabin. You can also let us know any dietary needs that our venue will need to accommodate.
You may also make your own arrangements to stay offsite, such as at a nearby hotel, campground, or AirBnB. An offsite or ‘day ticket’ registration includes access to all activities but is still full price, as the cost to the camp is little different.
Can I bring my family?Yes! We encourage you to bring your partner if you are both interested in learning more about the FIRE world!
We are also happy to again host children of all ages at camp! Children 5 and younger can attend camp for free, while older children can attend with a paid registration. However, no child-specific programming is planned at this time.
Just make sure to complete the pre-registration once for each attendee (see below for more).
How does registration work?We are targeting 75 attendees for CM*MW 2024. The pre-registration list closed on Sept 14th. (Please note that Camp Mustache events generally fill soon after registration opens.) When you pre-register, you will indicate food and cabin preferences, as well as whether you would like to lead a session.
We contacted provisional attendees on September 15th. These provisional attendees have until September 19th to pay their $200 per person registration fee to claim their spots at camp. We prefer payment in USD via Paypal but can likely accommodate other services and currencies. Provisional attendees who do not pay by September 19th will have their spots offered to someone else.
If you found out about camp too late or otherwise don’t get on the list in time, we will do our best to accommodate you by matching you up with a registered attendee who needs to cancel. Conversely, we are unable to offer refunds if the camp goes forward, so if a conflict comes up, the best route forward is to sell your ticket at face value to an interested camper. We will lock down attendance one month before camp; after that time, if you buy a secondhand ticket, you may not be able to change dietary or cabin preferences.
What should I bring? Can I bring food, alcohol, and my dog?We will provide confirmed attendees with a complete packing list.
Outside food is allowed. However, please be very careful to ensure any outside food you bring is
nut-free so that our venue can offer a safe experience to children with nut allergies after we are gone.
Alcohol is not allowed at our venue. Alcohol has been permitted by other Camp Mustache events but our venue is unable to accommodate this.
Do not bring or consume any alcoholic beverages at CM*MW.
Pets are not allowed.How is CM*MW dealing with COVID? What happens if the pandemic worsens?We request that all attendees are fully vaccinated before attending camp, but will not verify vaccination status. If you are not vaccinated we request that you look after the health of your fellow attendees by exercising extreme diligence in wearing a mask and physically distancing yourself whenever possible.
If we are
unable to hold Camp Mustache, we will communicate options to our registered attendees, likely including pushing registration over to the following year or a partial refund (offset by any event costs already incurred).
If we are
able to hold Camp Mustache, we will be unable to offer refunds for any reason. If you are unable or unwilling to come to camp whether due to inability to enter the US, because you are sick, or because you do not feel comfortable, we would suggest you contact us and we can attempt to place your ticket with a prospective attendee on our waitlist.
TLDR for veterans of CM*MW or other CM eventsThe structure of CM*MW 2024 is quite similar to CM*MW 2023, with another round of tweaks in response to camper feedback. We hope these tweaks can build on the strong start to CM*MW in 2022 and 2023 and give everyone an even more inspiring weekend.
If you’ve been to another CM or Camp FI event, you probably have a good sense for the crowd, schedule, and ambitions of our weekend at CM*MW. CM*MW is a rustic outdoor camp setting (think a church or YMCA camp), similar to past editions of CM*TO more than CM*NW or Camp FI events. We are very focused on managing costs to offer an affordable and inclusive experience. Unlike other CM events, our venue is not able to accommodate alcohol or pets, or to offer extra nights at the venue rather than offsite. On the other hand, we are able to accommodate attendees wishing to stay offsite and we are able to accommodate outside food.
Can I help organize camp? Can I speak? Can I host out-of-towners for a night?Yes, we would love your help! Send us an email at
CampMustacheMW@gmail.com!
More questions? Ask away!You can contact us at
CampMustacheMW@gmail.com or leave a comment right here in this thread!
