I've spent the last 18 months mentoring new bloggers online, and a couple weeks ago most of us met up at FinCon. This included a blogger camp before the main conference as well as a dedicated mentoring session during the conference.
I met hundreds of frugal people (I mean, people in addition to Mr. & Mrs. MMM) who are going to reach financial independence in their 30s... or feel bad about not making it until their 40s. Most of them networked on projects or agreed to gigs that will easily produce 4-5 figures during the next year. Some of them even scored a sponsor's free pass to the conference, flew on airline miles, took the $2 bus from the airport instead of the $33 cab, shared rooms with other FinCon attendees (through the FinCon-sponsored Google Doc), and then scored freelancing posts or affiliate income deals. Not that any of us are competitive about that sort of thing.
The entrepreneurial spirit in the hallways & lounges was thick enough to cut with a chainsaw.
I think the next generation is going to turn out just fine.
My spouse and I were about as un-frugal as we could be during this trip, but even I was offered a freelancing deal that paid for my conference ticket. If this keeps up then I'm going to be simultaneously donating the income to military charities and maxing out my Roth IRA contributions...
Told a colleague about Navy Federal's 5% CD, and he's setting off to open a Navy Federal account (doesn't have one, but he's a Navy vet from Vietnam, so should have no difficulties).
My spouse and I both signed up for that deal, and then I signed up my Dad for it, and then our daughter signed herself up too...