Last night TrulyStashin and I (along with our SO) met three more Mustachians from the forums at a local microbrew that overlooks the James River and Richmond skyline on a warm fall evening for a few beers and a few hours of great socializing as the sun went down. Sound idyllic? Yeah, it pretty much was.
Highlight of the evening for me was talking to Richmond Savers, who recently went to a financial bloggers convention in New Orleans and spent a little quality time with MMM and the Mad Fientist (the latter of which he is long term friends with). Richmond Savers has a pretty kick-ass travel rewards program here....
http://www.richmondsavers.com/(Arebelspy has used it and highly endorsed it elsewhere on this blog)
There were a few very nice follow-up emails the next morning, this was mine, slightly edited for anonymity.
Thanks for the email (forum member), I had a great time and was so pleased that all of you were able to come out. I originally scheduled Thursday because (another forum member) said she was available that day but she had her calendar mixed up. Some thoughts...
I'm always amazed at how there isn't one particular template for badassery. All of us are in very different places in our journey. (One forum member) and I were perhaps the most alike and yet the basic concepts remain the same. Make good money, optimize your spending, value your time appropriately (after all, earlier retirement is just another way of saying buying time with your stash). I'm always impressed with folks like (two forum members) who figure it out sooner rather than later.
I thought being a hybrid of spender and saver would make me something of a misfit, but I realize now that damn few people can actually pull off MMM levels of frugality, or frankly, want to. Sometimes I just have to step back and realize how much I truly have pared back when I quite willingly throw down $30 for a great evening with friends. It's money very well spent. I think most of us are in the same boat to some degree. Retiring at the earliest possible moment may drive a lot of people on the blog, but retiring considerably earlier is a fine end unto itself.
(SO of forum member) seems like a very nice guy, and it must have been quite odd for him being surrounded by the MMM crowd instead of the other way around, which is what most of us live with day-to-day.
I'm excited about the budding MMM community in Richmond. Of all the forum cities out there, I think we have the potential to be one of the most badass places in the country. TrulyStashin gets a little of the credit there, I'm just following up on the seeds she planted. Richmond, like Longmont, is a pretty good place to be frugal and live a badass life. Too bad we can't do something about the humidity.
Would love to know how folks in other cities formed and maintain their MMM communities, please share your insights so RVA can continue to grow larger and better.