It was a rather successful Eindhoven BENL Meetup, if I may say so myself. We had a total of 38 people (and one little person) join last Saturday to talk money and FIRE for the day. As with every event we have organized in the past, we walk away with lots of things to discuss and review. So many new ideas!
Eindhoven BENL Meetup
The group that met was quite diverse (as per usual), both in terms of bloggers and non-bloggers. Some people are FIRE already, other have no desire to become FIRE at all. This makes for great discussions and the ability to explore other viewpoints. We really enjoy this part of the event; random discussions with complete (internet) strangers and new friends.
That being said, we always try to make a program that is diverse in nature. However, due to time restrictions and the difficulty of finding presenters, this is always a challenge. The event in Eindhoven was this time geared towards the investing side of things with presentations on Cryctocurrencies and investing in Holdings (I’m in the process to see if we can make guest posts about the two presentations).
We also hosted the loverly Mr and Mrs W from Whatlifecouldbe. They are already FIRE and are actively working on a European version of the “Rockstar Finance” site: FIREhub.eu.
They also presented and provided information about a European FIRE event that they organize: FIWE. The next one is schedule for the summary of 2018. For more details, see the FIWE link above.
Other Bloggers
Obviously some of the bloggers make a short write up of these meetups, below is a summary of a few of them (mainly in Dutch!) from the Eindhoven edition last weekend:
http://geld-is-tijd.blogspot.nl/2017/11/de-ethiek-van-fire.html
Next Time?
Of course we are going to continue with organizing these events. It is very rewarding and fun. The next event will likely be in February or March of 2018 in Leuven, Belgium. Those that attended the last few events will get an invite to propose their favorite days, from which we will select the final date (or dates, if we make this a weekend long event).
We are obviously already looking for new presentations and discussion topics. Some already proposed include:
- Preferred Shares
- Permaculture
- The ethics of investing
- Investment loans
- Estate planning and inheritance
- Financial Planners, are they worth a visit?
If you have a topic you are interested in, please let us know. If you want to present a topic yourself, you are encouraged to let us know too.
Amber Tree Leaves and us will keep you posted on the developments for the 5th BENL meetup.
Thanks for the hosting! Really enjoyed the day 🙂
Was great seeing you again, good luck with the new RE adventure!
Thanks for organising another great meetup! I would be very interested in discussing the ethical side of FIRE (not just investing, but also organic vs cheap food, bargain flights yay/nay, meaningful (volunteer) work vs. high salary, etc. I hope I can make Leuven. See you, C.
Great suggestions PP, will take them into consideration (might need about 3 meetups to cover them all 😉 ). Hope to see you again in Leuven!
Thanks for the excellent organisation and I am very glad I did come, even if the next day I paid the price with my back being completely ruined!
Hope your back will improve soon, was kind of painful watching you move around. And I didn’t even have a hernia!
4 days of rest helped a lot. i can once more move as a normal human being (well, more or less)
THank you from my side as well for organising this meetup. I really enjoyed it and was worth flying there from Romania! 🙂
I’d love to dive deeper in the topic of teaching personal finance to young people. Since we have an economics teachers and at least a blogger who started creating presentasions (Dividend Cake) about it, I think we have a good basis.
Looking forward to more such meetups.
You are very welcome, was a great pleasure to meet you in person! Glad you guys enjoyed your time and that you believed it was worth the trip. I strongly agree that the topic of personal finance deserves more attention at a young age, I applaud your (and others) efforts to make this happen. When I have more time, I might join in on that party too. Just need to become FI first 😉
Also my big thanks for arranging the event. It was more then worth to visit for me. I’m curious about the permaculture, ethics and Financial planners as well.
I hope Leuven will not be dealbraker for me to visit.
There will always be Utrecht (or some other location) thereafter, we won’t be able to do all topic during one meetup anyways. That being said, if you could make it, that be great!
He, that’s me on the left side with the yellow blur on my face!
Let’s pick a date a soon as possible. Both Martina and I never went to Leuven (yet) so we will merge the meeting with a city trip and book a hotel for the weekend.
There are a few things we need to check out, but we are planning to setup the possible dates quickly. Heck, we might even make this a weekend long thing if we can.
well, thanks again for organisation! And see you next time!
Hi Claudia,
Thanks for coming, it was great seeing you again. Until next time!
Thanks for hosting again! Day was over before we knew it, was a great time spending with all.
Like the ethics and financial planner topics. Would also love to see room for a discussion 🙂
You are very welcome. Your tips and requests are noted.
Thanks for organising such a fun event! It was great to meet the BENL FIRE community, I especially enjoyed the speed dating part!
It was a pleasure having you too! Thank you so much for coming and giving the presentations about FIWE and FIREHub.eu. Looking forward to meeting you again in the future, either here or in Romania!
We really enjoyed it! I like the ethics and the permaculture. And I’m curious about the spending habits of FIRE-enthousiasts. How much money is enough for living? But maybe that is more a speeddate-subject?!
Thanks for the feedback Merel, will take it into consideration!
We could even have a debate about ethics! I love debates and especially debates about ethics!
You were a pretty good discussion leader (with Chris) on the second event in Antwerp, fancy another go (assuming you are available)?
This for lifting the heavy weight on this one.
The suggestions are great.
No worries, was worth it!
Well done! A shame I had to miss this one. Permaculture and the ethics of becoming FIRE have my vote too. But well… Leuven is still a bit far away…
A presentation via Skype is an interesting idea too! Let’s check into that.
If we can arrange the facilities on both sides I’d be happy to try this experiment!
Thanks again Cheesy!
Permaculture, Ethics & Financial Planners will get a like from my side 😉
Noted!