Today on episode 61 I’m pleased to welcome Heather Larsen, pro slackliner and climber and lover of southern Utah’s desert heat. What is probably less known about Heather is that, following humble beginnings, she graduated at the height of the Great Recession with a double major in finance and economics.
In the intervening years, she struggled greatly to find work in her field, even competing for bank teller jobs with 20-year finance veterans. Out west she found work in seasonal park service positions, growing more and more fond of the outdoors, eventually discovering climbing and slacklining.
Heather could have easily fallen into a mindset of defeat. But with persistence, she was eventually able to secure a career in financial reporting, enabling her preferred lifestyle balance of elite outdoor adventure and self-made financial security.
Topics Discussed with Heather Larsen
- Heather’s rapid rise in the world of elite slacklining
- Heather’s lesser-known background in economics and finance, career in investment reporting
- Why Heather chose a professional career over a full-time life in professional slackening
- Humble family beginnings and early adversity
- Why Heather chose to double major in college for finance and economics
- What’s an Mrs. Degree?
- Graduating in 2008 and struggling to find work during the Great Recession
- Moving out west in search of adventure and seasonal work at a low in her life
- Working in the outdoor industry: realities on work/life balance in this industry
- The spectrum of financial security in elite outdoor athletics
- Heather’s personal finance goals and thoughts on early retirement
- Why Heather calls her van a financial mistake
- Heather’s experience with home ownership and real estate investing
- Longevity at a job to enhance career capital
- So much more!
Get in Touch with Heather Larsen
Related Content
Reader Case Study: Maximize Adventure or Career? (Clipping Chains)
Van Life: The Economics and Trade-0ffs (Clipping Chains)
Brent Barghahn: Real Estate Investing and the Future of Home Ownership (Clipping Chains)
Should I Buy a Home? Part 2: Opportunity Cost (Clipping Chains)
Jenny Christiansen Art (Heather’s friend who creates excellent desert art)
Here is a link to all Clipping Chains posts.
Books
The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery (Brianna Wiest)
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (Robin Wall Kimmerer)
When Breath Becomes Air (Paul Kalanithi)
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