About Me

Hi there, I am Travel-Lars, a Norwegian office rat in my thirties running aimlessly in the corporate hamster wheel of modern life 🐹🎡.

This site is dedicated to the philosophy of minimalism and frugality and the ever more popular FIRE movement. (FI/RE: financial independence retire early) I've had a high SR the last few years to be able to follow my passion, which is travelling, learning new -and improving existing skills.

I have become more passionate about traveling in the last few years up to the point of taking a one year leave to do a solo backpacking trip in 2019. I put all my stuff in storage, rented out my home and went off with a backpack. I managed to "slow-travel" on a budget for almost a year in Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand before the covid epidemic set in and I went back to my "cubicle". Longer term solo-travel combined with other life events has changed my perspective of the possibilities we have in our short strange lives, possibilities to make unconventional choices, think outside of the box and be content with less material possessions and amenities. Seeing so many different people living happy lives with almost no material worth really does challenge ones perspective (at least if you are a brainwashed neo-capitalist consumer like many of us are).

Instead of obsessing about some hypothetical future situation where all the stars line up and we have reached financial freedom, we should strive to enjoy the journey by aspiring to become more present, and for me, that means and spending as much time as possible traveling or in nature. lately without my late great hairy best friend (a german shepherd boy who died of cancer a couple of years ago).

As of the time of writing I have now taken a new sabbatical from early 2023 to travel and study online for a couple of years.

These sabbaticals is a rather unfortunate set-back savings-wise at my age, but I would rather experience new things now and "live a'little" than to wait for some imaginary future that may never come. It is all a balancing act really. A battle between the future and the present, between instant vs. delayed gratification, between yourself and some idea of a future you that may or may not ever exist.

In the meantime we can only do our best to plan for tomorrow without sacrificing today..