The Greatest Luxury is Time (Part 8)

If you’d asked me twenty years ago what luxury looked like, I probably would have given you the same answer most people would.

A nice house.

A fast car.

An expensive watch.

The latest gadgets.

Or simply having enough money to buy whatever I wanted without thinking twice.

There’s nothing wrong with any of those things.

In fact, if twenty-year-old Marcel had the financial freedom we have today, there’s a good chance I would have bought a Porsche and proudly driven it around my little town in Switzerland, convinced I’d somehow made it in life.

Thankfully…

People change.

Today, I don’t dream about owning more things.

I dream about owning more time.

One of the greatest gifts traveling has given us isn’t just seeing the world.

It’s perspective.

Over the last eleven years we’ve met people from every stage of life. We’ve met twenty-year-olds with a level of maturity that genuinely impressed us, and we’ve met people twice our age who were still searching for what truly made them happy.

If there’s one thing those conversations taught me, it’s that wisdom doesn’t automatically arrive with age.

Experience shapes perspective.

And perspective changes what you value.

For us, money slowly stopped becoming something to spend and started becoming a tool.

Not a tool to buy more things.

A tool to buy more freedom.

Some people dream of retirement.

We never really did.

The truth is, I don’t think either of us wants to stop working.

We love what we do.

I genuinely enjoy spending days and nights walking through a city with my microphones or editing recordings late into the evening, or writing articles like this one.

That doesn’t feel like work.

It feels like a life we’ve been incredibly fortunate to build.

That’s why we invest.

Not because we’re chasing the biggest number in a bank account.

Not because we dream of retiring early.

We invest because every dollar working quietly in the background gives our future selves a little more freedom to continue living the life we already love.

Every unnecessary purchase we choose not to make today becomes another investment in tomorrow.

Sometimes that’s another share in the S&P 500.

Sometimes it’s another recording trip.

Sometimes it’s simply the peace of mind that comes from knowing we have more choices than we did a few years ago.

People often assume that becoming financially independent means you’ll stop working.

Our experience has been the complete opposite.

The more freedom we’ve gained, the more we’ve wanted to keep creating.

The difference is that nobody tells us what to create.

Nobody tells us where to travel.

Nobody tells us how many recordings we need to make this week.

We decide.

That, to us, is freedom.

But they’re not the reason.

The real reason is that, over time, we stopped asking ourselves,

“What can this money buy today?”

and started asking,

“What freedom could this money buy ten years from now?”

That single question changed almost every financial decision we’ve made.

Could we buy a newer car?

Of course.

Could we stay in more expensive hotels?

Absolutely.

Could we spend more?

Without a doubt.

But after more than eleven years on the road, we’ve realized something surprising.

Very few things improve our lives as much as having control over our own time.

That’s why we don’t think the greatest luxury is money.

Money is simply one of the tools.

The real luxury is waking up in the morning and deciding how you want to spend your day.

Whether that’s recording birds in a nearby park.

Writing a new article.

Going to a fitness studio on a Tuesday Afternoon.

Or simply sharing a quiet cup of tea together before deciding what comes next.

Somewhere along the way, I realized something.

We were never trying to build a life where we could stop working.

We were trying to build a life where we could choose our work.

There’s a big difference.

We still work hard.

We still spend long days recording, editing, writing, planning, and building Free To Use Sounds.

The difference is that those hours are ours to choose.

Looking back, I don’t think that’s financial freedom.

I think that’s time freedom.

And after more than eleven years on the road, I can’t think of a greater luxury than waking up each morning knowing that our time is our own.

A Final Thought

If you’ve made it this far, thank you.

Writing about slow travel made us realize something we hadn’t really stopped to think about before.

When we left home in 2015, we weren’t trying to master slow travel.

We were simply trying to build a life together.

Everything else happened along the way.

Some lessons took days to learn.

Others took years.

A few we’re probably still learning today.

If there’s one thing we hope you’ve taken away from these pages, it’s that there isn’t a single right way to travel, build a business, or live a meaningful life.

We live in a time where there are more opportunities than ever before. You can build a business from a laptop, create something from almost anywhere in the world, learn new skills online, and connect with people on the other side of the planet. Sometimes all it takes is leaving the familiar long enough to discover a different way of looking at life.

If you decide to follow an idea that genuinely excites you, give it the chance to grow before asking the world what it thinks. Every idea is fragile in the beginning. It’s easy for other people’s doubts, opinions, or well-meaning advice to convince you to give up before you’ve even really started.

Give yourself time to explore.

Make mistakes.

Learn.

Change direction if you need to.

Let your work speak before you ask the world for permission.

That’s exactly what happened with Free To Use Sounds.

There are only choices.

Some will work.

Some won’t.

Some will surprise you.

And that’s okay.

Looking back, every chapter of our journey taught us something different. We learned that slowing down often allows us to experience more. We discovered that purpose changes the way we see the world. We realized that freedom is built through planning, that home is something you can create almost anywhere, and that protecting what you love sometimes means saying no to opportunities that don’t align with who you want to become.

Most importantly, we learned that it’s okay to change.

In fact, I think it’s necessary.

The person writing these words today isn’t the same person who bought a €4,000 camper van back in 2015.

And maybe, ten years from now, I won’t be the same person I am today.

That’s the beauty of life.

We never really stop learning.

That’s why The LOG exists.

Not because we have the answers, but because we’re still curious enough to keep asking questions.

If these reflections encouraged you to slow down, look a little closer, or think differently about your own journey, then they’ve already achieved more than we could have hoped for.

Wherever your road leads next, we hope you keep listening.

Keep observing.

And never stop growing.

We’ll do the same.