What’s the most valuable thing in the world? Time. Not money, but time. Lots of people have money but they still feel trapped. The true meaning of financial freedom is having time freedom to enjoy the money you have.
Picture this: you’re sitting on a beach, sipping a co*cktail, and watching the waves roll in.
No work emails to answer, no deadlines to meet, and no worries about your bank account.
This is financial freedom – having both the money and the time to do what you want. Especially when it comes to travel.
In this article, we explore the profound relationship between financial freedom, time freedom, and travel. And how achieving this trifecta can unlock a world of endless adventures.
Money Opens Doors, Time Freedom Lets You Walk Through Them
Financial freedom is often misunderstood to be simply ‘having a lot of money’.
While having money is undoubtedly a part of it, lots of people have money. And can make more by trading all of their time for more money at a job or jobs. But they are miserable.
They have the money to travel but not the time.
Always having to answer to someone else.
Their whole life is controlled by their job.
Sound familiar?
Here’s the thing: the real essence of financial freedom lies in having the time freedom to enjoy the experiences money can provide.
It’s about balancing the pursuit of financial success with the freedom to live life on your terms.
It’s about being able to earn money without being tied to an office or a job where you are trapped in a corporate cage.
Time is the Ultimate Commodity
In the pursuit of financial freedom, time is the ultimate commodity.
Money can be earned and spent, but time is finite.
When you achieve true financial freedom, you gain the freedom to allocate your time as you see fit, and what better way to use it than for travel adventures?
Time Freedom is:
- Doing bucket list items.
- The ability to give the people we love bucket list items.
- The ability to spend more time with family spread across the country.
- Never missing a special moment or event with loved ones again.
The 9-to-5 Trap
The 9-to-5 trap keeps most people from achieving financial and time freedom.
Are you caught in the 9-to-5 grind, trading your precious time for a paycheck.
The “9 to 5 trap” is characterized by the traditional work schedule that spans from 9 AM to 5 PM, often in office settings.
While this structure has been the norm for decades, aren’t we all looking for more out of life?
Being confined to fixed hours and locations destroys work-life balance and personal flexibility. This rigidity leads to burnout, as you struggle to balance your professional and personal lives within the confines of this conventional schedule.
That was definitively us. We had our corporate jobs and our corporate pay. But we were miserable.
We desperately wanted to travel but we had extremely limited vacation days from work. And when we did take them we were made to feel like it was a bad thing for our careers. We use the term ‘golden handcuffs’. The 9 to 5 golden handcuffs kept us shackled to those jobs and ‘butt-in-seat managers’ stole our time freedom.
We had blessed lives financially. But what’s the point if you aren’t free to do what you want to do?
Click or tap here to see how and why we have replaced local SIM cards with eSIMs for our full-time travel lifestyle.
Financial Freedom is not a Number
When we longed to break free from the 9-to-5 trap we started with a number.
If we could just save a certain amount of money we could quit our jobs and travel the world.
It didn’t take us long to realize that we were just trading one hamster wheel for another. Because that number kept changing – and always going up.
And it created even more stress. We found more and more things that might happen and had to be planned for and included in that number. Kids college, retirement, health care, taking care of our parents.
The more we focused on a number the further away financial freedom felt.
How to Create Time Freedom: Multiple Income Streams
So how CAN you achieve not just financial freedom but time freedom?
The answer is multiple revenue streams.
Instead of focusing on an amount of money that would set us free, we focused on building multiple revenue streams that would continue to generate income while we were free.
Today we have two main income streams: passive income and online businesses.
Together they have given us total time freedom. So let’s take a closer look.
Passive Income Streams
Passive income streams are the best. You make an initial investment and they earn you money while you sleep.
Investments, rental properties, and dividend stocks provide ongoing income, allowing you to travel and live your best life without worrying about a day job.
Today we own two rental properties. One is on a year-to-year lease. This was our ‘forever’ house that we bought when we were stuck in the 9-to-5 trap. The rent covers our mortgage with enough left over to cover expenses and provide a small income.
The other is an Airbnb short term rental property that we call Nomad Nest. We bought it cheap and then used our time freedom to fix it up and make it appealing to families on vacation in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It nets a tidy profit after expenses.
Today each is run by a property manager, making those revenue streams relatively passive to us.
We also have financial investments that grow over time, but we try not to touch those.
The key here is that we took assets we already had and repurposed them. Our house went from being a financial burden that held us down to being a key to our financial freedom.
Then we used our time freedom to create other passive income streams.
Online Businesses
The other way to find time freedom is with online businesses.
We started making money online in 2016. We had no idea what we were doing – but we had a lot of tenacity and the ability to Google.
It was hard. We made a lot of mistakes. We threw away money doing things wrong.
But we knew that creating online businesses was a key to finding time freedom.
Lisa started an Amazon FBA business. And it was successful, but took a LOT of hard work.
Matt started this blog. And thanks to this course that taught us how to monetize a blog it generated a bit of income.
But neither of these gave us true time freedom. Our online businesses were either huge time-sucks or didn’t generate much income. Sometimes both!
An Online Business that Provides Time Freedom
Then we found a $7 online business builder challenge. And that changed everything.
We paid $7 to learn how to build an online business that actually generates serious income while only working on it 2 to 3 hours a day.
In short, we learned how to be freelance affiliate marketers. How to work for ourselves online and make money by putting other sellers’ products in front of buyers who already want that item or service.
As Gen Xers, we didn’t have a lot of social media followers. We didn’t even have a TikTok account!
We didn’t have any technical or even marketing skills. But the course provided everything we needed.
But the best thing about the challenge is that in 15 days it helps you figure out whether affiliate marketing is right for you.
You can check out the course and take the $7 15-day business challenge by tapping or clicking here.
We took the challenge and that’s when we truly started to feel not just financial freedom but time freedom.
You can too.
Lisa wrote an e-book explaining exactly how we did it and you can get it for free by visiting lisareidmiller.com.
Travel Slow, Travel Deep, Travel While Earning
We have used our time freedom to discovered the joy of becoming digital nomads.
Having time for travel means we can truly immerse ourselves in the places we visit. Slow down, savor the local culture, and build authentic connections. Financial freedom allows us to focus on the experience of travel, not just tick off tourist attractions.
For us now, travel isn’t just about seeing new places; it’s about discovering yourself. With time freedom, you can take sabbaticals or extended trips to explore your passions and interests, enriching your life in profound ways.
Your journey to financial freedom, coupled with your travel adventures, can inspire those around you.
Share your experiences and knowledge to empower others to break free from financial constraints and embrace the world of travel.
We sure hope we’ve inspired you!
Bottom Line – The True Meaning of Financial Freedom: Time Freedom
Financial freedom isn’t just about having money; it’s about having the time to savor life’s adventures.
It’s the power to turn wanderlust into reality, to explore the world, and to truly live your best life.
By prioritizing experiences over possessions and valuing the importance of time, you can achieve the ultimate balance of having both the money and the time to do what you want.
Especially when it comes to the boundless world of travel.
So, set your sights on this incredible journey, break out of the 9-to5 trap, and let it lead you to a life of adventure, exploration, and fulfillment.
We hope to see you there!
Resource Guide
(Yes, some of these are affiliate links but we have affiliate relationships with these brands because we have used them and they work!)
- Legendary Marketer 15-day affiliate marketing challenge.For $7 you can take a 15-day challenge to see if affiliate marketing is right for you.
- LisaReidmiller.com. Lisa’s guide to getting started with affiliate marketing.
- Blogging Fast Lane. We took this course early into our days of blogging and it taught us step-by-step how to set up a blog that converts for affiliate revenue.
- Read our article:What is Affiliate Marketing – And How Do I Get Started?
- Read our article:Make Money Online as a Freelance Affiliate Marketer
- Find out:5 Ways to Make Money from Home – Or Anywhere!
- LearnWhy Gen X and Millennials Need to Learn How to Make Money Online
- DiscoverFinancial Freedom for People Born Between the 1960s and 1990s
- See the 5 Online Side Hustles for Extroverts
