two places – David von Rosen says his “two bases” approach—Dubai for work energy and Verbier for winter life—reflects how freedom and family shape modern wealth.
A billionaire’s story about living on six continents can sound like a luxury travel fantasy, but the real lesson is about how people build a home around priorities.
David von Rosen—founder of online lottery company Lottoland—traced his search for belonging from a rural childhood in central Germany to a life that eventually narrowed into two places to call home.. The pattern matters. especially for readers watching how cost of living. safety. work options. and school choices shape where Americans and international families want to be. even when they have the resources to go almost anywhere.. For von Rosen. the decision didn’t come from chasing novelty; it came from comparing what each place offered when the bills. responsibilities. and routines finally arrived.
As a teenager. he did what many young people fantasize about but few can fully attempt: he tested the idea of leaving.. In 1991, at 15, he traveled to Walla Walla, Washington, on an exchange trip and stayed with a host family.. He remembers that experience as the moment the U.S.. stopped being just a distant idea and became something personal.. That early bond with the country was powerful enough that. at the time. he believed he might never return to Germany.
But adulthood changed the picture.. At 19. he moved nearer to Chicago to attend school at Northwestern. only to find that he felt out of place socially and like he was reinventing what he already knew.. After leaving for a semester. he returned to Germany and enrolled at the European Business School near Frankfurt—choosing an education path that promised international movement rather than a single. stationary life.. That shift, toward mobility as a constant feature, would later become central to his “two homes” framework.
His travels then became a kind of informal research project.. In Buenos Aires, he studied and explored including trips to Patagonia, learning a new language along the way.. Yet he didn’t imagine settling there.. The distance from family in Europe mattered more than the city’s beauty. suggesting that lifestyle appeal isn’t always enough when love and logistics are part of the equation.. In a similar way, Australia offered the opposite emotional result.
Working in Sydney during an internship in the early 2000s, he found himself drawn to the city’s rhythm.. He lived on Bondi Beach and describes how after work. there were often simple moments—like sharing a beer by the water—that made the place feel easy.. In his telling. the attraction wasn’t only the scenery; it was the social atmosphere. a friendly looseness that made the everyday feel workable.. Still. he didn’t end up staying permanently. a detail that underscores how even strong feelings don’t automatically translate into long-term decisions.
By the time von Rosen was financially positioned to experiment. the idea he pursued was not simply where he wanted to vacation. but where his family and business life could function together.. He moved to Munich in 2002 and launched a student loan company.. Later, when he sensed that chapter ending, he began a new phase—one that would lead toward Lottoland.. He connected the gambling license groundwork to Gibraltar. working with regulators before the company moved there in 2013. and his success transformed the scale of what his life could support.
When day-to-day involvement stepped back, he and his wife made space for travel that was more structured than wandering.. They spent time in places like Costa Rica. where their children attended an American school. and he surfed while exploring Central America.. They also went to Dubai for a semester, one of the moments he now looks back on as formative.. He describes Dubai as a place with ambition and opportunity—something like a modern version of the New York energy people romanticize from earlier eras—but he doesn’t cast it as a purely financial magnet.. To him, it was about momentum: work possibilities, networks, and a city that keeps moving.
Then came the pivot that shaped the “two places” idea into something more concrete.. In 2020, he and his family chose a colder climate and found a school in Verbier, Switzerland, moving there in January.. Like many families forced to re-evaluate plans during pandemic disruptions, they ended up staying longer than intended.. He says Verbier felt like an international community with a small-town vibe—familiar enough to feel livable. but varied enough to avoid monotony.. In winter. it’s about skiing; in spring and summer. it shifts to other outdoor pursuits such as mountaineering and downhill biking.
Once he had lived in both environments. von Rosen said he realized there may be no single perfect location that satisfies everything.. That insight sounds simple. but it carries weight in a world where people increasingly treat “home” as an arrangement rather than a fixed point.. Splitting the year between Dubai and Verbier became his personal system: the weather determines how long each base lasts. while work opportunities and school needs influence the rest.. In his framing. Verbier represents a lifestyle anchored in outdoor life and community feel. while Dubai represents a city full of energy and business access.
There’s also the part he refuses to let become the centerpiece: taxes.. He acknowledges that both Dubai and Switzerland are low-tax jurisdictions. but he argues that it shouldn’t be the deciding factor by itself.. What he emphasizes instead is quality of life—an approach that reflects how many affluent families are trying to balance practicality with meaning.. The fact that both places can offer that quality without “exorbitant taxes. ” in his words. is presented as a beneficial overlap rather than the reason behind the choice.
For American readers. the story lands on a question that comes up far beyond elite circles: what does “home” actually mean in an era of remote work. global travel. and changing school options?. Von Rosen’s answer is not that everyone should replicate a billionaire’s itinerary.. It’s that freedom can make living more deliberate—choosing tradeoffs instead of pretending one city can solve everything.. If his plan lasts. it will function as a template for another kind of modern stability: multiple bases. clearer priorities. and a home life built around the seasons rather than a single address.