The Voluntary Life

This episode is the first in a two part review of my favourite investment book, Fail-Safe Investing by Harry Browne. In this episode I discuss the background to this investing approach and provide an overview of Harry's top 10 rules of financial safety: Rule #1: Your career provides your wealth. Rule #2: Don't assume you can replace your wealth. Rule #3: Recognize the difference between investing and speculating. Rule #4: No one can predict the future. Rule #5: No one can move you in and out of investments consistently with precise and profitable timing. Rule #6: No trading system will work as well in the future as it did in the past. Rule #7: Don't use leverage. Rule #8: Don't let anyone make your decisions. Rule #9: Don't ever do anything you don't understand. Rule #10: Don't depend on any one investment, institution, or person for your safety Show Notes: Fail-Safe Investing by Harry Browne As always, it's up to you what you do with your money. I'm not a financial advisor and you will need to do your own research.

There are many aspects of life that you can work to improve, in order to create the life you want. In this episode, I make the case for prioritising your personal finances, before focussing on other personal development goals.

This episode is an interview with Jacki Rigoni, who blogs at Post-Consumer Life. Jacki and her husband realised that their million dollar house was really just a million dollars of mortgage debt which they would have to work like crazy to pay off until the age of 75. So they decided to sell the house, get rid of the debt, buy a plot of land, build their own tiny home, and live off-grid. Listen to the episode to hear Jacki describe her inspiring story.

This episode is an interview with Bobby Casey, founder of Global Wealth Protection and many other internationalization businesses. Bobby talks about his own background as an entrepreneur, how he became interested in the internationalisation field, and his life as a perpetual traveler. He explains some of the key ideas of asset protection, such as the role of offshore trusts and companies. He also discusses the opportunities for establishing residency in different countries for tax benefits, as a place to live and in some cases to gain a second citizenship.

An episode about two inter-related questions that are crucial to your happiness in life: How will you achieve financial security and/or independence? How will you find fulfilment? It's your responsibility to find your own answers to these questions, repeatedly throughout your life. Nobody can answer them for you. This episode provides some suggestions about how to think about these questions, to help you develop a more conscious strategy to address them. Show Notes: Episode 124 Four Ways To Quit The Rat Race Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Dan Pink

This episode is about the most powerful technique I know for overcoming deadlock in negotiations and resolving disputes, both in business and in personal relationships. The technique involves a very straightforward concept that everyone understands, but it is often ignored or usually only tried when it is already too late. Show Notes: Episode 144 Win-Win Negotiation Part 1: Communication Episode 145 Win-Win Negotiation Part 2: Strength and Value

Joshua Sheats invited me onto the Radical Personal Finance podcast to discuss the Permanent Portfolio investment strategy for individual private investors. In this episode we talk about many aspects of the PP strategy including: my own reasons for choosing this investment strategy the design of the portfolio the philosophy behind the approach strengths and weaknesses of the PP Show Notes: Radical Personal Finance Episode 30 Recordings of Harry Browne's investing radio shows Permanent Portfolio discussion forum "Wild About Harry" – article by William Bernstein about the Permanent Portfolio Fail Safe Investing by Harry Browne The Permanent Portfolio: Harry Browne's Long-Term Investment Strategy by Craig Rowland and JM Lawson As always regarding investment, do your own research. I am not a financial advisor and this isn't advice, it's my own experience and opinions. My intention is to encourage you to think for yourself.

Justin retired at the age of 33. He writes about his journey to financial independence on his blog Root of Good. In this interview, he discusses his path to financial independence from intensive saving. Topics covered include: Saving all salary increases and avoiding lifestyle inflation Cost-effective housing, transport and food choices The importance of having agreement with your spouse towards your financial goals Children and financial independence Show Notes Root of Good

Joshua from Radical Personal Finance Podcast invited me on his show to talk about entrepreneurship. We talked about learning entrepreneurial skills, voluntary versus compulsory education, the importance of selling in life, the ethical nature of business, and the positive power of entrepreneurship. Show Notes: Four Ways To Quit The Rat Race Presentation Radical Personal Finance Podcast Becoming an Entrepreneur

Mike and Lauren have average-income jobs, no big inheritance or bonuses, and they plan to retire at the age of 30. They share all the facts about their journey to financial independence on their youtube channel. In this interview, they talk about the practicalities of intensive saving, the challenges of making unconventional life choices, and their dream to sail around the world. Show Notes: Mike and Lauren's website Get Rich Slowly Early Retirement Extreme

Jeffrey Tucker interviews Jake Desyllas about his book Becoming an Entrepreneur. They discuss how to think like an entrepreneur and the amazing potential of entrepreneurship, both for personal growth and for a better world. Jeffrey is the founder and Chief Liberty Officer of Liberty.me, Distinguished Fellow of FEE, head of LFB.org, and founder of CryptoCurrencyCon.com. Show Notes: Liberty.me Becoming an Entrepreneur on Amazon.com Becoming an Entrepreneur on Amazon.co.uk

This episode is an interview with Jeremy and Winnie, authors of the blog Go Curry Cracker. In the interview, Jeremy and Winnie share their inspiring journey to financial independence through intensive saving. They describe the lifestyle choices that enabled them to retire early in their 30s and travel the world.

This episode is a review of the book Built to Sell by John Warrillow. The book is about how to sell a business, including how to transform your business to make it sellable. In this review, I discuss a central idea of the book: productising your services so that the business can work without you (the entrepreneur). I compare this with Michael Gerber's idea of creating a "franchise prototype" and the idea in my own book of "making yourself redundant" using proceduralisation and standardisation. Show Notes Built to Sell by John Warrillow The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber Becoming an Entrepreneur by Jake Desyllas

This episode is a conversation I had with Chris Stefanick on his podcast Choice Conversations. We planned to talk about financial freedom, but ended up covering many topics including childhood influences, entrepreneurship, different approaches to investment, and much more! Show Notes: Choice Conversations Podcast Four Ways To Quit The Rat Race Presentation

A podcast episode about the potential of life and society without politics. Show Notes: Franz Oppenheimer's book The State Henry David Thoreau quote Gustave de Molinari's book The Production of Security Michael Huemer's book The Problem of Political Authority Photo Credit: danorbit. via Compfight cc

A podcast episode about how becoming an entrepreneur can be pretty embarrassing, and how that's ok. Show Notes Embarrassment Four Stages of Competence Photo Credit: Alex E. Proimos via Compfight cc

This episode is the second part of a series on how to go paperless. It explains how to digitise your paper books using destructive book scanning. Show Notes: How To Go Paperless Part 1 Article: Destructive Scanning For Fun And Profit VoiceDream App

This podcast episode presents a range of techniques to support your creative thinking. Some of the techniques covered are outlined below: The focussed journalling technique called extraordinary time is great for thinking creatively about challenges in life. Another productive method of focussed journalling is the use of regular creative review questions for supporting ongoing creative thinking. The practice of noting and reviewing someday/maybe projects nurtures your dreams and helps you turn them into plans. Affirmations help you to be the best version of yourself by reminding yourself of what you have committed to do and who you are committed to be. Various other techniques are presented in the podcast, many of which come from the creative review part of the weekly review in GTD (Getting Things Done). Show Notes Episode on Mental Decluttering Episode on How To Stay On Top With A Weekly Review Episode on Extraordinary Time Other Previous Episodes on productivity Getting Things Done by David Allen Photo Credit: mortimer? via Compfight cc

This week's podcast episode is a discussion of Burton Malkiel's famous investment book "A Random Walk Down Wall Street". Malkiel's key point is that stock market prices are inherently unpredictable. He further argues that investment advisor techniques such as technical analysis and fundamental analysis cannot be used to reliably beat market averages. In light of this, he recommends the alternative approach of passive investment. In the podcast, I summarise the contents of the book, discuss the main arguments, outline some criticisms, and suggest other books and ideas that may be of interest. Show Notes: A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle What Has Government Done to Our Money by Murray Rothbard (free download) Economic Science and the Austrian Method by Hans-Hermann Hoppe (free download) Fail-Safe Investing by Harry Browne Mr Money Mustache blog Early Retirement Extreme blog Becoming an Entrepreneur book

This episode is about a technique for staying on top of all your commitments known as the weekly review. It helps you get a handle on all your commitments, decide what you want and don't want to do with your time and maintain all aspects of your life in working order. The idea for this technique comes from the Getting Things Done approach to personal productivity, but you can adapt it to your own purposes even if you don't practice GTD. Topics covered in the episode include: The three parts to a weekly review: a clear review (discussed in the episode mental decluttering), a current review (this episode) and a creative review (future episode). The value of identifying areas of responsibility in your life and reviewing them each week How to get an overview of all live projects, including urgency and importance The review of each live project and the importance of identifying next actions. The use of agendas and waiting lists for all the people in your life The Calendar review and weekly plan of tasks and decisions Show Notes: Episode on Mental Decluttering Other Previous Episodes on productivity Getting Things Done by David Allen Photo Credit: Thomas Frost Jensen via Compfight cc

Part three in a series on developing your own independent moral compass. Here is a summary of the ideas covered: Moral behaviour evolved as an evolutionary adaptation to gain the advantages of the division of labour that come from peaceful cooperation. The act of peaceful communication logically contains and implies the criteria for moral rules. There are four rules for avoiding conflict over scarce resources that are valid according to the criteria of universality, logical coherence and non-contradiction by behaviour. The rules are inherent in the nature of peaceful communication and can't be argued against without self-contradiction. Rule 1: Each individual has exclusive control of his or her own physical body. Rule 2: The exclusive control of a previously unowned scarce resource belongs to the first person to "homestead" the resource. Rule 3: The exclusive control of a newly produced scarce object belongs to the person to created the object (as long as they owned the component resources that they made it from). Rule 4: Justly acquired control over scarce resources can be given away or traded by voluntary agreement. These four rules together comprise the non-aggression principle. Protecting yourself from straightforward aggression is a practical matter. Protecting yourself from aggression that is disguised with bogus moral justifications is more complex: you need your own moral compass to avoid confusion. The purpose of this series has been to outline the principles necessary to reconstruct valid moral rules for yourself, so that you are not duped by bogus moral justifications. Show Notes: The Economics and Ethics of Private Property by Hans-Hermann Hoppe Photo Credit: chrisotruro via Compfight cc

Part two in a series on developing your own independent moral compass. Four criteria are outlined that can be used to assess whether any law or rule of behaviour is moral. The criteria discussed are: Enables conflict avoidance regarding scarce resources Universal Logically coherent Actions always speak louder than words (any rule can't involve a so-called performative contradiction)

An episode about developing your own independent moral compass. Topics covered: The huge influence of morality and moral arguments. Examples of different approaches to morality. The real purpose of shared moral rules. The benefits of developing your own moral compass.

An episode about my new book Becoming an Entrepreneur: How to Find Freedom and Fulfillment as a Business Owner. Topics covered include: First reviews of the book from readers. What the book is about and why I wrote it. The process of writing and self-publishing, including my struggles along the way. My experiment in crowdsourcing feedback with "beta-readers" from TVL listeners. Future plans. Show Notes: Get the book on Amazon.com Get the book on Amazon.co.uk Cover design by Will Moyer

Pete Blacow has taken two career breaks to travel the world. In this episode he shares his experience of long-term travel and taking time out from working. Topics covered include the practical issues of taking a career break, the pros and cons of long-term travel, and Pete's recommendations for anyone interested in travelling the world. Show Notes: The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

This episode is about freeing your mind by decluttering all your mental baggage on a regular basis. Topic covered include: The benefits of going on an information and media diet The importance of having a trusted system for how to declutter your mind and control the information buildup around you. The role of a weekly clear-out, as part of a weekly review Applying the "inbox-zero" approach beyond email to digital inboxes, physical inboxes, social inboxes, and life in general. Show Notes Getting Things Done by David Allen Inbox Zero talk by Merlin Mann

Comedian Rosie Tran (@FunnyRosie) interviews financial freedom advocate, investor, and host of The Voluntary Life Podcast, Jake Desyllas (@jakedesyllas). They discuss the various ways to escape the rat race. Jake talks about the different techniques he has discovered, including unjobbing, extreme saving, business ownership, investing, and more. Also, in depth discussion on the importance of personal and self development in the process of financial freedom.

This episode is an interview that I did with Kevin Koskella from Freedom Lovin podcast. Kevin and I talk about expat life in Mexico: the pros, cons and experiences.

Part 2 in a series on win-win negotiation. This episode explains the process of principled negotiation and answers two key questions for any negotiation: What determines your negotiating strength? How do you create value in a negotiation? Show Notes Getting to Yes by Fischer and Ury Episode 144 Win-Win Negotiation Part 1: Communication Episode on Negotiation from 2012 Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement Dovetailing in negotiations

Part 1 of a series on win-win negotiation. This episode covers communication as an integral part of negotiation. Jake highlights some useful techniques from psychology to help you communicate productively in negotiations. Show Notes: Getting to Yes by Fischer and Ury Active Listening Games People Play by Eric Berne I-Messages

An interview with Daniel Mackler about his new book Breaking From Your Parents. Daniel talks about why he chose to tackle this taboo subject, based on his own personal experience and that of many others. The interview was recorded in January 2014, and the book has since been released. Show Notes: Breaking from Your Parents ebook by Daniel Mackler Psychological Freedom: An Interview With Daniel Mackler Daniel's website Wild Truth (http://wildtruth.net) Daniel's videos on confronting your parents Part 1 and part 2

An interview with Augusto Pinaud about the concept of Extrodinary Time. Augusto is the author of 10 books including 25 Tips for Productivity. In this episode he explains his technique of devoting dedicated time to working on extraordinary challenges. He provides inspiring suggestions for how to push yourself beyond the comfort zone of doing good work and get to truly great work. Show Notes: Augusto Pinaud Website, Twitter @apinaud and email 25 Tips for Productivity #iPadOnly. The first real post-PC Book GTD Virtual Study Group Podcast Omnifocus The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg Do More Great Work by Michael Bungay Stanier

"Most people think that they need to be tapped on the shoulder by the Epic Fairy if they ever hope to be epic, or if they're ever going to have the audacity to do something truly epic. But it's not true. Want to be epic? Just do epic s**t. There's nothing else to it." Johnny Truant An episode about ideas to help you make a habit of doing epic things. Show Notes: The Universe Doesn't Give a Flying F-k About You by Johnny B. Truant Getting Things Done by David Allen Why Making My Tasks Emotional Increased My Productivity by Robyn Scott Do More Great Work: Stop the Busywork. Start the Work That Matters. by Michael Bungay Stanier Augusto Pinaud GTD Virtual Study Group Podcast

This episode provides some thoughts on common objections to entrepreneurship. Topics covered include: The myth of an entrepreneur "personality type". Entrepreneurship as a personal development programme that can benefit anyone The possibility of a world where everyone is an entrepreneur

This episode is about how to develop and strengthen your network of business contacts. The ideas discussed are also relevant for friendships. Topic covered include: Following Through on Commitments Responding in Time Making Introductions Referrals and Recommendations Acts of Kindness and Helpfulness Show Notes: Getting Things Done by David Allen Inbox Zero talk by Merlin Mann How The World's Top Relationship Builder Makes Introductions Referrals 50 Ways to Show Gratitude for the People in Your Life How (Small) Heroic Acts of Kindness Will Grow Your Business Photo Credit: Paul Watson

This episode is about identifying your purpose in life. Topics covered include: The concept of Horizons of Focus used in David Allen's "Getting Things Done" How to manifest your life's purpose in every action that you do. Identifying and addressing gaps in your integrity Identifying the level of integrity shown by other people in your life. Show Notes: Getting Things Done by David Allen Episode 101: How To Dream Big (about visions and goals) All previous episodes on productivity

This episode is about financial freedom and asking oneself the question "how much is enough?" Show Notes Episode 116 (about the 4% rule and financial freedom) Article: "My husband retired young and goofs off all day" Episode 119 (Todd Tressider Interview)

The biggest challenge to becoming an entrepreneur is overcoming your conditioning. It's never been a better time to start your own business, yet we are all conditioned to think like worker drones. This episode is about how to break your employee conditioning. Show Notes: Episode 111 on Risk in Entrepreneurship The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley The Peter Principle

An update on my experience of going minimalist. Topics covered: The benefits of minimalism How it feels getting rid of stuff The downside of minimalism? Some suggestions for going minimalist Show Notes It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff by Peter Walsh Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen

Andrew is the founder and host of the Nomad Capitalist website and radio show. In this interview he describes his life as an expat entrepreneur, including: travels through South East Asia Becoming a nomad capitalist different opportunities for investment abroad Diversification: do you need it? Dealing with the practicalities of doing business on the road perpetual travel: the good and the bad

David is an entrepreneur and perpetual traveller. He is the founder of a successful technology consultancy and has been travelling around the world with his family for many years. In this episode he shares his experience of perpetual travel and entrepreneurship, including: The idea that got David and his wife travelling. The influence that The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber had on him How David turned an IT consultancy into a passive income business Experiences of living in Argentina, Spain and Thailand The benefits of minimalism and travel The psychological rewards of travel: learning to live more freely and operating without the rulebook you were given. The challenges of travel and how they are part of the experience Show Notes: The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber David's Company Family Kahn Blog Email David

Pete Sisco is an entrepreneur, blogger and author of The Freedom App. In this interview, Pete talks about his life as a perpetual traveller including: Long term travel with a family Self-publishing Passive income businesses Working with people all over the world Dealing with bureaucracies when travelling Perpetual travel as the ultimate personal freedom Show Notes: Pete's website and blog The Freedom App book

An interview with Kevin Koskella, host of the Freedom Lovin' blog and podcast. Kevin talks about his life as a perpetual traveller. He explains his approach to funding a digital nomad lifestyle with online passive income businesses and shares some of the best and worst experiences of his permanent travel life!

This episode is an interview with strength trainer and youtube personality Elliott Hulse. In the interview Elliot talks about his approach to getting freedom by creating a non-job. Topics covered include: Growing up rebellious What it means to have a non job Sharing your ideas, even though you suck at first How to finance the early days of your non job Perseverance What to do if there is not much demand for what you are passionate about Being more expansive than your expertise Show Notes Elliott's Youtube channel and Facebook Page Campaign For Non Jobs Website Previous TVL episodes on Unjobbing

Stephanie Murphy interviews Jake Desyllas on the Porc Therapy podcast. We talk about different strategies to escape the rat race, including unjobbing, intensive saving, passive income businesses and selling a business. The discussion focusses on some questions about pursuing financial freedom, including: What is financial freedom? College- is it worth it? Does having kids make financial freedom impossible? How does becoming a stay-at-home parent fit into the idea of quitting the rat race? Is "voluntary poverty" a viable strategy for financial freedom? Do you have to be a sleaze to start a passive income business? What's the role of Bitcoin in an investment strategy like the Permanent Portfolio? Why doesn't the Permanent Portfolio contain silver? How do intensive savers do it? Show Notes: Episode 124 (Original Talk on Four Ways To Quit The Rat Race) Harry Browne's book on the Permanent Portfolio Early Retirement Extreme blog and book Mr Money Moustache

This episode is a recent interview about Getting Things Done that I did on the School Sucks Podcast. The discussion is with Brett Veinotte and here is his summary: "This is the sixth and final (for now) installment in a series of shows inspired by my experience with and successes after reading the book, Getting Things Done by David Allen. Jake Desyllas joins me to discuss his experience with GTD, and to share his Eight Tools For A Freed Mind."

The Question and Answer session from my talk about Four Ways To Quit The Rat Race. See Episode 124 for the main talk.

Audio from a presentation given at the 2013 Libertopia conference. The talk explains how I quit the rat race aged 38 and what I have learned about different ways that other people have found to do so. There are four basic ways to quit the rat race presented in the talk: Unjobbing Intensive Saving Passive Income Selling A Business Show Notes: Michael Fogler's book Un-Jobbing Linda Breen Pierce's book Choosing Simplicity Elliot Hulse Your Money or Your Life Amy Dacyczyn's book The Complete Tightwad Gazette Early Retirement Extreme blog and book Mr Money Moustache Introduction to the Permanent Portfolio Smart Passive Income Tim Ferriss' blog and book The 4-Hour Workweek Laura Roeder Derek Sivers' book Anything You Want

A podcast mashup with Hannah Braime of Becoming Who You Are and Stephanie Murphy of Porc Therapy.

An episode about making conscious choices as an entrepreneur.