The Voluntary Life

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 Listen to Episode 164

Jeffrey Tucker interviewed me about my book Becoming an Entrepreneur. We 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.meBecoming an Entrepreneur on Amazon.comBecoming an Entrepreneur on Amazon.co.ukListen to Episode 163 

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. Listen to Episode 162

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 WarrillowThe E-Myth Revisited by Michael GerberBecoming an Entrepreneur by Jake Desyllas Listen to Episode 161

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 PodcastFour Ways To Quit The Rat Race Presentation Listen to Episode 160 

A podcast episode about the potential of life, and society, without politics. Show Notes Franz Oppenheimer's book The StateHenry David Thoreau quoteGustave de Molinari's book The Production of Security Michael Huemer's book The Problem of Political AuthorityPhoto Credit: danorbit. via Compfight ccListen to Episode 159

A podcast episode about how becoming an entrepreneur can be pretty embarrassing, and how that's ok. Show Notes EmbarrassmentFour Stages of CompetencePhoto Credit: Alex E. Proimos via Compfight cc Listen to Episode 158

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 1Article: Destructive Scanning For Fun And ProfitVoiceDream App Listen to Episode 157

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 DeclutteringEpisode on How To Stay On Top With A Weekly ReviewEpisode on Extraordinary TimeOther Previous Episodes on GTDGetting Things Done by David AllenPhoto Credit: mortimer? via Compfight cc Listen to Episode 156 

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 MalkielThe Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John BogleWhat 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 BrowneMr Money Mustache blogEarly Retirement Extreme blogBecoming an Entrepreneur bookListen to Episode 155

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 weekHow to get an overview of all live projects, including urgency and importanceThe 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 lifeThe Calendar review and weekly plan of tasks and decisionsShow Notes: Episode on Mental DeclutteringOther Previous Episodes on GTDGetting Things Done by David AllenPhoto Credit: Thomas Frost Jensen via Compfight ccListen to Episode 154

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 HoppePrevious Episodes on Intellectual PropertyPhoto Credit: chrisotruro via Compfight cc Listen to Episode 153

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 resourcesUniversalLogically coherentActions always speak louder than words (any rule can't involve a so-called performative contradiction)Listen to Episode 152

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. Listen to Episode 151

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.  If you would like to review the book on Amazon, or your blog, or your podcast, or anywhere visible, I will happily give you a review copy. Just write to me at jake [at] thevoluntarylife [dot] com and ask for a review copy. Show Notes: Get the book on Amazon.comGet the book on Amazon.co.ukCover design by Will MoyerListen to Episode 150