The Voluntary Life

Listen to Episode 120 This episode provides an overview of eight tools that can free your mind and massively boost your productivity. One of the things that makes us human is our ability to extend the power of our minds with tools. The tools are only effective when combined with the right habits (repetitive behaviours). Be sure to look up and learn more about the productivity habits mentioned with each tool. 1. A Concentration TimerYour mind is not free if you are distracted and interrupted all the time. A concentration timer is a simple tool that helps your mind focus for short bursts of concentration and then give your brain rest periods. A concentration timer is just a stopwatch with an alarm. Examples include a stopwatch app or a simple kitchen timer. The habit needed to make the most of this tool is to forgo multi-tasking, take regular breaks, and protect your concentration when working by managing interruptions. To learn more about the best practice habits for using a concentration timer read about The Pomodoro Technique. 2. A JournalWriting is an amazing ability unique to humans. Getting your thoughts out of your head by writing them down gives your mind far more freedom to explore them and view them objectively. A journal can simply be a pen and paper, or a dedicated physical journal, a digital journalling app like Macjournal  or web based journalling service like 750 Words. Use a password protected journal app (or a lockable one if paper-based) to give your mind full freedom to express anything. The habit required to make the most of a journal is to maintain regular journalling every day. Read more about journalling in The Ultimate Guide to Journaling. 3. A Ubiquitous Capture ToolA ubiquitous capture tool or mobile thought and information capture tool gives you the opportunity to have potentially useful ideas anywhere but still allows you to get on with your day (and not have to remember everything).  Examples of a capture tool can be a simple pen and paper, a Hipster PDA, a note taking app like Drafts or Evernote, even the voice memo or camera feature of your phone.  Read more about capture tools in Getting Things Done by David Allen. 4. A "Stuff Funnel"A stuff funnel is a system of discrete inboxes to funnel new information into one location where it can be processed. All kinds of stuff shows up in your life (letters, emails, receipts, manuals, downloaded files etc) and clogs your mind. In order to mentally 'process' the stuff and identify what you want to do with it, you need a complete set of inboxes. Since most people have both a physical inbox and various digital inboxes (email inbox, download folder, task manager inbox  etc), you can think of the full set of your inboxes as a funnel for information coming into your life. The habit needed to make good use of this tool is to make sure you put all the stuff that comes into your life into a designated in-box that is part of your funnel and clear the funnel regularly (empty all the in-boxes). Read more about processing stuff in Getting Things Done by David Allen. 5. A Task Management ToolA task management app is a tool to organise and work with all your "to-do" items, projects, goals and other task management information. If you don't use a tool for this, these to do items remain constantly on your mind, taking up mental effort. At the simplest level, a pen and some paper can serve as a task management tool. Various software apps can also be used, such as Things, Omnifocus and Evernote. These tools are only effective when combined with the habit of organising all your project and task information in the tool and working with it daily. 6. A Reference Material StoreA reference material store allows you to put information that  you might need in future in a safe place, freeing your mind to forget about it. A filing cabinet is a physical example and Evernote is a dig

Listen to Episode 119 This episode is an interview with Todd Tressider, founder of financialmentor.com. Todd founded Financial Mentor to educate business owners and investors about the wealth building principles he learned from years as an entrepreneur in the investment management industry. In the interview, Todd outlines his definition of financial freedom and discusses the hurdles you need to overcome if you want to achieve it. He talks about the importance of developing your own wealth plan and identifies some of the key requirements necessary for your plan to be successful. As always regarding investment, do your own research. I am not a financial advisor. Podcast Episode

Listen to Episode 118 This episode is an interview with Jorja Leavitt, founder of Sharetown.com. Jorja is an entrepreneur and mother of four, living in Las Vegas. In the interview, she shares her experiences of moving to a minimalist lifestyle. She talks about the freedom that she has found from decluttering and selling unnecessary stuff. She highlights the great opportunities to trade at a community level, using social media platforms such as Facebook. Show Notes: Sharetown Facebook App Article on selling all your stuff by Never Ending Voyage Podcast Episode

Listen to Episode This episode is an interview of me by Kevin at Freedom Lovin' Podcast. Here's Kevin's summary: "In this episode of the Freedom Lovin’ Podcast, I chat with Jake from The Voluntary Life about finding freedom in an unfree world. Here’s what we covered: What does freedom mean?Why entrepreneurship is importantLiving in MexicoMinimalism/going paperlessTips on becoming more free in your lifePodcast Episode

Listen to Episode This episode provides a mind blowing way of thinking about the true cost of your monthly expenses. If you are interested in achieving financial freedom, then it makes sense to look at each monthly recurring expense as really costing you 300 times more. For example, a gym membership that costs £80 per month really costs £24,000 (in dollars, a $120 monthly gym membership really costs $36,000). The episode explains this perspective in more detail. In summary: You have financial freedom when you don't have to work to support yourself. Therefore, if you want to be financially free, you have to think of paying for things from the interest on your passive investments.Although there is a lot of debate about the numbers, the most widely used assumption is that you can live from 4% of your portfolio (the so called 4% rule). This assumes that on average your portfolio will make enough to cover for both inflation and you drawing down 4% (I personally think it's better to use 3% to be on the safe side, but let's use the most commonly used assumption to illustrate the point).The 4% rule implies that you need a net worth that is 25 times your annual expenses to be financially free. To apply that to monthly expenses, simply multiply the 25 by 12 (for 12 months) and you need investments that are 300 times your recurring monthly expenses. So any monthly expense really requires 300 times more in capital to pay for it when financially free.This is why for the £80 per month gym membership, you need £24,000 in capital saved to pay that membership when financially free. That figure (£24,000) is more than the annul expenses of most people in the UK.This is why frugality and saving is so powerful as a way to get more financial freedom. It is more powerful to save expenses than to keep increasing your income because more income won't make you more free unless you control expenses.I'm not a financial advisor and as always, you need to do your own research. I think this perspective is useful and it has been very helpful to me.That's why I won't be getting a gym membership again anytime soon. There are plenty of free ways of getting good exercise!Further Reading: Mr Money Moustache article about the 4% Rule Retiring Sooner: How to Accelerate Your Financial Independence by Darrow Kirkpatrick The 4% Rule and Safe Withdrawal Rates In Retirement  by Todd Tressider Podcast Episode

This episode is about how to go paperless and what the benefits are. Topics covered include: How accumulating paper limits your flexibility and freedom Simple steps to reduce the paper you accumulate such as using e-billing and e-books.Ways to minimise the paper books you own, such as selling them as soon as you have read themKey tools for digitizing your paper and going paperless: a multipage scanner (such as the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i), a shredder and EvernoteKeeping labelling and metadata simple: the three key attributes of date, location and person/organisationOptions about where to store digital data: secure encrypted drives vs services like EvernoteWhat to scan and what to simply delete.A good site for more tips about going paperless is DocumentSnap Podcast Episode

This episode is a recent interview I did on the Nomad Capitalist Report radio show. The interview is by Andrew Henderson and here's his summary: "Live from Mexico, Jake Desyllas of The Voluntary Life podcast talks entrepreneurship and freedom. He shares tips to building a location independent business, being a global entrepreneur, and prospering anywhere in the world. He shares suggestions from his jet-setting life, talks about the best countries in South America, and dispels myths about Mexico “they” don’t want you to know." Podcast Episode

An episode about freedom from stuff. Topics covered include: What I learned living from a backpack for 7+ monthsWhy owning stuff is not wealthThe hidden financial and psychological costs of owning stuffHow your stuff can control youThe goal of purposeful ownershipStrategies for minimalism: paperless, zero data and selling all your crap     Podcast Episode

An episode about finding and clarifying the purpose of your business. Why does your business exist? Topics covered include: The limits of "Mission Statements"The benefits of a really short elevator pitch for your business' purpose: encapsulating it all in just 3 wordsIt can often take a long time to move from intuitive to fully conscious business purpose. Don't worry, you can get going and discover it on the wayThree things to think about to clarify your purpose: What will inspire you? What will inspire others? What do you have the capability to deliver? Show Notes Episode 107 (Part 1 of What Kind of Business Should I Start?) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki Making It All Work by David Allen Podcast Episode

An episode about the financial risks and rewards of entrepreneurship and what they mean for your motivation in starting a business. Here's some harsh data about the financial risks and rewards: More than half of startups cease trading within the first five years.Entrepreneurs on average earn significantly less income over 10 years than they would have earned in paid employment. There are debates about the numbers but one study (Hamilton) suggests a 35% earnings differential.Entrepreneurs on average don’t earn a better return on their investment by founding startups than they would have by investing in publicly traded stocks (in fact they earn less from a risk return perspective).Nevertheless, the majority of affluent people are self-made entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs make-up less than 20% of the workforce in America, but account for 66% of the millionaires. Of the millionaire entrepreneurs, 80% of them are self-made: they are first generation wealth holders (Stanley). What are we to make of such statistics? I argue that the high financial risk (and potentially high reward) make it even more important to do entrepreneurship for intrinsic motivations: Purpose: building a business because you want to make a dent on the universe and you believe that what you are doing will make peoples' lives better.Autonomy: being an entrepreneur because it gives you freedom to live and work as you want to (not as someone else thinks you should)Mastery: overcoming the challenges of learning how to build a business is rewarding in itself. The episode ends with a discussion of the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivations for making money itself. The intrinsic motivation to make money is for the freedom (financial freedom) that it gives you. Show Notes: "Start Up Failure Rates: The Definitive Numbers" By Scott Shane “What Do Small Businesses Do?”  Erik Hurst and Benjamin Wild Pugsley"Does Entrepreneurship Pay? An Empirical Analysis of the Returns of Self-Employment" by Barton H. Hamilton, 2000"The Returns to Entrepreneurial Investment: A Private Equity Premium Puzzle?" By Tobias J. Moskowitz and Annette Vissing JørgenseThe Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley Podcast Episode

This episode is about things to consider when choosing co-founders to go into business with. Topics covered include: Do you need co-founders?The advantages of choosing co-founders who are different to yourself (in background, skills, personality, and business networks)The importance of shared core values and purpose for co-foundersResearch by Noam Wasserman shows that teams made from former co-workers are the most stable. Teams made from former strangers are the second most stable of the three groups Wasserman analysed. Teams made from friends and family are the least stable. Show Notes: The Founder's Dilemmas by Noam Wasserman The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki Podcast Episode

An interview with Stephanie Murphy, co-host of the show Let's Talk Bitcoin, about getting started with using Bitcoin. Topics covered include: What is Bitcoin?How Stephanie first got involved with using BitcoinExchanges and exchange services: changing fiat currency into and out of BitcoinSoftware, wallets and technical issuesSecurity issuesBuying things with BitcoinSelling your services and products for Bitcoin Show Notes: Let's Talk Bitcoin podcast Porc Therapy podcast Fr33 Aid charity We Use Coins (intro video about bitcoin) Podcast Episode

This episode is about three approaches to delegating work within your business. No business can grow unless the founder is able to delegate work to a wider team of people. It's essential that tasks are properly delegated and that the business owner doesn't abdicate responsibility. However, there are three very different ways to delegate: The Operations Manual Approach is where detailed standards and procedures are defined for how all tasks are to be undertaken. Work is typically undertaken by relatively inexperienced employees, who learn to follow detailed specifications.The Results Only Work Environment is where employees are given clear targets or results to meet and it is up to them how they do so. They create their own work procedures and have maximum freedom on issues like whether to work at home.The Outsourcing Approach is where work is delegated to independent contractors or virtual assistants. Fixed costs are kept low by avoiding hiring employees as much as possible. Work is typically outsourced on a specific fee-for-project basis. The episode explores the advantages and disadvantages of each of these approaches. Show Notes: Anything You Want by Derek Sivers The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber Maverick by Ricardo Semler Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne Podcast Episode

If you want to become an entrepreneur but are not sure what kind of business you would like to start, what framework can you use to help you decide? There are two things to consider that will provide you with a strong advantage: 1. Starting a business to create a solution that you will be a customer for This is sometimes called "eating your own dog-food". To be successful, all businesses have to deliver value to customers: they have to make something that people want. If you use the product or service that your company makes, it helps you understand whether it is providing value. 2. Starting a business in an industry that you understand Industry experience provides valuable knowledge about the opportunities and constraints that your business will face. Some examples of industry knowledge are: knowing where your potential customers shopunderstanding why they buyknowing how potential distributors or affiliates workunderstanding what the major concerns of key contacts for your business are If you don't make something that you yourself would be a customer for and you don't have a good understanding of the industry, you are flying blind. Try to develop a business where you have at least one of these two advantages. Also, try to increase your awareness of the aspect that is missing. Podcast Episode

This episode is about the pros and cons of being self-employed vs being a business owner. Both options have advantages and disadvantages, but mixing the two does not work well. In the self-employed/freelancer model, you sell your time, cover your own expenses and keep all profit. This works best when you have a valuable skill and lots of industry contacts, as you are able to undercut bigger companies on price but keep your overheads low. If it works, you get the advantage of a lot of flexibility to work or take time off.  The disadvantage is that you are dependent on work for income, so there is much less financial freedom in the long term. You don't build up value in business itself (nobody wants to buy a job) and it can be hard to keep your overheads low for longer (as you may need to start investing in marketing, new equipment etc). So it's a vulnerable model over the long term. The business owner model is the idea to create a value generating machine. The focus here is on developing standards and procedures to make yourself (the founder) unnecessary to the running of the business as quickly as possible. The advantage of this model is that you create an income stream and a source of value (the business itself) that you can sell in the future, or live from as passive income. This has the potential for much greater financial freedom as well as the freedom to step away from the work in the longer term. The disadvantage is that you have more risk in the initial period, as businesses take more investment. You also get much less free time in the initial period, as the startup phase of a business is more stressful than freelance work. Either model can give you a lot of benefits, but be careful not to get stuck between these two models- you can end up with all the stress and none of the benefits. If that happens, it isn't creating a business, it's creating a job (and the worst kind of job, because you can't stop doing it). I hope this podcast will help you be conscious of which model you are adopting and to move more clearly to one or the other if you are currently stuck in-between. Show Notes: The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss Anything You Want by Derek Sivers Podcast Episode