The Voluntary Life

Latest Episodes:

164 We Plan To Retire At 30 Jul 17, 2014

Show notes

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:

163 Thinking Like An Entrepreneur: Discussion With Jeffrey Tucker Jul 09, 2014

Show notes

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

162 Spend Little, Save More, Travel the World Jul 05, 2014

Show notes

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.

161 Review of Built To Sell by John Warrillow Jun 25, 2014

Show notes

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

160 Choice Conversations Interview: Financial Freedom and More Jun 20, 2014

Show notes

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:

159 Life Without Politics Jun 14, 2014

Show notes

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

158 Entrepreneurship is Embarrassing And That's OK Jun 06, 2014

Show notes

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

157 How To Go Paperless Part 2 May 29, 2014

Show notes

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:

156 How To Unleash Your Creative Thinking May 23, 2014

Show notes

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

155 Review of A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel May 15, 2014

Show notes

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

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