

The Voluntary Life
Jake Desyllas
A podcast about living a life of your choosing. Topics covered include financial independence, productivity, entrepreneurship, peaceful parenting, minimalism, and rational thinking.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Sep 16, 2015 • 10min
220 What To Expect From Investing
Many people find getting started as an individual investor daunting. This episode is about how little I knew about investing when I got started. I describe what I came to expect from investing as I learned more about it. If you are starting out in investing, I think hearing my experience will be relevant for you. Show Notes Fail-Safe Investing: Lifelong Financial Security in 30 Minutes by Harry Browne Where Are the Customers' Yachts by Fred Schwed The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle Previous TVL Episodes on financial independence I'm not a financial advisor and your money is your responsibility.

Sep 4, 2015 • 24min
219 How To Do A Monthly Financial Review
It took me a long time to work out how to stay on top of my finances. After a lot of trial and error, I developed the habit of doing a monthly financial review. This is what enables me to confidently manage my finances without having to think about money all the time. In this episode, I explain how you can implement your own monthly financial review. Topics covered include: Habits to set up when implementing a monthly review, including dedicating adequate time (about 4 hours per month) and making a detailed checklist or task list to use. Key questions to consider when designing your monthly financial review system, such as whether to use an online finance app or one that runs on your own computer. Stages of the monthly financial review to implement: downloading finance data, cleaning data, inputting data, reconciling, and analysis (budget, investments, and net worth calculation) Show Notes: Some software options for your checklist: Evernote and Omnifocus Some finance apps: iBank, Mint, Personal Capital Software for automating renaming and moving of files: Hazel TVL Episode 181 on budgeting and net worth calculation

Aug 26, 2015 • 23min
218 Choosing A Job-Free Lifestyle
In previous episodes of this podcast, I've explored different ways to live a job-free lifestyle. I've interviewed extreme savers, unjobbers, lifestyle entrepreneurs, and startup entrepreneurs. Many listeners have raised an important question about these lifestyles: how do you choose between these different strategies for quitting the rat race? How do you decide which job-free lifestyle you want to pursue for yourself? This week's episode discusses this question and provides suggestions for how to choose a job-free lifestyle. Show Notes TVL Episode 124: Four Ways To Quit The Rat Race Video of Four Ways To Quit The Rat Race Presentation Becoming an Entrepreneur: How to Find Freedom and Fulfillment as a Business Owner

Aug 19, 2015 • 25min
217 Panama: Our Adventure Begins
This episode is a discussion with a special guest— my wife Hannah Braime, who is the host of Becoming Who You Are. We've just moved to Panama and we love it here already. In this episode we talk about all the preparations involved in our move, the start of our travel lifestyle, and our first impressions of life in Panama. Show Notes: Hannah Braime Previous TVL episodes on travel TVL episode 130: Interview with Pete Sisco

Aug 3, 2015 • 10min
216 Financial Independence Strengthens Your Moral Backbone
A listener shared these reflections with me: "I like to think I'm a moral person but many times in my career (and in the careers of friends), I've been forced to choose between unethical behavior and possibly losing my job. I handled this on a case by case manner, where I had to weight the importance of the unethical behavior, the likelihood of me being punished, the odds of me successfully elevating the issue to a superior, how much the unethical behavior would actually hurt the injured party, etc. In other words, my response was ambiguous and led to a lot of sleepless nights." The listener went on to explain that achieving financial independence strengthened his or her moral backbone and make it easier to say no to bad people at work. This is a brilliant insight and highlights one of the great benefits of financial independence. In this episode I share some suggestions about how you can use entrepreneurship, extreme saving and unjobbing to make it easier for you to do the right thing.

Jul 28, 2015 • 20min
215 Extreme Decluttering
“Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.” Charles Warner Over the last three years, I've reduced my possessions to only those things that will fit inside one suitcase and one hand luggage bag. My wife and I decided to pursue extreme decluttering, in order to make a lifestyle of long-term travel more practical. Decluttering was easy at first, but got harder the more extreme I took it. My possessions were not just serving practical needs, but emotional ones too. I had to work out how to address those needs before I could get rid of my stuff. Decluttering also forced me to acknowledge mistakes I had made in the past— mistakes I preferred to avoid thinking about. Overall, extreme decluttering has been a fantastic learning process. I feel much freer because of it. I think that you can benefit in a similar way by decluttering, even if you don't want to reduce your stuff in such an extreme way as I did. Show Notes: Previous episodes on Minimalism Going Paperless part 1 and part 2 Episode on Inventory Home Inventory app GoodReads If This Then That Evernote Apple Photos

Jul 21, 2015 • 28min
214 From Drama To Empowerment
In this episode, special guest Hannah Braime talks about how to free yourself from a life of drama and move to a life of empowerment. Hannah is a coach, author, and host of Becoming Who You Are. We discuss some powerful concepts from the field of psychology that Hannah uses in her coaching. She explains how easy it is to get stuck playing a series of roles in your life— acting out a script written by someone else. These roles are all too familiar: "the victim", "the persecutor" and "the rescuer". Hannah explains how to empower yourself to leave such roles behind and live life according to your own plans. I really enjoyed the discussion and I think you will find it both interesting and helpful. Show Notes: Becoming Who You Are Videos about The Drama Triangle Joseph Campbell Transactional Analysis Games People Play by Eric Berne Karpman Drama Triangle The Power of TED by David Emerald

Jul 13, 2015 • 29min
213 Logic And The Courage To Follow It
Here is how you reach true conclusions about any question in life: start with undeniable premises and use valid logic. Logic— used in reasoned argument— is the universal, impartial method that humans have for finding the truth together peacefully. Yet very few people use logic consistently. I discuss some reasons why it is so hard to be logically consistent. The most important reason is that it takes courage to follow an argument to its logical conclusion, especially if the conclusion is not accepted by the majority of people around you. If you want to think for yourself, you need more than just valid logic— you also have to have the courage to follow it. Show Notes: Ad Populum Fallacy If A, Then B: How the World Discovered Logic by Michael Shenefelt & Heidi White The Right To Ignore The State by Herbert Spencer Why I Don't Vote by George Carlin Murray Rothbard Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Jul 6, 2015 • 29min
212 Science And Rationality
In the last episode I suggested two key challenges to resolve if you want to think for yourself: How do you tell truth from falsehood? How do you know what you can be certain of? This episode is about how the scientific method can help address the first of these challenges: determining truth. I provide a summary of the philosophy of science and the rules for deciding whether a theory qualifies as scientific. However, there is a huge problem with the philosophy of science when it comes to addressing the challenge of certainty. The scientific method—as defined by leading philosophers of science—is self-contradictory. It's not even an accurate representation of what practicing scientists do (which is why scientists tend to ignore philosophers and just get on with it). In the episode, I explain how rationality is the necessary foundation of science—more fundamental even than empiricism—and how it provides the certainty that makes the scientific method possible. Show Notes: Karl Popper This Lecture by Hans-Hermann Hoppe about the philosophy of science provides a deeper discussion of many ideas covered in this episode with reference to economics. Image Source: Bruno Gilli/ESO

Jun 30, 2015 • 10min
211 Introduction To Truth And Certainty
You can't be free unless you can think for yourself. If someone else is doing your thinking for you, then it's not your life that you are living. When you know how to think of yourself, you cannot be controlled or manipulated. Your life is truly in your hands and is up to you what you do with it. This episode is part one of a new series on how to think for yourself. The episode introduces the two biggest problems you have to overcome if you want to think for yourself: How can you tell truth from falsehood? How do you know what you can be certain of?