Radical Personal Finance

Jake Desyllas, host of The Voluntary Life podcast and a devoted investor, dives into the Permanent Portfolio strategy crafted by Harry Browne. He introduces its four key asset allocations—stocks, cash, bonds, and gold—emphasizing their roles across economic cycles. The discussion covers the importance of rebalancing for stability, the protective power of gold against economic instability, and how to tailor this strategy to individual risk tolerance. Jake highlights the value of self-managing investments over retail funds, ensuring better alignment with personal financial goals.

There is an iron formula of wealth that can be applied to all financial plans. The relationships between balance sheets cannot be broken in any way. To become wealthy, you much increase the net worth on the bottom of the balance sheet. The only two ways to increase net worth are to increase assets or reduce […]

Hey friends, I’m still not able to speak well enough to record a normal show but I wanted to make sure you have something thought-provoking to listen to. The thought-provoking audio for today is from Cal Newport‘s speech at The World Domination Summit. I hope to be back with you loud and strong on Monday! […]

Today’s show is very short but, I hope, very thought provoking. I’m feeling sick today and am not able to produce any content that will be up to snuff. But I’m certainly not about to leave you without something that will uplift you and make you smarter. Nothing’s seriously wrong with me–just run down due […]

The Cash Flow Statement is the one document that you can create which will definitively show whether you can expect your wealth to increase or decrease in the long run. There are only three variables we can manipulate in any financial plan that will affect long-term wealth: The amount of inflows The amount of outflows […]

Former physicist and author, Jacob Lund Fisker, discusses his philosophy of Early Retirement Extreme (ERE) and the importance of skill development and high savings rates. He explores the influence of marketing on autonomy and financial independence, addresses the challenge of finding an ethical and universal financial strategy, and emphasizes the power of personal choices and individual freedom. Other topics include contingency planning, investment strategies, approaches to financial independence, budgeting for food, restricting carbohydrate intake, and minimizing food waste. The podcast also covers discussions on the warrior diet, future plans, the high cost of weddings, the loss of the love of learning in academia, and understanding financial calculations for retirement planning.

Monday’s shows are variety shows with me sharing current events and commentary from this past week. The topics are wide-ranging and provocative! Enjoy! Links mentioned in today’s show: Discussion on happiness and money: New York City is the Most Unhappy City in America? Refers to this recent Harvard paper on the inequality of happiness across the nation. […]

I plan that Friday’s show generally be a Q&A show and today, I planned to answer two questions: one about planning for long-term care needs and the other about what to do with a less-than-stellar 401(k) plan. Unfortunately, I was really only able to answer the first one. But, I hope the answer will provide […]

Many times people ask me where to start with the process of financial planning. Today’s show answers that question. If you were assigned to take over a failing business and you wanted to turn it around, you would begin by answering two questions: Why does this business exist? (Purpose) Where is this business at? (Financially […]

Would you like to know what stocks, bonds, and derivatives actually are and how they actually work? Listen to today’s show to build your foundational knowledge so you’re not fooled by faulty analysis of markets. Join us as we discuss: Real assets vs. financial assets (all wealth comes from real assets–financial assets merely represent a claim […]