The Voluntary Life

Home ownership is often touted as a financially savvy choice, but is it? This episode explores the financial pros and cons of buying your own home for those interested in financial independence. Show Notes:

• The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley
• I'm not a financial advisor and you will need to do your own research.

As part of adopting a minimalist lifestyle and becoming expats, we sold everything that would not fit into one suitcase each. The biggest part of our downsizing was selling our apartment and all the furniture in it. This episode is about the practical and psychological lessons from selling the flat, getting rid of all our stuff, and changing from being homeowners to travelling renters. Show Notes:

• Home Inventory App (mac)
• Episode 217— Panama: Our Adventure Begins
• Other Episodes on Minimalism
• Job Free by Jake Desyllas

Kevin Koskella from the Freedom Lovin podcast interviews Jake about the ideas in his book, Job Free, as well as life in Panama, entrepreneurship, and the permanent portfolio. Show Notes:

• Freedom Lovin Podcast
• Job Free by Jake Desyllas (now in paperback and kindle)

Preparing for a life of travel involved getting rid of anything that I could not take with me in one suitcase. One big source of clutter to address was clothes. My clothes took up a lot of space, yet I hardly ever wore many of them. As part of my extreme decluttering, I got rid of every item of clothing beyond a minimal set that would fit with my one-suitcase plan. The process included making an inventory, deciding what to keep or get rid of, and selling or giving away a huge amount of clothes. Whether you plan to travel or not, this episode will give you some food for thought about changing your approach to clothes. Show Notes:

• Previous Episodes on Minimalism
• Home Inventory App (Mac)
• Job Free by Jake Desyllas

This episode is about how I moved all my data into the cloud. This has been an essential part of adopting a digital nomad lifestyle but is also relevant for anyone who wants a more minimalist, clutter-free life. I digitised any data that could be, such as music, movies, photos, books, and documents. Once digital, I moved all my data into cloud storage of one kind or another. Then I got rid of all data clutter that was part of my stuff: CDs, DVDs, photos, spare computers, etc. Now all my data lives in the cloud. In the episode, I explain how I implemented a zero data system, and I outline some of the key issues to address. These include privacy (encryption), backup, redundancy, and sync vs archive. Show Notes:

• Article: Zero Data: Thoughts About Sync, Storage, and Backup
• TVL Episodes on minimalism
• Going Paperless Part 1 and Part 2
• Cloud Music: iTunes Match, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play Music
• Cloud Movies: Netflix, iTunes
• Cloud Storage: Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud
• Cloud Books: Calibre E-Book Management
• Cloud Notes: Evernote
• Encryption: SpiderOak, Boxcryptor, FileVault
• Backup: Crashplan, Backblaze, Time Machine, SuperDuper

Brian Sovryn of the Sovryn Tech Podcast interviews Jake about his lifestyle of perpetual travel and minimalism, and the technology that makes it possible. Show Notes:

• Sovryn Tech Episode 165
• Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i Mobile Document Scanner
• Calibre E-Book Management
• Evernote
• VoiceDream
• AirBnB
• Uber
• Google Translate
• Keyboard Maestro
• Mac Power Users Podcast
• TripAdvisor Offline Guides
• TripIt
• Becoming An Entrepreneur by Jake Desyllas
• Job Free by Jake Desyllas

The Free State Project is a social experiment encouraging 20,000 people interested in "liberty in our lifetime" to move together to New Hampshire. The idea is to create an intentional community of like-minded people who are interested in personal and political liberty. By concentrating people with similar values in one place, the aim is to have a greater impact on the local culture and thereby generate more freedom. In this episode, I interview Stephanie Murphy and Brian Sovryn—two members of the Free State Project— about their experiences in New Hampshire as part of this community. Show Notes:

• The Free State Project
• Job Free paperback edition
• Stephanie Murphy Voice
• Sovryn Tech Podcast
• Porcfest Festival

Brett Veinotte from the School Sucks Podcast and Jake Desyllas from The Voluntary Life discuss the process of upgrading and maintaining positive habits. Topic covered include:

• Habits may seem trivial, but the are the most important part of a productivity system
• Two approaches to change: slow and steady vs. New Year's resolution
• Triggers for activating habits vs. friction against habits
• How do we do it? morning routine, 7 Weeks (Android app), Jake uses Way of Life (iOS)
• No matter what else is going on, do the simple things; even though these seemingly minor habits are the first thing that fall by the wayside when we're really busy
• Jake: "Habits dramatically reduce the amount of willpower and brainpower required to get things done. Once you have implemented a habit and can do it on autopilot, you conserve willpower and brainpower, helping you get more done."
• Willpower is a scarce resource; it degrades decision to decision
• Identifying resources beyond willpower
• Jake: "Habits are easiest to adopt when they are simple to understand, when you minimize any friction at the start of the action, when there are clear environmental triggers that tell your unconscious to start the habit, and when you have feedback (rewards) for completion."

Show Notes:

• School Sucks Podcast
• Willpower by Roy Baumeister
• The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
• Manage Your Day-to-Day by Jocelyn Glei
• Job Free by Jake Desyllas
• Al Switzler Ted Talk

This week's episode comes from Joshua Sheats, host of the Radical Personal Finance podcast: "Most of us in the Radical Personal Finance community are pursuing our own financial independence. And most of us want to get there as quickly as possible. But, most of us only have one idea of one way to get there. Did you know there are a bunch of different ways to go job-free and gain financial freedom? I'm excited to bring you my interview with Jake Desyllas, author of "Job Free: Four Ways to Quit the Rat Race and Achieve Financial Freedom on Your Terms."" Show Notes: Job Free by Jake Desyllas Radical Personal Finance Podcast

Part 2 of the discussion between Brett Veinotte and Jake Desyllas about using Horizons of Focus for productivity and purpose. In this episode, we conclude our discussion by talking about how to identify your vision for your future, and how to find purpose in life. Show Notes:

• Episode 232 The Next Level — Horizons of Focus Part 1
• School Sucks Podcast
• The Voluntary Life Productivity Episodes