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Musings of a Wayward Philosopher: Volume 1: Of Mindfulness, Capital, Asset Allocation, Entrepreneurship, and Personal Wellness
"Musings of a Wayward Philosopher" endeavors to blend free market economics with sound personal finance and personal wellness principles to illustrate a particular outlook on life that enabled the author to reduce clutter and insecurities while embracing the finer things life has to offer. This collection of essays places a heavy emphasis on the merits of private capital, asset allocation, entrepreneurship, and mindfulness with an emphasis on "self-empowerment." The inaugural volume also investigates the lost art of non-intervention and demonstrates the inner strength that can be discovered once one learns to focus only on that which he can control. You will find this text to be direct, uncensored, and brutally honest, often flying in the face of accepted conventional wisdom with the perspective presented.
"Musings of a Wayward Philosopher: Volume 1" covers some important developments, both private and public. The essays in this volume observed the author's first and only daughter being born right at home - directly into her father's hands. They watched as oil plummeted below $50 per barrel and they gritted their teeth as the U.S. national debt eclipsed $18 trillion. These essays explored methods of child-rearing and education and they caught a glimpse of a developing cultural shift out of the corner of their eye. They sneered at the continued deformation of free markets and free enterprise while offering individual solutions to help you navigate the budding financial risks.
Volume 1 essays analyzed the collapse of two U.S. colleges and posited that there will be more to come when the student loan bubble finally bursts. The essays then investigated the steps taken by the author to escape the rat race and become an entrepreneur full-time. The essays watched another Greek crisis unfold and they suggested that most western nations have the same debt and demography problems thus will ultimately experience a similar crack-up. These essays passionately called out "Modernity" for its flaws, conceits, and injustices and presented "Peaceful Parenting" as powerful liberator for Generation Next. Finally, Volume 1 concludes with an essay about disintermediating the domineering third parties from your life and then it looks specifically at allopathic medicine and the clamor for universal health care.
"Musings of a Wayward Philosopher: Volume 1" covers some important developments, both private and public. The essays in this volume observed the author's first and only daughter being born right at home - directly into her father's hands. They watched as oil plummeted below $50 per barrel and they gritted their teeth as the U.S. national debt eclipsed $18 trillion. These essays explored methods of child-rearing and education and they caught a glimpse of a developing cultural shift out of the corner of their eye. They sneered at the continued deformation of free markets and free enterprise while offering individual solutions to help you navigate the budding financial risks.
Volume 1 essays analyzed the collapse of two U.S. colleges and posited that there will be more to come when the student loan bubble finally bursts. The essays then investigated the steps taken by the author to escape the rat race and become an entrepreneur full-time. The essays watched another Greek crisis unfold and they suggested that most western nations have the same debt and demography problems thus will ultimately experience a similar crack-up. These essays passionately called out "Modernity" for its flaws, conceits, and injustices and presented "Peaceful Parenting" as powerful liberator for Generation Next. Finally, Volume 1 concludes with an essay about disintermediating the domineering third parties from your life and then it looks specifically at allopathic medicine and the clamor for universal health care.
200 pages, Paperback
First published July 30, 2015
3 people want to read
About the author
Joe Withrow
8 books1 followerJoe Withrow is just an average, hardworking American who did everything by the ‘American Dream’ handbook.Joe
He took advanced classes in a public high school and graduated with good grades. He then went on to earn a finance degree from a public university.
Upon graduation, Joe moved to a metropolitan city and played the corporate game, working for two different mega banks and earning several minor promotions/pay raises/bonuses for his efforts.
Joe bought a starter home, met his wife, and settled down to live the American Dream – just as he had been “educated” to do. He contributed the match rate to his 401(k) and he maxed out his contributions to a traditional IRA – just as he had been “educated” to do.
Joe was doing everything the “right” way and a storybook life appeared to be unfolding before him.
But then something strange happened.
Joe started to see that the rat-race had no light at the end of the tunnel and no rewards worth reaping.
He began to realize that the ‘American Dream’ was at best a myth and at worst a means of control. He began to see how the monetary system itself worked against him. He began to see how constant central bank inflation stole his purchasing power and transferred it to the political and financial elite. He began to realize that his annual wage increases could not possibly keep up with inflation over the long term and therefore he was stuck on a perpetual tread-mill despite doing everything the right way. He began to realize that the stock market could not possibly go up exponentially forever no matter how many CNBC talking heads swore up and down that it would. And he began to see how his tax dollars were being used by the political class to systematically destroy the very principles America was founded upon – free markets, individual liberty, self-reliance, privacy, and property rights.
So Joe started to do a lot of independent research and he started to do a lot of introspective examination. He quickly came to the realization that he had to build a more self-reliant lifestyle if he wanted to have a chance to create a Mindful life for himself and his family. So Joe ended his career in corporate America, sold his home, liquidated his government-approved retirement accounts, and moved to a rural area up in the mountains to begin the next chapter.
Joe has since been working to gradually make his small homestead as resilient as possible while also building anti-fragility by minding his asset allocation model in an effort to prepare for the “Great Reset” that he sees as inevitable within the next decade. While Joe does think the coming decades will be the most difficult time period in more than a century from the American perspective, he also expects a decentralized and individualist society to eventually emerge as the fallacy of Keynesian central planning and the true nature of government is finally revealed to all, even those not interested in seeing.
He took advanced classes in a public high school and graduated with good grades. He then went on to earn a finance degree from a public university.
Upon graduation, Joe moved to a metropolitan city and played the corporate game, working for two different mega banks and earning several minor promotions/pay raises/bonuses for his efforts.
Joe bought a starter home, met his wife, and settled down to live the American Dream – just as he had been “educated” to do. He contributed the match rate to his 401(k) and he maxed out his contributions to a traditional IRA – just as he had been “educated” to do.
Joe was doing everything the “right” way and a storybook life appeared to be unfolding before him.
But then something strange happened.
Joe started to see that the rat-race had no light at the end of the tunnel and no rewards worth reaping.
He began to realize that the ‘American Dream’ was at best a myth and at worst a means of control. He began to see how the monetary system itself worked against him. He began to see how constant central bank inflation stole his purchasing power and transferred it to the political and financial elite. He began to realize that his annual wage increases could not possibly keep up with inflation over the long term and therefore he was stuck on a perpetual tread-mill despite doing everything the right way. He began to realize that the stock market could not possibly go up exponentially forever no matter how many CNBC talking heads swore up and down that it would. And he began to see how his tax dollars were being used by the political class to systematically destroy the very principles America was founded upon – free markets, individual liberty, self-reliance, privacy, and property rights.
So Joe started to do a lot of independent research and he started to do a lot of introspective examination. He quickly came to the realization that he had to build a more self-reliant lifestyle if he wanted to have a chance to create a Mindful life for himself and his family. So Joe ended his career in corporate America, sold his home, liquidated his government-approved retirement accounts, and moved to a rural area up in the mountains to begin the next chapter.
Joe has since been working to gradually make his small homestead as resilient as possible while also building anti-fragility by minding his asset allocation model in an effort to prepare for the “Great Reset” that he sees as inevitable within the next decade. While Joe does think the coming decades will be the most difficult time period in more than a century from the American perspective, he also expects a decentralized and individualist society to eventually emerge as the fallacy of Keynesian central planning and the true nature of government is finally revealed to all, even those not interested in seeing.
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August 3, 2015
The one thing I can say really stands out in Withrow’s writing in this book is his research, which is remarkably thorough, yet comes out quite casually in the journal format. He points out that there are ideas, values and lessons to be learned from history (instead of names, dates and places), and applies this idea to his discussions of current problems with fiat currency, national debt, healthcare, education, and other economic and societal issues. If you were ever a fan of James Burke’s TV series “Connections,” you’d probably enjoy Withrow’s writing, as he has a similar style of showing non-linear, intricate connections of how we’ve arrived at where we are and where we may end up. Furthermore, because this book is written like a personal journal, it is through the lens of a man asking questions that are important to most of us, such as “what is the world going to be like when my child grows up?” There is something very grounding and honest about it. A great read, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone interested in free-market economics, whether you’re highly educated in the subject or not there is plenty to learn from Joe Withrow’s writing.
Displaying 1 of 1 review