Book: Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life
Author: Bill Perkins
Genre: Self-help
Rating: ★★★★
REVIEW
“Die With Zero” flips the script on how we think about money. Instead of seeing it as the endgame, Perkins tells us to use cash as a tool to live a better, more meaningful life. It’s all about finding that sweet spot between staying healthy, having free time, and managing your money so you can spend it on things that really count, not to leave this world with a vault of unused cash.
Perkins outlines 9 key rules:
#1 : Maximise your positive life experiences
#2 : Start investing in experiences early
#3 : Aim to die with zero
#4 : Use all available tools to help you die with zero.
#5 : Give money to your children or to charity when it has the most impact
#6 : Don’t live your life on autopilot
#7 : Think of your life as distinct seasons
#8 : Know when to stop growing your wealth
#9 : Take your biggest risks when you have little to lose
One concept that truly resonated with me is the “memory dividend.” The idea is that every experience you have isn’t just a one time thing but an investment that keeps giving back through the memories it creates. Reflecting on my own #codytravelmishaps — like arriving at the wrong airport , sprinting through terminals/train platforms etc. Each of these moments, tho stressful at the time, now brings a smile to my face and stories to share. They’re like dividends paid out in laughter and nostalgia, far more valuable than any material possession.
Another standout idea is Perkins’ method of quantifying experiences using a point system. It’s one of those “why didn’t I think of that?” moments, completely reshaping how I approach decision making, particularly helpful in tackling the “is it worth it?” dilemma. For example, is the significant $$$ of learning to fly worth it? Absobloodylutely, if it means soaring through the skies, seeing the world from a pilot’s perspective, and sharing that incredible joy with you through Cody Pacific. For me, that’s a high-scoring experience.
Perkins also highlights the importance of seeing life as a series of seasons or “time buckets.” Certain experiences are best enjoyed during specific phases of life. It’s not about a bucket list done in a rush but about living your life in chapters, each one filled with its unique set of experiences.
At the end of the day, “Die With Zero” challenges us to ask: Will we die counting our money, or will we die rich in memories? Live now, or you might save for a future that never comes.
EXCERPTS
Maximizing your fulfillment from experiences— by planning how you will spend your time and money to achieve the biggest peaks you can with the resources you have—is how you maximize your life
CH #1 Optimise your life
Die with zero by Bill Perkins
Your money represents life energy.
CH #1 Optimise your life
Die with zero by Bill Perkins
Your life is the sum of your experiences. This just means that everything you do in life—all the daily, weekly, monthly, annual, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences you have—adds up to who you are.
CH #2 Invest in experience
Die with zero by Bill Perkins
You retire on your memories. When you’re too frail to do much of anything else, you can still look back on the life you’ve lived and experience immense pride, joy, and the bittersweet feeling of nostalgia.
CH #2 Invest in experience
Die with zero by Bill Perkins
When you have an experience, you get that current, in-the-moment enjoyment, but you also form memories that you get to relive later. This is a big part of being present as a living human being: For better or worse, you re-experience that experience, often more than once.
CH #2 Invest in experience
Die with zero by Bill Perkins
The memory dividend is so powerful and valuable that tech companies are monetizing it and creating billions in wealth. Anyone who’s used Facebook or Google Photos has seen the occasional “On this day 3 years ago” message, with accompanying photos from that day. Through this feature, the companies tap into your memory dividend, sparking good feelings and a desire to reach out to those included in the photos
CH #2 Invest in experience
Die with zero by Bill Perkins
Life-Cycle Hypothesis (LCH)—an idea about how people manage their spending and saving to try to get the most from their money across their life span. He basically said that making the most of your money in the course of your life requires that, as another economist put it, “wealth will decline to zero by the date of death.” In other words, if you know when you will die, you must die with zero—because if you don’t, you are not getting maximum enjoyment (utility) from your money. And what about the very real possibility that you don’t know when you’ll die?
CH #4 Why die with zero
Die with zero by Bill Perkins
Dying with zero is not only about money: It’s also about time. Start thinking more about how you use your limited time, your life energy, and you’ll be well on your way to living the fullest life you possibly can.
CH #4 How to spend your money
Die with zero by Bill Perkins
if you don’t know when you’ll die, and you care so much about your kids, why do you want to wait until that random date for your offspring to get what you want them to have? In fact, what makes you so sure that all of your kids will even be alive by the time you die?
CH #5 What about the kids
Die with zero by Bill Perkins
Money is nearly worthless at the very beginning and the very end of life.
CH #6 How to spend your money
Die with zero by Bill Perkins
The older you are, the more someone should have to pay you to delay an experience. How much they should pay you is what I call your personal interest rate—which rises with your age.
CH #6 How to spend your money
Die with zero by Bill Perkins
This entire book is predicated on the hard, cold truth that we will all die and, as we age, our health will gradually decline. But there’s another, less obvious truth about “dying” that has important implications for how you should live your life: We all die a multitude of deaths throughout our lives.
That is what I mean when I say that we die many deaths in the course of our lives: The teenager in you dies, the college student in you dies, the single unattached you dies, the version of you that’s a parent of an infant dies, and so on. Once each of these mini-deaths occurs, there’s no going back.
CH #7 Start to time-bucket your life
Die with zero by Bill Perkins
In general, using the time-buckets approach will make you begin to realize that some experiences are better done at certain ages.
CH #7 Start to time-bucket your life
Die with zero by Bill Perkins
Time moves in only one direction, and that as it passes it sweeps away opportunities for certain experiences forever.
CH #8 Know your peak
Die with zero by Bill Perkins
Don’t wait. Do the bold thing now, rather than in retirement, because the go-go years are very short.
CH #9 Be bold, not foolish
Die with zero by Bill Perkins
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