Die With Zero Book Summary
Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life
Book by Bill Perkins
Feeling Lazy?Read 1 Minute Summary
Summary
Die with Zero is an unconventional guide that challenges traditional notions of saving and spending, urging readers to maximize their life experiences by investing in memories and relationships while they still have the time and health to fully enjoy them.
Sign in to rate
Average Rating: 1
The Lunch That Changed Everything
When Perkins was in his early 20s, making $18,000 a year as a junior trader, he proudly told his boss Joe Farrell that he had managed to save $1,000. Instead of praise, Farrell called him a "f***ing idiot." Farrell pointed out that Perkins was on a high-earning career path, so his future self would be much richer.
By saving so much now, Perkins was depriving his poor current self just to pad the pockets of his wealthy future self. This blew Perkins' mind. He realized the importance of balancing present enjoyment with delayed gratification. Overdoing either one would lead to a life of regret. This lunch conversation set Perkins on the path of trying to optimize his money and time for the most fulfilling life possible.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
Your Money Or Your Life Energy?
Early in his career, Perkins read the book "Your Money or Your Life" by Vicki Robins and Joe Dominguez. It completely transformed his relationship with money and work. The key ideas:
- Every dollar you earn represents life energy spent to get that dollar
- So spending money is actually spending precious hours of your one life
- The goal is to maximize fulfillment from those hours, not to maximize dollars
This means not wasting life energy on meaningless purchases, but also not hoarding life energy (money) so long that you never get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Perkins started calculating the true hours of life energy each purchase cost and whether it was worth it. This allowed him to better optimize his life energy, not just his money.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
The Fulfillment Curve
To visualize optimizing your life, Perkins introduces the "fulfillment curve." Here's how it works:
- Write down the experiences you want to have in life (e.g. traveling, learning an instrument, going back to school).
- Assign each experience "fulfillment points" based on how much it would enrich your life. More meaningful experiences get more points.
- Chart out the total points you could earn each year/decade of your life.
- Optimize your curve. Rearrange your experiences and spending to maximize the area under the curve (your total lifetime fulfillment).
Most people's curves are suboptimal - with too much unfulfilled potential (area above the curve). By shifting spending earlier and converting unspent dollars into experiences, you can create a taller, fuller fulfillment curve.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
Start Early, Start Now
Many people put off meaningful life experiences until retirement - only to find their health limits their options. To avoid this:
- Create a "time bucket list" - what experiences do you want to have in each coming decade of life?
- Be realistic about age restrictions. Aim for physical adventures while you're young and save less active experiences for later.
- Start investing in experiences ASAP, even if it means going into (responsible) debt like Perkins' friend Jason did. The earlier you start, the more you can improve your fulfillment curve.
- If you have unfulfilled dreams now, don't put them off. Find a way to pursue them before the window of opportunity closes. Your 80-year-old self will thank you.
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Experiences Accrue Compound Interest
Just like financial investments, experiences can generate compounding returns over time. Perkins calls these "memory dividends." Here's how it works:
- You have an experience (the initial investment)
- You reflect on the experience over time, gaining intrinsic enjoyment (the dividends)
- You share the experience with others, gaining connection and relational equity (compounding the dividends)
- The experience becomes part of your identity, paying ongoing existential dividends
Because memory dividends often accrue for decades, long after the upfront cost is paid, experiences can have immense long-term ROI. And the earlier in life you invest in an experience, the longer you have to reap the dividends.
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
The Three Deathbed Regrets
Bonnie Ware, a palliative care nurse, recorded the top 5 regrets of the dying. Three of them relate directly to Perkins' "Die with Zero" philosophy:
- I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not what others expected of me. (i.e. I wish I'd honored my dreams)
- I wish I hadn't worked so hard. (i.e. I wish I'd better balanced work and life)
- I wish I had let myself be happier. (i.e. I wish I'd given myself permission to enjoy)
Perkins sees these regrets as tragic wastes of human potential. He argues that by following the "Die with Zero" mindset - aggressively investing in life experiences, optimizing your fulfillment curve, giving yourself permission to enjoy - you can live a life free of these regrets.
Section: 1, Chapter: 3
The Gazillionaire With No Ability To Enjoy
"Let's say you're on your deathbed and you're a gazillionaire. You have all the money in the world but you have no ability to enjoy that money. You are no longer a gazillionaire; you are merely a person who is about to die. All that money is now meaningless to you. It has no value because you have no ability to exchange it for positive life experiences. If you find yourself in this position, you have made a huge mistake."
Section: 1, Chapter: 3
Every Dollar Unspent Is A Memory Unmade
To avoid deathbed regrets and unfulfilled potential, Perkins offers these suggestions:
- Calculate how much life energy (working hours) each dollar represents for you
- For each big financial decision, quantify the hours of life energy at stake
- Weigh those hours against the life experiences/memories that money could create
- Lean towards spending now vs. saving excessively for an uncertain future
- Give yourself permission to enjoy your money guilt-free
- Aim to die with zero dollars and zero dreams left on the table
Remember, the goal isn't to maximize net worth, it's to maximize net fulfillment - and that means aggressively investing your life energy in experiences while you still can.
Section: 1, Chapter: 3
Sailing Off The Edge vs. Dying With Too Much
Perkins acknowledges that actually dying with exactly zero dollars is impossible, since you can't predict your exact date of death. The key is to get close to zero, leaving just enough buffer to ensure you don't run out before you die. This takes careful planning. If you're too conservative and save too much, you'll sacrifice experiences and die with wealth unspent. But if you're too aggressive and spend too fast, you risk running out of money prematurely. The goal is to walk the fine line between these extremes - to spend as much as possible on experiences while still safeguarding your minimum needs.
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Longevity Risk - The Reason We Oversave
One of the biggest barriers to spending more aggressively is what Perkins calls "longevity risk" - the possibility that you live much longer than expected. Most people oversave because they overestimate this risk. They imagine worst-case scenarios where they live to 110 and need 40+ years of savings. In reality:
- Less than 0.02% of people live to 100
- A 65-year-old man has a 3% chance of living to 95
- A 65-year-old woman has a 5.9% chance of living to 95
While some buffer is prudent, massively overestimating your lifespan (and undersaving for experiences) due to longevity risk is a costly error.
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Mortality Risk - Use It Before You Lose It
The flipside of longevity risk is mortality risk - the possibility that you die much sooner than expected. This risk is why postponing experiences (especially active ones) is dangerous. You never know how much health and time you have left. Perkins argues we should weight mortality risk more heavily than longevity risk when making financial decisions, for three reasons:
- You can insure against longevity risk (with annuities, pensions, etc.) but not mortality risk. Once an experience is lost, it's lost forever.
- Experiences are often more valuable (provide more fulfillment) when you're younger. Would you rather take that dream trip at 30 or 80?
- Pursuing experiences keeps you engaged and active, which can actually increase your lifespan.
Oversaving provides no such benefit. Of course, you shouldn't be reckless. But weighting mortality risk reminds us that the clock is always ticking.
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Annuities - Longevity Insurance For Experience Maximizers
One powerful tool for mitigating longevity risk and enabling more aggressive experience-seeking is annuities. Here's how they work:
- You give an insurer a lump sum
- They agree to pay you a fixed monthly amount for life, no matter how long you live
- If you die prematurely, the insurer keeps the remaining money
- If you outlive your life expectancy, the insurer takes the hit Annuities provide guaranteed lifetime income, like a pension.
They eliminate the risk of running out of money. By offloading longevity risk to the insurer, you can more confidently spend your non-annuity assets on experiences today!
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Giving Random Amounts At Random Times To Random People
Many parents delay gratification, living frugally and working long hours to amass wealth for their children. But often this leads to suboptimal outcomes Perkins calls "the three Rs":
- Random amounts (inheritance size depends on parent's random time of death)
- Random timing (inheritance timing depends on parent's random time of death)
- Random recipients (who will actually be alive and in need when parents die?)
Instead of saving indefinitely and hoping it all works out, Perkins argues parents should give intentionally - determining in advance how much to give each child and transferring it at the optimal time in their lives. This ensures money has maximum impact.
Section: 1, Chapter: 5
The Graduation Inheritance
Based on research and experience, Perkins believes the optimal age to receive an inheritance is 26-35. This timing provides:
- Maturity and financial wisdom (lacking in 18-25 year olds)
- Ample runway to benefit from compounding returns
- Ability to make pivotal investments (education, home, business)
- Freedom to pursue riskier, high-upside paths
- Active lifestyle to enjoy memorable experiences
So if you want to maximize the positive impact of your giving, consider timing it to your children's graduating years - mid 20s to mid 30s. This will likely require decumulating earlier than traditional retirement age.
Section: 1, Chapter: 5
A Living Inheritance For Yourself
Most people spend their lives toiling away, saving every spare dollar to pass on a large inheritance. Perkins flips this script. What if, instead of saving every spare dollar for your kids' inheritance, you spent some of it giving yourself a "living inheritance" - the gift of once-in-a-lifetime experiences, enjoyed to the fullest while you're still healthy enough? Your kids will likely get more joy from seeing you thrive than from receiving a slightly larger inheritance. And you can still leave them plenty if you give strategically while living. Ultimately, your life energy is too precious to sacrifice entirely. Invest in experiences for both yourself and your loved ones. That's a life well lived.
Section: 1, Chapter: 5
Your Money Or Your Time?
One of the biggest obstacles to investing in experiences is lack of free time. Between work, commutes, housework, errands, and family commitments, most adults have very little unallocated time to pursue experiences, hobbies and relationships. Perkins' solution: buy back your time. If you earn $40/hour, paying $20 for a one-hour task (lawncare, housecleaning, etc.) is a great deal. By outsourcing, you free up time for higher-value activities. Of course, this requires having enough money to begin with. But Perkins argues that for most middle-class and above earners, investing money to buy back time will yield significant happiness ROI over the long run. View time, not just money, as a scarce and valuable asset.
Section: 1, Chapter: 6
Health Is The Ultimate Amplifier
In the experience-maximizing equation, Perkins identifies three key variables:
- Time (to have experiences)
- Money (to pay for experiences)
- Health (to enjoy experiences)
Of these, health is the ultimate amplifier or limiting factor. With great health, you can energetically make the most of your time and money at any age. But poor health limits your options, no matter how much time and money you have. This is why investing in health is so critical. Think of health as an "experiential multiplier" - the better your health, the more experiences you can fully engage in per dollar and hour.
Section: 1, Chapter: 6
Maximizing Net Fulfillment
"Remember, the goal isn't to maximize net worth, it's to maximize net fulfillment - and that means aggressively investing your life energy in experiences while you still can."
Section: 1, Chapter: 6
The Heffalump Principle
Perkins shares a poignant story about his daughter outgrowing the beloved "Pooh's Heffalump Movie." For years, watching the movie together was a cherished family tradition. Then one day, his daughter declared she was too old for Heffalumps. The abrupt ending blindsided Perkins. In hindsight, he wishes he'd savored those father-daughter viewings more when he had the chance. The experience crystallized for him the fleeting nature of life's chapters. We often assume our current joys will last forever. In reality, every life stage has an expiration date. By recognizing this, we can be more intentional about savoring experiences before the window closes.
Section: 1, Chapter: 7
The Hidden Expiration Dates Of Life
Just as Perkins' daughter aged out of Heffalumps, we all age out of specific life experiences. Physical activities, family dynamics, hobbies, relationships - each has a lifespan. But unlike food products, these lifespans aren't clearly marked. There's no tag saying "Best By: Age 40" on your running shoes or "Expires: May 2025" on your friendships. Yet the expiration dates exist. Every day, we lose access to experiences we'll never get back. This is what Perkins calls the "many deaths" we die before our final death. To make the most of life, we must become aware of these hidden expiration dates. We must savor each life chapter while it lasts.
Section: 1, Chapter: 7
The Bucket List Fallacy
Many people keep a "bucket list" of experiences they want to have before they die. But Perkins argues this approach is flawed:
- It treats all experiences as equally feasible at any age (they're not)
- It fails to create a sense of urgency (death is decades away)
- It can breed complacency (I'll get to it eventually) Instead, Perkins proposes "time-bucketing" your goals and experiences. This means:
- Grouping your goals by life stage (e.g. 30s, 40s, 50s)
- Pursuing the goals in their appropriate life stage
- Regularly updating your buckets as your life evolves
By time-bucketing, you create clarity and urgency around which experiences to prioritize in each life stage. The result: less regret, more fulfillment.
Section: 1, Chapter: 7
The Time-Bucketing Process
Ready to start time-bucketing your life? Here's how:
- Brainstorm a list of all the experiences you'd like to have in your lifetime. Go wild - include anything that excites you, regardless of cost or difficulty.
- Group these experiences into 5 or 10-year "buckets" based on when you'd ideally have them. Be realistic - put physically demanding activities in your younger buckets.
- Within each bucket, rank your experiences by priority. Which matter most to you?
- Begin pursuing your top-priority experiences in your current bucket. Don't put them off - remember, every bucket has an expiration date!
- Repeat the process every 5-10 years.
By time-bucketing, you ensure you're always investing your life energy in the most fulfilling way possible. You live life by design, not default.
Section: 1, Chapter: 7
The Survival Threshold
Before you can comfortably start decumulating, you need to know you have enough to support yourself for life. Perkins calls this the "survival threshold." To calculate yours:
- Estimate your annual cost of living in retirement (be conservative)
- Multiply this amount by the number of retirement years you're planning for
- Multiply the result by 70% (to account for conservative investment returns)
The final number is your survival threshold - the minimum nest egg you need to confidently decumulate without fearing oldage poverty. Once you cross this threshold, your focus can shift from accumulating a bigger net worth to maximizing your net fulfillment.
Section: 1, Chapter: 8
Spend More, Earn Less
Once you've hit your net worth peak, your earning and spending patterns should change dramatically. Instead of maximizing your income, your goal becomes maximizing your life enjoyment. This means:
- Reducing your working hours (even if it means making less money)
- Taking more vacations and sabbaticals
- Spending more on experiences, hobbies and relationships
- Giving more to family and charity In essence, you're reallocating your life energy from earning to enjoying.
You're transforming net worth into net fulfillment. You're accepting a lower income in exchange for a higher quality of life.
Section: 1, Chapter: 8
Mark Cuban's Biggest Bet
Before building his billion-dollar business empire, Mark Cuban was a 20-something entrepreneur with more ideas than money. Living on the cheap in Dallas, he saw the chance to start a computer consulting firm. The opportunity cost was scary - he'd have to quit his job and risk going broke. But the upside was huge. With his low living expenses, he had little to lose and everything to gain. He took the plunge, hustled non-stop and ultimately struck it big. Reflecting back, Cuban says starting that business "felt like I had nothing. And so I had nothing to lose, right? I had to give it a shot." In hindsight, not taking the risk would have been riskier than taking it.
Section: 1, Chapter: 9
The Risk-Reward Sweet Spot
Take your biggest risks when you have little to lose. This is often when you're young, single, healthy and flexible. You can afford to go out on a limb, knowing you have plenty of time to recover if things go south. As you age, your ability to bounce back shrinks. You have more responsibilities, more to lose. You can't afford to start over from scratch.
This is why Perkins urges frontloading your biggest risks. When you're low on resources but high on potential, make your boldest bets. As your wealth and commitments grow, shift to more conservative value protection. The goal is to always occupy the risk-reward sweet spot - enough upside to justify the gamble, but not so much downside that failure would be catastrophic.
Section: 1, Chapter: 9
Would You Rather Regret Action Or Inaction?
any of us instinctively avoid risk - we choose the path of least resistance. But playing it safe has a cost. We miss out on growth, adventure and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. We reach old age wondering "what if?" Perkins' antidote is the "would you rather?" test:
- Think of a risk you're considering - starting a business, changing careers, moving to a new country
- Fast-forward to age 80 and ask "Would I rather have taken this risk and failed, or not taken it at all?"
- Pick the choice you'd prefer to live with long-term
More often than not, the bolder path will feel more authentic. You'll value having tried, even if you didn't succeed. Of course, don't be reckless. But err on the side of (calculated) action. Bet on yourself. Regrets of inaction cut the deepest.
Section: 1, Chapter: 9
Spending Boldly, Spending Wisely
For older adults, being bold is less about taking big external risks and more about taking big internal ones. It's about overriding the impulse to save every last cent. This is hard for lifelong savers. But it's essential for "dying with zero." To make the mental shift, Perkins recommends:
- Separating survival and discretionary funds. Automate your living expenses so you know they're covered. Then spend your discretionary fund with abandon.
- Paying for time. Get comfortable outsourcing chores so you can pursue memorable experiences. Remember, at this stage, time is your scarcest resource.
- Frontloading giving. Don't let your wealth sit idle. Give to family and charity now, when your money, time and advice can have maximum impact.
- Pursuing long-deferred dreams. If you've always wanted to write a novel, start a non-profit or go back to school, do it now. Let your "second act" be your most fulfilling.
By replacing fear with intentionality, you can decumulate joyfully and purposefully. You can make your final chapters your best chapters.
Section: 1, Chapter: 9
Related Content
Everything is F*cked Book Summary
Mark Manson
In a world where everything seems fcked, Manson provides a provocative exploration of the human condition, offering a counterintuitive perspective on the nature of hope, the illusion of self-control, and the quest for meaning amongst uncertainty
In a world where everything seems fcked, Manson provides a provocative exploration of the human condition, offering a counterintuitive perspective on the nature of hope, the illusion of self-control, and the quest for meaning amongst uncertainty
Personal Development
Philosophy