Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life

An alternative perspective on saving and spending – both of our financial resources and of the days of our lives.<br /><br />I didn’t wholeheartedly agree with everything he said, but the overall guiding principles are logical. Certainly, this philosophy gave me pause to consider my own ideas about health and wealth during various stages of my life, and will help me to define my own limits, both financially and psychologically, rather than just instinctively following the earn, save, and maximize wealth model that has permeated American culture. A thought-provoking and discussion worthy read.

I'll save you some time... just make some money and then spend it. Make a list of things you'd like to do across your lifetime; like travel to Mexico or learn an instrument. Once you have a list decide on a good time to do those activities based on your health and possible future events like when you're going to have kids - it might be hard to go parachuting when you're 90. <br /><br />I can not believe someone made a whole book out of what should have been a 1 page article.

WOW! Ok, as part of the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) Movement, I was eagerly awaiting to read this book. <br />I grew up in extreme poverty. I am a saver due to the circumstances in which I was raised. I have a VERY HARD time spending money. Its gotten a bit better and the author argues that I should spend money on experiences and end my life with ZERO money in the bank. <br />Its a great idea and made me think alot about aging, gift giving, and money in a new way.<br />I really liked that he had referenced Vicki Robin's book, Your Money or Your Life, which this book feels like a continuation of. With Ms. Robin's book, I felt that it was overly preachy, while this authors book was about the experiences, the memories that harvest interest, and doing what you love. <br />I thought the graphs were spot on, especially the health and diminishing returns. <br />I have to say that for the most part I agreed with everything that the author wrote. <br />Couple of things I did not agree with is not to save money in your early working life and to take on a "moderate' amount of debt early in life.<br />While I understand where the author was coming from, saying you will get more from the experiences then saving the money....I CRINGED INSIDE. People need to save money, especially Americans.<br />Further, don't get into debt. Save money for things you need, make debt the last thing you resort to and you will have a better, more optional life. <br /><br />Overall a great financial book that doesn't necessarily tell you the numbers of retirement, but more the emotional response to get out and make memories. <br />

This is a thought-provoking book about how to use your money during your lifetime. The book really changed the way I think about money. <br /><br />The book is <i>not</i> about how to make money. It is not about how to run a business. And--it is very easy to get the wrong idea about the book; Dying with Zero does <i> <b>NOT</b> </i> mean that you shouldn't give money to your family, your heirs, or to your favorite charities. Instead the book <i> <b>IS</b> </i> about <i>what</i> to spend your money on, and <i>when</i> to spend it. <br /><br />What is your most valuable possession? It is you memories! Your memories are your most treasured possession, the one thing that defines who and what you are. Consequently, spending money to build up memories is the best use of your money. One should spend your money acquiring experiences, not things. These experiences can be alone or with friends or with family. Whatever your preference. Your experiences will define who you are, so think about what experiences you will appreciate. Also, think about <i>when</i> it is best to acquire these experiences. A road trip--staying in hostels or other inexpensive places--might be best at a young age. Arduous treks are also best when you are young; you might enjoy hiking the Appalachian trail, but if you are out of shape it might not be best when you are 70 years old. Think about your "go-go", "slow-go", and "no-go" years. The author deeply regrets not going with his friend through Europe, staying at hostels, in his early 20's. At an later age, he would not have appreciated such a trip as much.<br /><br />What about giving money to your family--say, your children. For them, too, receiving an inheritance would be much more useful at an early age, such as when buying a first home, rather than at a retirement age. The idea is that if you die of old age with money in your bank account, you have lost it; you haven't used it to acquire experiences. And while you could will it to your heirs, they will not receive it at the best age to take advantage of it.<br /><br />I highly recommend this book--it was quite an eye-opener for me.

At only about 200 pages, this is simply too long. The ideas presented could’ve been a 15 minute TEDtalk (possibly where the idea originated). I could pick apart the different sections of this book, but I will simply say this: the only people this book is really written for is people in a certain income or net worth zone. The ideas kinda fall apart when applied to the very (not even ultra) wealthy and people without much chance of a retirement - the majority of this country. Aside from a narrow audience, the voice can be slightly boisterous and condescending. If you find yourself in a position where this thinking applies to you, a conversation about these topics would be more useful than reading this book.

<b>Received this book from the author. Thank you!</b><br><br>In many nowadays cultures saving is a norm. Want something? Work and save. Save every cent, every penny. Prohibit yourself from certain indulgences. Don't overspend on crazy things! They make you happy? Well, you will have to do without. Eat buckwheat. Walk. Squeeze the most out of every tube, carton and package. Finally, have enough saved for what you wanted? Have it, and well, there is more you should start saving for right now! Star immediately! Yeah, I might be overreacting with that, but a job-home-family way of thinking penetrates even the modern people.<br><br><img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1615032747ra/30971433.gif" width="300" height="200" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>What I loved the most about Die With Zero was a laid-back, but facts-based approach. Yes, save, but don't forget to enjoy! Don't slowly kill yourself over dreams that others believe to be worth reaching for. Make money, but invest them smartly. Do it while you can, since you never know which day will be your last. It's a nice proof that some things we want are closer than we imagine and we don't need to wait for ages to achieve it. There is a nice little chapter about finding balance - I think it's very important for a person. This need is sprouting many practices and beliefs, but don't look that far - listen to your heart, follow what you truly want and answer one question - do you need all things you currently have in your life? So, don't forget to look around - there is always more to enjoy than your work and money!

*Blinkist*<br /><br />I’m not sure what I think of this book based on reading the Blink. Some statements I agreed with, while others I did not (some statements to me seemed like irresponsible advice, that people could easily take as license to spend money they don’t have or not save enough, for example).<br /><br />The numbers in one example scenario in the Blink didn’t add up:<br /><br />“Meet Elizabeth, for example. She’s a 45-year-old woman without children, and her annual net income is $49,000. But Elizabeth only spends $33,000 of what she earns. She puts the remaining $16,000 into her pension and savings account. By the time she retires, at age 65, she will have a total net worth of $770,000. This sum will include all those savings as well as her home equity.”<br /><br />This sum _includes_ home equity? What assumptions is the author making here? This $770k figure actually seems low. Based on my calculations, she should have $770k PLUS home equity and any other savings. This scenario also assumes she a) didn’t start saving for retirement or buy a house until age 45 (and had no other debt, i.e. she had a net worth of $0 at 45; not entirely unreasonable assumptions, but if you’re younger than 45, aim to do better than this) and b) she receives zero promotions or pay raises in these 20 years. <br /><br />“After retirement, Elizabeth spends $32,000 a year, until, two decades later, she dies at the age of 85. At the time of her death, Elizabeth still has $130,000 in her savings account.”<br /><br />This would only be true if she leaves the entire amount in cash, which based on the previous paragraph, also includes her home equity, meaning she would need to sell her house, and live, where...? The next example makes a point which contradicts this spending / balance figure, but again, my calculations indicate she should actually end up at age 85 with over $1.5 million...<br /><br />“Suppose you need $12,000 a year to survive. You expect to live another 40 years. That means, in order to retire, you need a net worth of $480,000.”<br /><br />So far so good, arithmetically, and the example continues:<br /><br />“In fact, you can probably stop working with significantly less than this amount. This is because your money and assets will accrue interest over time, so your net worth would decrease slower than you expect. In reality, you only need around 70 percent of your estimate to quit working. Interest rates will take care of the rest.”<br /><br />Not just decrease slower, but more than likely increase over time, and with less than 70% even (good news which actually supports the author’s point).<br /><br />“If you want to get the most out of your time on Earth, you shouldn’t allow your net worth to climb much higher than your survival amount. And when it does, begin to reduce wealth, rather than building it up. You might, for example, decide to spend more on great experiences or reduce how much work you do.”<br /><br />This is what we call a good problem to have. The solution is simple: adjust your spending and or gifts and or charitable giving accordingly. <br /><br />“Don’t waste your life saving up for a rainy day. You might get wealthier as you get older, but your health and openness to new experiences will decline. It’s smart to spend your disposable income while you're young, pursuing risky dreams and taking up mind-expanding travel. Never forget that nothing lasts forever – and nor will you. So choose happiness over an ever-expanding bank balance.”<br /><br />Yes and no, though. Risky dreams and mind-expanding travel (or whatever it is YOU personally value, if you don’t share the author’s bias towards these two particular values) don’t have to cost a fortune. It is also possible to balance both, since you don’t know what the future holds. (Health problems or disability are things that can happen, though I hope they don’t!)<br /><br />This is also an argument FOR saving while you are young, when compound interest can work most in your favor. I hope the key message of this book, which was ambiguous to me from the Blink, is not to saddle your future self with debt to travel the world or whatever the author seems to think we should be doing with our money. <br /><br />I have many, many more thoughts on this topic, but overall I don’t think I can agree that spending all of one’s money is the only measure of having lived fully.

Like many books of this genre, it could stand to be more concise, but it does offer a provocative reassessment of typical thinking around saving, spending, retirement, inheritance, etc. For most, it will not be simple to put the thinking here into practice. Nonetheless, the book will ask you some challenging questions about how you want your life to unfold, and encourage you to live each year you have deliberately.

“We all have the potential to make more money in the future, but we can never go back and recapture time that is now gone. It makes no sense to let opportunities pass us by for fear of squandering our money. Squandering our lives should be a much greater worry.”<br /><br />This book was okay. I thought the concept was interesting. It basically talks about spending your money on experiences - instead of accumulating a bigger bank account. <br /><br />Honestly, this book could’ve been a blog post. But if you don’t know much about personal finance, it’s worth reading. <br /><br />Three stars.

<b> Thank you to the author for providing me with this novel, in exchange for an honest review. </b><br /><br /><i> Bill Perkins is a CEO and former Wall Street trader who made his money in energy stocks. His novel, “Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life” is a financial self-help book of sorts, but not entirely. Perkins suggests tips to “live a full life” and “be your true self” by focusing more of your attention on experiences, and less on money. </i><br /><br />This concept is hard to grasp for most of us. Since childhood, we are told to “understand the value of a dollar” and to “work hard to earn what you want”. Perkins turns these tenets on their heads and forces us to look at money in a new way- use it to experience life now, because the older you get, the less chances you will have to use it in the best ways possible. <br /><br />The novel itself is very well written, and each chapter covers a different aspect of Perkins’ theory. Not every chapter will relate to everyone but there is something for everyone somewhere in this book. <br /><br />It was very difficult for me to relate to Perkins. Although I can appreciate his values and his belief system, it is hard to accept financial and life advice from someone who flew his entire family <i> (and all of his friends) </i> to the British Islands for his 45th birthday <i> (and has a laissez-faire attitude about it) </i> , and is a millionaire at the age of 50. It is extreme examples like this that make it hard for me to find a connection with him. He does gives example in this book of “normal” people <i> (i.e. non-millionaires) </i> and how they can use his theories as well, but they don’t relate with me. Not everyone starts at one job and then advances <i> (and continues to make wage increases with those advances) </i>. The possibility of staying at the same job until retirement is high in these risky times, and the likelihood that we will go from “rags to riches” is next to impossible, for the working class of the world <i> (you know, the majority of us).</i> <br /><br />I appreciated Perkins’ life advice, and it does make a lot of sense. To spend money while we are young on experiences that would be both foolish and irresponsible when we get older, for example. There are definitely a lot of experiences I missed out on as a youth because I was too focused on making money. It also connects that we need to focus on the memories we leave behind, and not on the financial windfalls we leave our relatives. <br /><br />Perkins does state often that he is “not” a financial advisor, and it is best to leave our financial decisions into the hands of those who are <i> (he definitely touts the benefits of annuities and insurance, though, for someone who isn’t a “financial advisor!”). </i><br /><br />“Die with Zero” is an interesting take on how we, as a society, look at money, and the skewed importance we give to it. Since it completely went against everything I have ever been taught <i> (and even against a lot of my current practices with the money I have now) </i>, it definitely took a lot of open-mindedness to get through this book, but Perkins definitely has some good ideas. <br />