13 things I learned from "Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life" by Bill Perkins
The theme of this book is not to sacrifice your best and healthiest years so that you can sit in a nursing home with a lot of money. Lots of the ideas are contrarian (at least to my upbringing) so there is a lot to think about and consider. Also something to consider: Bill Perkins made millions in his 30s as a trader, and wrote the book as a very wealthy 50-year-old, so he has an unusual perspective. He can have a vision of his future without needing to make much more money.
1. Lots of crossover with Ramit Sethi's ideas of a Rich Life but comes from a slightly different angle
2. Maximize your life and health, not just your wealth
3. Always calculate money and time: you are comparing future money against present time
4. Maximize experiences
Be deliberate: think about these in advance.
5. Big experiences early in life improve the rest of your life
Traveling when young gives you life experience that lasts forever. Buy once cry once and enjoy the results forever. Also traveling as a single person in youth hostels is much cheaper than traveling with a family.
6. Life is about creating memories
When you are too frail to do things all you will have is your memories.
7. Experiences can compound
Sharing and reminiscing about a positive experience is a dividend from the original experience that can pay back forever. Also, experience begets more experiences.
8. Your experiences don’t have to cost much money
Painting a painting, writing a book, and going on a hike all add to your experiences.
9. Uninsured medical care is so expensive (in the US) that very few people can save enough to actually pay for it, so don’t sacrifice your life to prepare for it
Just YOLO. But he does have a point: when uninsured medical care can easily cost $20,000 a day or more it will burn through all but the largest fortunes in a little time.
10. The concept of best fitness based on age
You won't necessarily be as fit as a 25-year-old when you are 55, but you can be a fit 55-year-old. Do things like mountain climbing when you are young enough to pull it off.
11. Use time buckets to split a bucket list across 5 year buckets
This lets you plan on doing things today that health might prevent in the future. This is a good idea for many reasons: it gives you a lot more buckets than a lifetime list and it also helps you plan good things that would be age appropriate: adventure sports when in your 20s, cruises in your 60s and oil painting in your 80s.
12. He suggests investing in annuities to take care of day to day expenses in later life.
This is an interesting idea. He also suggests figuring out how to live without spending a lot and using annuities and pensions as a survival baseline.
13. He suggests giving to charities and your children younger in life
He has a good point: the average age to receive an inheritance is 60. Most people would probably benefit more from the money in their 30s. Also, charities can generally benefit more from money today than money in the future.
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