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

by Bill Perkins

thriving, not just surviving. This book is not about making your money grow—it’s about making your life grow.

Living as if your life were infinite is the opposite of taking the long view: It’s terribly shortsighted.

Although we all have at least the potential to make more money in the future, we can never go back and recapture time that is now gone. So 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.

What I am an advocate for is deciding what makes you happy and then converting your money into the experiences you choose.

it, “What Good Is Wealth Without Health?”

After all, nobody would ever try to die with zero if they’re afraid they’ll hit zero before they die.

“The business of life is the acquisition of memories. In the end that’s all there is.”

That was when I realized that 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.

Her patients’ number one regret was wishing they’d had the courage to live a life true to themselves—as opposed to the life that others expected of them.

Whether they did more or just managed to squeeze more enjoyment out of whatever they did on a daily basis, the mere act of deliberately thinking about their time as limited definitely helped.

Being aware that your time is limited can clearly motivate you to make the most of the time you do have.

Invest in experiences that yield long-lasting memories, always bear in mind that everyone’s health declines with age, give your money to your children before you die instead of saving for their inheritance, and learn to balance current enjoyment with later gratification.

People are more afraid of running out of money than wasting their life, and that’s got to switch. Your biggest fear ought to be wasting your life and time,

By aiming to die with zero, you will forever change your autopilot focus from earning and saving and maximizing your wealth to living the best life you possibly can. That’s why dying with zero is a worthy goal—with this goal in mind, you are sure to get more out of your life than you otherwise would have.