I recently read Die with Zero by Bill Perkins. Multiple friends had recommended it, and it turned out to be a genuinely thought-provoking read. Three lessons stayed with me most.
First, the most important thing we do in this life is collect memories. It’s easy to slide into the default of accumulating money and forget that money is a means vs. the point. Experiences pay dividends the way invested money does. Learning to live well means learning to strike the balance between saving and spending on experiences.
Second, there’s only a limited window in life when you have the right combination of money, time, and health to actually enjoy memorable experiences. You need to plan around that window instead of assuming it’ll always be there. Health is the scarcest resource of the three, because without it, none of the rest matters much. We tend to have more time when we’re young and more money when we’re older, and the real skill is figuring out how to balance the two across a lifetime instead of defaulting to one extreme.
Third, the real value of the book isn’t the specific techniques (though there are a few of those too). Instead, it is Bill Perkins’ insistence that we should be thoughtful and analytical about our relationship with money. He pushes us to put a number on our fears instead of leaving them abstract. How long might we live? How expensive might a health emergency actually be? How much will we need?
That’s where the wisdom sits. The book isn’t a license to spend everything because YOLO. It’s an argument for being deliberate enough with money that our choices become intentional instead of reflexive.
A lot in the book resonated, but that last point is the one that actually is changing how I think, talk, and act around money.
