Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life―A Revolutionary Approach to Maximizing Life Experiences Over Accumulating Wealth

Recommended reading for anyone who is young with a lifetime ahead and those entering retirement. Many concepts every person can relate to and benefit from.

Great book! It causes you to think about what you’re wanting your legacy to look like as well as your presence in your life. I don’t agree with all of the guidance but it was a great book to make your critically think.

This book was so helpful and helping me to make decisions about how I spend my money. It was particularly timely as I am nearing retirement and am understandably anxious about drawing out of my retirement funds. At the same time, I know that people in my age group ( I am in my 60s ) should travel and do those types of activities since the older you get the less likely you are to be able to do so. The author provides a good philosophy of the point of acquiring money, and also how to spend it based on your values and living a fulfilling life.

Excellent book to read. I found most ideas fascinating and very logical and reasonable when explained. If you are looking for a book that motivates you to invest in experiences, enjoy life, and help others while still saving money on the long run this is the book.

Die With Zero contains a controversial and thought-provoking concept, which is to plan your life so that you purposely spend all of your wealth by the time you die. To maximize a person’s life, the author (Bill Perkins - NOT a financial advisor) recommends that most people should begin spending down on their retirement savings between 45 and 60 years of age (depending on one’s estimated life expectancy) so that they will reach zero net worth by the time they pass away. In theory, this plan is a great idea. In reality, this idea is impractical and down-right dangerous given that it’s impossible to predict the timing of one’s demise. I strongly disagree with many of the points in this book, starting with the notion that any money earned during a person’s career is “wasted” to the extent that the person dies before spending it. In other words, the author is saying that money has no value unless it is spent during one’s lifetime. In my opinion, this is wrong for several reasons. As just one example, having savings in the bank gives many folks the feeling of financial peace and security. If you don’t believe such a feeling is valuable, just ask anyone who has ever lost sleep worrying over unpaid bills or a lack of retirement savings. With that said, I found other points in the book that are worthwhile, including: 1) everyone should be mindful of how they spend their time and money (i.e., consider whether the daily Starbucks routine is a better choice than saving for front row concert tickets or a summer vacation and regardless how you answer that question, it’s empowering to know you have a choice), 2) a fulfilling life has more to do with amassing memorable experiences than increasing the size of one’s bank account, 3) plan to spend some money on experiences while you can still physically participate (don’t wait til retirement to buy a ski boat b/c most 70 year olds can't water ski), 4) retirement planning should include the concept that spending varies during your golden years (most retirees are more active/spend more $$$ in early retirement and less as their health declines), and 5) deferred gratification (i.e., saving for an emergency or retirement) is wise, but denied gratification is not smart (i.e., work until you die without stopping to smell the flowers along the way). Overall, I completely disagree agree with the main message in this book. Personally, I’d rather die with a pile of unspent money than take a chance of outliving my savings and end up eating dog food for my remaining days on earth. For financial planning advice, I definitely don’t recommend this book. However, it is valuable in the sense that it provides a different perspective on retirement savings and made me think more about my future.

great advice for living and money management! Even if you don't agree with all the strategies there is still a lot of great ideas to take away and apply to living a fulfilling life

I felt like this book will resonate with a lot of people through common sense. Live your life now, and help your kids financially now if you can. He's not saying to NOT save for retirement. Take the FIRE concept for example, where I'm often hearing stories of people saving every last penny to retire in their 40s or 50s, meanwhile the best years of their life are passing by and they live off scraps. Sure retiring early is great, but this book is more about focusing on enjoying life now. And I agree, growing up poor can make you want to save more. Don't be your typical boomer hoarding wealth and for what, so you can admire the pile you've accumulated with your rickety joints not allowing you to do anything you used to enjoy? Every boomer should have to read this book before drawing social security. Honestly, I feel bad for the hoarders out there. My travel memories are my wealth.

My dad has always been very frugal. We didn’t really take vacations or go out for family dinners much. It wasn’t a bad childhood by any means, it just felt a little sad sometimes, like we were missing out on certain experiences. This past Christmas, I bought him this. Recently, he told me he finally “gets it” now. He said the part about “memory dividends” really resonated with him. The book compares spending on experiences to investing in a stock that pays dividends, except the dividends are memories, connection, and joy. He really understood that, this guy is obsessed with the stock market. Hearing him say that meant more to me than I expected. If you’ve ever struggled with being overly frugal, or if you have a dad like mine who’s always prioritized saving over living, I highly recommend this book. It can genuinely shift the way you think about money and time.