Money Management

Is Dying With Zero Really Practical?

By 
Karen Banes
Karen Banes is a freelance writer specializing in entrepreneurship, parenting and lifestyle. Her work has appeared in publications including The Washington Post, Life Info Magazine, Transitions Abroad, Brave New Traveler, Natural Parenting Group, and Copia Magazine.

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I don’t know why it’s taken me this long to dive into the 2021 book Die With Zero by Bill Perkins. I read the much earlier book Die Broke by Stephen Pollan and Mark Levine way back when it was published in 1998. So I’ve long been interested in the concept, even if I’m not sure I actually aspire to it.

Die With Zero is an updated take on whether it’s possible — and advisable — to spend your money in this lifetime, effectively dying with nothing (except awesome experiences and marvelous memories).

Perkins claims to be aiming to rescue us all from “over-saving and under-living”. Which sounds great, in theory. But dying broke just doesn’t sound like something I want on my goals list.

I read the book anyway, and while I’m not fully convinced, here are my biggest takeaways.

Looking at Money Differently

Perkins looks at how we can all make better spending decisions by considering what he calls our “net worth curve” and balancing that with our “fulfilment curve”. This helps us navigate decisions about whether to indulge in (or delay) experiences that are expensive but fulfilling.

I invested in a lot of adventures when I was young. Backpacking around the world. Working and studying abroad. Learning to ski, and scuba dive, and eat alone in a restaurant on the other side of the world without feeling awkward. Never once — even when going through later financial challenges — have I ever wished I had more money instead of those experiences, so maybe the author is on to something.

I’m no longer young, but I’m not that old yet either. And I still have a lot of experiences I’d like to bank. I’m definitely going to be balancing my net worth curve against my fulfilment curve in future spending decisions.

Experience-Stacking While You’re Young

While the idea of increasing returns and compound interest tell us to save when we’re young, there’s also the argument that our earning power will increase as we get older, so spending while we’re young — especially on things we can only really do while we’re young — isn’t always a bad idea.

What’s more, spending on great experiences when we’re young can give us life-long memories, skills, and character building opportunities, while our happiness per dollar is still naturally fairly high.

Let’s be honest. We’re all going to spend while we’re young, so what we spend on is what matters. Most physical purchases generally don’t bring us joy for long, due to the process of hedonic adaptation. That is, we soon adapt to having a new possession the joy experienced on purchase day soon diminishes once we own it. But spending on experiences when you’re young can have the opposite effect. As Perkins puts it:

“Unlike material possessions, which seem exciting at the beginning but then often depreciate quickly, experiences actually gain in value over time: They pay what I call a memory dividend.”

Being Realistic About Old Age

Many people are obsessed with retirement. They save and plan and dream. And maybe that pays off, but often it doesn’t. Not all of us will reach retirement age and not all of us will be healthy enough to enjoy it the way we planned. One of the major regrets of older retirees is not spending more money early on in retirement, while they’re still able to enjoy it.

Depending on how well we planned, some of us are richer in old age than we’ve ever been, but expenses often tend to go down as we age. We’re often simply not fit enough to do the things that cost the big bucks.

It’s understandable that we worry about running out of money if we live to a significant age. Perkins calls this “longevity risk”, and suggests it’s something you can plan for by being realistic about your possible lifespan and health span.

The author goes into the calculations you need to do in-depth in the book, but suffice to say that among those who have consistent, life-long, mid- to high-income earnings, the fear of running out of money tends to be much more prevalent than the reality of running out of money.

In this book, you’ll learn to “time bucket” your life, assessing just how much free time, money, and health you’ll have at different points in your life, so you can plan accordingly. And yes. Shit happens. You could be blindsided by the unexpected at any point, but that’s no reason not to have a plan in place.

Giving It Away While You’re Still Alive

Most of us want to leave an inheritance for our kids or loved ones. But there’s no real need to wait until you die to offer support to those you love.

There are various benefits (including tax advantages — so talk to your advisor about this one) to giving your kids money throughout your lifetime. Money they can use to put a deposit on a house, pay off student loans, or maybe even afford kids of their own.

With some of us living much longer than we used to, your kids might be at or near retirement age themselves when they receive that inheritance. Nothing wrong with passing on generational wealth, if that’s your aim, but that’s not what this book is about. If you want to ensure your kids have the best life possible, it’s probably better to help them when they need it, throughout their life, rather than hoard your money to leave them a big inheritance.

There’s a lot more to dying with nothing than this, of course. If it’s a concept that interests you, I recommend both Dying With Zero and Dying Broke. And talking to a professional about your goals, of course. There’s an art to spending wisely and consistently throughout life and you’ll need to personalize your plan and ensure you’ve considered all your risks and opportunities.

My final conclusion? I’m still not convinced I want to die broke, if I’m honest, but I am convinced I want to use some of the concepts in this book to live better.

About the Author

Karen Banes is a freelance writer specializing in entrepreneurship, parenting and lifestyle. She writes articles, website content, ebooks and the occasional award winning short story. Her work has appeared in a range of publications both online and off, including The Washington Post, Life Info Magazine, Transitions Abroad, Brave New Traveler, Natural Parenting Group, and Copia Magazine. Learn More About Karen

To make Wealthtender free for readers, we earn money from advertisers, including financial professionals and firms that pay to be featured. This creates a conflict of interest when we favor their promotion over others. Read our editorial policy and terms of service to learn more. Wealthtender is not a client of these financial services providers.
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