Investing in Life: Lessons from ‘Die With Zero’ by Bill Perkins

What Do I Know About Investing?

Who am I to be writing about investing?! You may well ask - I’ve been asking myself the same question. With the exception of a very insignificant amount of crypto, I’ve never invested money. And when I could have been investing, I didn’t even realise I should! But hear me out…

The purpose of my blog is to help others by sharing my experiences. I’m not here to give you financial investment advice or tips on stocks and shares. However, if you’re interested in learning about investing in the life you want to live (which inevitably involves managing whatever finances you have) then you’ve come to the right place. So if you’ve ever felt like traditional financial advice doesn’t fit your life - or your current bank balance - this post is for you.

I’ve embarked on a mission to design a life I love and, however that may look for any of us, money is going to play a part. It can support or hinder our plans and dreams so it’s crucial that we make our money work for us - which is why I’ve spent so much time reading and learning about finances.

A Brief Summary of 'Die With Zero: Getting All You Can From Your Money And Your Life'

I’ve recently been re-reading the book 'Die With Zero: Getting All You Can From Your Money and Your Life' by Bill Perkins. I want to share with you some of the lessons it taught me and how it’s supporting me to be more confident and intentional in my approach to finances and life design.

'Die With Zero' is about making the most of your time, energy, and money while you're still able to. Rather than saving endlessly for a future that’s never guaranteed, the author encourages readers to be intentional about spending on meaningful experiences throughout their life - before it’s too late to truly enjoy them.

The title 'Die With Zero' refers to the philosophy that rather than accumulating a fortune to leave behind when we die, money should be invested while we are here and able to make the most of it. Perkins advocates planning spending intentionally throughout life with the aim of having little money left by the end of life.

Who Are These Finance Books Really For?

Like most of the finance authors I’ve read or listened to, Bill Perkins is a very wealthy individual - a hedge fund manager who was able to fly his friends and family to an exclusive Caribbean island to celebrate his 45th birthday. For most of us, that’s never going to be a realistic possibility. 

However, that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from, or even relate to, these people whose lives can seem so far removed from our own. When you think about it, these are the people who have made it - they’ve achieved their goals and they're willing to share how they've done it. Admittedly some of them are living in very different financial circumstances but there is still much we can learn from them. When we see athletes compete in the Olympics, many of us feel inspired by them to develop our own skills in a sport - to the best of our ability, in a way that fits into our life and without expecting to become world champions. I think we can do the same with finances and the experts in that arena.

Perkins acknowledges in his introduction that his book will be of greatest benefit to those who have “spare” money and are actually saving more of their money than they need to at the expense of living the life they really want to live. That said, the book still offered plenty of advice I could apply to my life.

Leaving my teaching career was the start of a life I had never expected to live - in some ways harder but also more exciting and liberating than I’d even hoped for. There’s no denying it’s come at a financial cost but 'Die With Zero' helped to reassure me about decisions I’ve made.

Investing In Life Experiences

It’s all very well to say that I am investing in life experiences but the reality is that many of these experiences do require money. That doesn’t mean game over - it simply means careful and intentional planning. If you know me you’ll know I love planning so straight away Bill and I were off to a good start. More on planning later….

The thing with books is that different people can take different things from them. And I suppose your perspective will be influenced by your current circumstances. So for me, at a point in my life where I have to be more careful than ever with money, these words early in the book were comforting and reassuring:

“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.”

I remind myself of this often: I will hopefully be able to earn more money in the future but here and now was the only chance to be here for my family and to support my son through autistic burnout. For our family the potential health and emotional costs of not having done this was far more frightening than the loss of earnings. Now is when my family needs me to be at home rather than out earning money - perhaps one of the most important life investments I've ever made.

Being at home for my boy is not the only life experience I’m investing in. I’ve continued to travel, to discover new places, connected with some amazing people and am learning so much more about myself - all things I know I would regret not having done at this stage in my life.

Time Buckets

Here's where the planning comes in.... In 'Die With Zero', Perkins describes the need to plan life like you would a holiday. When we go on holiday we’re usually focused on getting the most out of it - planning the places we want to see and experiences we want to try. If you’ve travelled with me or planned a trip with me you’ll be aware of the countless hours of research and planning that goes into each of these experiences! Perkins advocates that life should be planned in such a way. I absolutely agree and was intrigued by his description of Time Buckets.

You’ve probably heard people talk about having a bucket list. Maybe you have one yourself - a list of things you want to do before you die. I’d imagine you’ve probably also heard of people who haven’t managed to achieve things on their bucket list because they ran out of time or health while waiting to have the money.

This is why the Die With Zero strategy involves planning your life in time buckets. Think about not just what you want to do but when in life you want to do it. Planning like this can help us to see at which stages in life we are likely to need more, or less, money.

“There is a time for everything — a time to work, a time to save, and a time to spend. Don’t miss the spending window.” Bill Perkins

When I think of time buckets for my own life, I feel comforted by the fact that my plans for my twilight years are modest. I hope that I can live a simple life, perhaps with some nice trips. But the trips that matter most to me - the ones I’d be really sad to miss out on - are planned for the periods in my life where I expect (although there is never a guarantee) to have the health and wealth to be able to take them and fully appreciate the

Since my travel experiences are so precious to me, to be able to fund them just now I have adopted a frugal approach to spending. Although you might expect the opposite, living frugally has brought me the freedom I had never expected. You can read more about this  here.

Compound Interest

I truly believe in this. Perhaps you’ve heard Warren Buffet, one of the best known investors in the world say similar in reference to investing in money in order to benefit from compound interest. I loved Perkins’ view that investing early applies not only to money but to experiences. We are rewarded in dividends from our experiences in the form of memories, photos, connections and joy. The earlier we invest in meaningful and enriching experiences, the longer they have to compound, maximising fulfilment in life and shaping us as the person we want to be.

Curveballs - Sometimes Life Happens!

Of course, even the best-laid plans can get sideswiped by life’s curveballs. They can cause our lives (and our finances) to take a path we hadn’t planned for.

Ideally this is when well planned financial security can step in and save the day - financially at least. But sometimes life events and their impact can outlive the best planned financial security. 

The first time I listened to this book my husband and I had no savings, no investments, no spare money anymore. We had saved for a rainy day and the rainy day had come calling. But these words stuck with me as a reminder that there are times to save your money - for us, this was not the time. We were doing the right thing by focusing on meeting current needs. 

What About The Future?

Don’t be fooled into thinking that I sail through life giving no thought to our future. Sometimes I have a spells where I find it hard to deal with the uncertainty and the potential lack of security. But, somehow, I have faith that we’ll keep finding a way to be alright. “Am I OK for now?...Then I’m OK” has become my little mantra.

Sadly, the future is never guaranteed. Too many of us have seen people we love work hard and look forward to a retirement that they didn’t live to see. I've had my own personal experience of this with my dad but I take comfort in knowing that he did also live a fulfilling life while he could. This drives me to do the same so, while I hope for a long and fulfilling life, I’m not willing to delay gratification in order to preserve money for “one day”.

A Rich Life

“Your life is the sum of your experiences. It's not just about having money — it's about having rich, fulfilling experiences that shape who you are.”

Things are not completely outwith our control. While not in a position to increase our income right now, this period in my life has taught me the true value of money - it is a tool, not the goal. The goal is to lead a fulfilling life. I consider books like “Die With Zero” to be another tool in my toolbox for living a life I love. 

Not being in employment in my forties was never in my plan but it’s turned out to be the best thing for my family and for me. And my hope is that arming myself with all this financial information will help me to keep making this life work and cope with whatever other curveballs may come my way. I may not have a portfolio full of stocks, but I’m rich in experiences, love, and purpose. To me, that constitutes a rich life.

Thanks to this book, I know that if I find myself with spare money to invest some will be used to invest in the future for myself and my family. But I can assure you that I plan to keep investing in experiences and doing all I can to live a life I love!

I'd love to hear about the life experience you've invested in - maybe you can inspire others in the comments below.

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