Narrator: In 2008, a successful lawyer named Erin received devastating news. Her husband, John, just 35 years old and perfectly healthy, was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer. He had three months to live. A friend, seeing their world collapse, gave them a single piece of advice: "Stop what you’re doing and spend time as a family while John still can." Erin quit her job. They didn't go on a lavish world tour; they simply spent time together, picking up their kids from school, watching movies, and creating small, precious memories. John died three months later. Despite the trauma, Erin was profoundly grateful she had quit her job. She had traded money for time, and it was the best trade she ever made.

This heart-wrenching choice is the central conflict explored in Bill Perkins's provocative book, Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life. Perkins argues that most of us are living on autopilot, saving for a future we may not be healthy enough to enjoy, and in the process, wasting our most valuable, non-renewable resource: our life energy. The book challenges us to stop accumulating wealth indefinitely and start converting it into the one thing that truly matters: a life rich with memorable experiences.

Narrator: Perkins argues that the ultimate goal in life isn't to maximize wealth, but to maximize positive life experiences. He reframes money not as a number in a bank account, but as stored "life energy"—the hours of your life you traded to earn it. Therefore, dying with a large sum of unspent money is equivalent to having worked for free, wasting thousands of hours of your life that could have been converted into joy, adventure, and connection.

This realization first struck Perkins as a young man. He was working on Wall Street, living frugally and proudly telling his boss, Joe Farrell, how much he was saving. Instead of praise, Farrell called him an idiot. He explained that Perkins was saving money away from his "starving younger self" to give to his "future wealthier self," which made no sense. His earning potential was only going to increase. This conversation taught Perkins a crucial lesson: the goal is not to hoard resources but to use them to create a rich and fulfilling life. The experiences we collect—travel, relationships, learning, and shared moments—are what constitute our life's true net worth.

Narrator: Why are experiences a better investment than material goods? Perkins explains this with the concept of the "memory dividend." When you buy a car, its value starts depreciating the moment you drive it off the lot. But when you invest in an experience, its value grows over time. The initial joy of the event is just the beginning; you get to relive it through memories, stories, and photos for the rest of your life. This ongoing stream of positive feelings is the memory dividend.

Perkins illustrates this with the story of his friend Jason, who, in his early twenties, borrowed money from a loan shark to backpack through Europe for three months. At the time, it seemed like a financially reckless decision. Yet decades later, Jason considers it a bargain. The memories of exploring new cultures, falling in love, and seeing the world are priceless to him. Perkins, who chose to stay home and work, felt a deep sense of regret. He had the money, but Jason had the memories, and those memories have been paying dividends for a lifetime. This is why Perkins urges people to invest in experiences early—the sooner you start, the longer you get to collect the dividends.

Narrator: The book's most controversial idea is its title: Die with Zero. This doesn't mean bouncing the check to the undertaker. It means strategically planning to spend down your assets so that you don't leave a significant amount of your hard-earned life energy on the table. Perkins points to data showing that most retirees, even wealthy ones, barely spend down their savings. In fact, many die with more money than they had when they retired.

Perkins tells the story of John Arnold, a brilliant energy trader who set a goal to make $15 million and then quit to enjoy life. But when he hit that number, he kept going. The goalposts kept shifting until he had amassed over $4 billion. He finally retired at 38, but he admitted he had worked far past the point of optimal utility. He now faced the difficult challenge of figuring out how to spend his vast fortune. Arnold's story is a cautionary tale about the seductive nature of accumulation. The "Die with Zero" philosophy acts as a corrective, forcing you to ask not "How much can I save?" but "What is the optimal way to use this money for maximum life enjoyment?"

Narrator: The most common objection to the "Die with Zero" philosophy is, "But what about the kids?" Perkins argues that the traditional model of leaving a large inheritance is fundamentally flawed. He calls it giving "random amounts of money at a random time to random people." You don't know when you'll die or how much will be left, and by the time your children inherit, they are often in their 50s or 60s, past their peak need for the money.

He shares the story of Virginia Colin, who struggled financially for years raising four children on her own. When her mother died, Virginia, then 49, inherited $130,000. While helpful, she reflected that the money would have been life-changing had she received it 20 years earlier when she was truly struggling. Perkins's solution is to be deliberate. Plan for what you want to give your children and give it to them between the ages of 26 and 35, when it can have the greatest impact on their lives—helping with a down payment, starting a business, or allowing them to spend more time with their own young children. The greatest legacy, he argues, isn't a check after you're gone, but the shared experiences and support you provide while you're alive.

Narrator: To avoid waking up at 65 with a pile of money but a list of regrets, Perkins recommends a proactive planning method he calls "time-bucketing." Instead of a vague "bucket list" you might create late in life, time-bucketing involves dividing your life into five- or ten-year intervals and plotting out the key experiences you want to have in each one. This forces you to confront the reality that your ability to enjoy certain activities is tied to your health and age.

A strenuous multi-day hike is best suited for your 30s or 40s, not your 70s. Taking a year off to travel the world is more feasible before you have major family or career commitments. Perkins himself put this into practice for his 45th birthday. He spent a significant portion of his net worth to fly dozens of friends and family to St. Barts for a week-long celebration, even hiring one of his favorite musicians, Natalie Merchant, for a private concert. It was an expensive, one-time event, but he has zero regrets. By bucketing that experience at that specific time, he created a peak memory that continues to pay huge memory dividends.

Narrator: Perkins argues that the biggest risks should be taken when you are young and have the least to lose. This is the principle of "asymmetric risk"—situations where the potential upside is massive and the potential downside is minimal.

He points to the story of Mark Cuban, who, after college, moved to Dallas with no job and slept on the floor of a shared apartment. He started a small computer consulting business, MicroSolutions, which he later sold for $6 million. When asked if he was scared, Cuban said, "I had nothing. So I had nothing to lose." His downside was returning to a low-paying job, but his upside was unlimited. For older people, being bold looks different. It's not about career risks, but about having the courage to spend the money you've saved on experiences that fulfill you, rather than hoarding it out of an irrational fear of running out. The biggest risk, Perkins insists, is not financial ruin, but a wasted life.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from Die with Zero is a profound shift in perspective: the business of life is the acquisition of memories. Bill Perkins provides a powerful, logical framework for treating your life as the ultimate optimization problem, where the goal is to maximize fulfillment, not dollars. By viewing money as a tool and experiences as the objective, the book dismantles the default script of endless work and accumulation.

It challenges you to confront your own mortality not with fear, but with a plan. What experiences are you putting off for a "someday" that may never come? By thinking in time buckets and investing in your memory dividends, you can start living a more intentional and joyful life today, ensuring that when the end comes, you don't just leave a legacy—you leave nothing on the table.