Die With Zero

There is a question I often ask people, “are you open to another possibility?” It is what I call a cause for pause question, giving an individual time to reflect to determine if in fact they are open to another possibility. Frequently, the answer is yes, sometimes with hesitation; and sometimes it’s no. If the answer is a no, then I don’t proceed, because I can’t alter how someone sees their world if they are not open to a possibility different than the one they already have.

Being open to another possibility is like going to the store and trying on clothes. You may like it, you may be unsure, or you may dislike it. Regardless of how you feel about how you look in the clothes, you can always put them back on the rack and not buy them. 

Sean first introduced me to the book, Die With Zero by Bill Perkins and encouraged me to read it. I didn’t take immediate action. Then, within about six months, Brent (a client of mine) also shared the book with me and encouraged me to read it. While I may not have been open to the possibility to read it at first, after the second introduction my mind completely shifted. 

In previous blogs I’ve shared that we need to develop the ability to look and listen. Clearly the universe was telling me to read this book and boy am I glad I listened. 

This book is truly transformational. It has absolutely changed the way I think about money and its role in my life. While the title is an accurate depiction of the author's strategy as it relates to money, I like the sub-title even better. Getting All You Can From Your Money and Your LIfe. 

I’m not going to provide you a book summary, but rather highlight a few key ideas from the book in the hopes that you will be compelled to read the book. Actually, I hope you are compelled to read the book just because of my recommendation.  

Early in the book, the author points out that our goal should be to maximize positive life experiences. Who among us can’t get behind that strategy. Of course positive life experiences will be different for each of us, but no matter, the point is irrefutable.

He goes on to share about the triangle of time, money and health. When we are young we have time and health but not much money. Then when we get older, closer to retirement, we typically have more money than when we were young, and more time; but our health decline has already started. While accurate, it's hard to admit. I used to easily ski 7 or 8 days in a row. I even skied 12 days in a row once. Now, my body won’t allow me to ski more than 3 days in a row. Regardless of what my mind desires, my body has other plans. 

Carol and I have had financial challenges at various points in our lives, who hasn’t. During one of those times when our children were young we would tell them that life is about experiences, not assets or things. Regardless of our financial situation we did our best to create experiences. We became points hogs with our credit cards, and we focused my airline and hotel usage to amass as many points as we could with only one vendor for each so we could leverage points for travel. 

We’ve had some awesome experiences/vacations. In 2016, we took our boys to Costa Rica, paying predominately with points. We paid for all four tickets with airline points and then used credit card points to pay for our hotels. The hotels weren’t great, one in particular was poor; but we were having amazing experiences. Our boys said it was the best trip we ever did. 

My financial advisor shared something: our 60’s are our go go years, the 70’s slow go years and 80’s are no go. The author confirms; and points to the fact that we will need less money as we age, so we should get on with spending it, maximizing positive life experiences. These experiences will create a lifetime of memories which is what we will inevitable lean on in our later years. 

I experienced this first hand in the last few years as I visited my father in the nursing home. Conversations frequently were centered around memories of his trips with his beloved wife Gisele. He shared many of his memories with those caring for him. I know this because they shared, your dad has lived a truly remarkable life.  

In this book BIll completely altered my context for money, how I should view it and use it. I love his frank and direct approach. He suggests you should calculate when you will likely die. Some may say "why" or "that’s morbid," but we will all die. None of us get out of this game alive. He points out that actuaries for insurance companies are quite good at projecting when someone will die. There are apps you can find to calculate when you will die. The purpose: to determine how much money you will need to get you to the finish line. 

As Red (Morgan Freeman) from The Shawshank Redemption said, “Get Busy Living, Or Get Busy Dying.”