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Why You Should Spend All Of Your Money Before You Die - Bill Perkins

Bill Perkins is a hedge fund manager, high stakes poker player, film producer and an author. What if the true path to financial fulfilment doesn’t lie in saving every penny, but rather in spending it as effectively as you can? Delayed gratification in the extreme results in no gratification, and Bill's book Die With Zero is one of the best financial philosophies I've ever come across. Expect to learn how to maximise your existence for positive life experiences, why you should give your kids their inheritance when they're 30, the most common errors people make about money, why it’s so hard for some of us to spend, the brilliant concept of ‘consumption smoothing’, what Sigmamode grindset-ers are getting wrong about work-life balance, how to plan your life in terms of seasons and much more... Sponsors: Get 20% discount & free shipping on your Lawnmower 4.0 at https://manscaped.com/modernwisdom (use code MODERNWISDOM) Get 15% discount on Mud/Wtr at http://mudwtr.com/mw (use code MODERNWISDOM) Get 10% discount on your first month from BetterHelp at https://betterhelp.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied) Extra Stuff: Buy Die With Zero - https://amzn.to/3MU4q99 Follow Bill on Twitter - https://twitter.com/bp22 Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom #money #finance #wealth - 00:00 Intro 00:21 How Bill is Saving Lives 09:35 Maximise Positive Life Experiences 20:12 What Most People Misunderstand About Money 28:06 Can You Delay Gratification Too Much? 38:40 What is ‘Consumption Smoothing?’ 46:13 Is the Sigma Grind Mindset Healthy? 56:53 Bill’s Tactics for Enhancing His Life 1:05:01 How to Die with Zero 1:11:38 Making the Most of Having Children 1:15:24 How to Know if You’re Living on Autopilot 1:26:25 Knowing When You Should Stop 1:33:39 Giving Money to Kids & Charity Early 1:45:07 Advice to Risk-Averse People 1:50:14 Where to Find Bill - Get access to every episode 10 hours before YouTube by subscribing for free on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn or Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Get my free Reading List of 100 life-changing books here - https://chriswillx.com/books/ - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/

Bill PerkinsguestChris Williamsonhost
Jun 16, 20231h 52mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Bill Perkins: Stop Hoarding Money And Start Maximizing Life Experiences

  1. Bill Perkins explains his ‘Die With Zero’ philosophy: life should be optimized for net fulfillment, not net worth, by consciously using time, health, and money to create meaningful experiences before it’s too late.
  2. He argues most people over-save due to fear and conditioning, working for money they’ll never spend and effectively wasting life “skeeball tickets” and “Chuck E. Cheese tokens.”
  3. Key ideas include investing in experiences early for their ‘memory dividends,’ smoothing consumption over a lifetime, planning by life seasons, giving money to kids and charities earlier, and taking big risks when young.
  4. Throughout, he attacks “monk mode”/grind culture, autopilot living, and fear of judgment, urging people to deliberately design a non–cookie-cutter life and accept failure as part of a fully used life.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Optimize for net fulfillment, not net worth.

Perkins reframes life as an ‘optimization program’ where the goal is maximum positive life experiences, not the largest bank balance; money is a tool (a hammer and saw) to build the ‘house’ of happiness, not the end itself.

Invest in experiences early to capture memory dividends.

Experiences pay off twice: once when you do them and repeatedly as you recall and retell them; doing meaningful trips, adventures, and connections earlier in life creates decades of ‘memory dividends’ that compound like interest.

Use consumption smoothing instead of over-saving for old age.

Most people effectively ‘borrow from their poorer, younger self’ to give their richer, older self money they may not even be able to enjoy; projecting future earning and spending realistically lets you shift some resources to earlier, more vital years.

Plan life in seasons and get the order of experiences right.

Different activities belong in specific life phases (single years, young kids, physical peak, retirement); like Tetris, putting big experiences in the wrong slot (e.g., extreme sports at 80, Ibiza at 50 with four kids) is suboptimal or impossible.

Get off autopilot by interrogating what truly fulfills you.

Many preferences (career path, where you live, food, even relationship patterns) are cultural programming and inertia; regularly asking “Is this what I really want?” and recalibrating with your prefrontal cortex helps avoid a cookie-cutter life.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

Most people fear running out of money. What you should really fear is wasting your life.

— Bill Perkins

You don’t want to be playing Skee-Ball, get a million tickets, and just walk out. Working for money you never spend is the same thing.

— Bill Perkins

Delaying gratification in the extreme means no gratification.

— Bill Perkins

This monk mode is just another version of ‘go to jail for money.’

— Bill Perkins

For the person out there who’s cookie cutting it but really yearns to strike out… don’t waste your life. Don’t let the judgment of the haters make you waste your life.

— Bill Perkins

Optimizing life for fulfillment vs. maximizing net worthThe three core resources: wealth, health, and timeMemory dividends and investing in experiences earlyConsumption smoothing and over-saving for retirementAutopilot living, cultural conditioning, and intentional life designGiving money and charity early (kids’ inheritance, philanthropy timing)Risk-taking, life seasons, and knowing when to stop working

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