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

For the person out there who's cookie cutting it, but really yearns to, like, strike out, try anything, move to a new city, chase the girl, say "I love you" first, get in shape, run the marathon, whatever it is, don't waste your (censored) life, dude. Don't do it. Don't let the (censored) judgment of the haters make you waste your (censored) life.

(wind blowing) You said that you wrote this book to save people's lives. What'd you mean?

Well, the first life I wanted to save was my own. Um, I have a, I have a deep fear of wasting my life, you know, and, and I, I was thinking about this earlier in life, like, kind of, what does it all mean type conversations that people have. And I was broke. I was trying to work my way up in Wall Street, commodities trading. And, you know, there's a lot of frustration trying to obtain wealth and, and get there. And I was like, "Well, what does it all mean? What is it gonna get me?" Right? "What is the extra money gonna get me?" Um, and I was thinking about, "Well, I don't wanna be rich when I'm old, because what am I gonna do with money when I'm old," right? "My life will have passed me by. And what's the money for? What am I gonna buy at different stages in my life, and what are the things that I really want?" And, you know, I was young, so, like, when you're young, you just think, "I just want a bunch of women and, and a guitar and a fast car," and, you know, whatever it is, right? All the dumb things that (laughs) young people think, right? I was kinda on this different advertised autopilot. But I really didn't wanna waste my life. I didn't wanna go to work and bust my butt and deal with the abuse, as clerks deal with trying to get, get rich, for nothing, right? To, to have a picket fence a- and a car and a bigger car and then, and, and drive my kids to school in a bigger car, right? So... And I also didn't wanna go to work for money that I was never gonna spend. I didn't wanna have Chuck e- unused Chuck E. Cheese tokens. I, I use Chuck E. Cheese, but I, I realize that internationally people are like, "What the hell is he talking about, Chuck E. Cheese tokens?" But I guess a lot of people know what Skee-Ball is, when they give you the tickets, and, and you go get the prize, right? You, you don't wanna be playing Skee-Ball, get, like, I don't know, a million tickets, and just walk out, right? And that, that was kinda the idea of, like, working for money that I never would spend or never use. And so, I was like, "I don't wanna waste my life. I don't wanna waste my life." Um, "What does that mean? How do I optimize l- my life? How do I get the most out of my life regardless... You know, h- if I'm gonna spend all my money, when? How does that curve work?" You know, so I looked at life as kind of, like, this optimization prog- program, um, and I tried to distill the variables, and the variables were your wealth, your health, and your time. And I was like, "I wanna get the absolute most out of this life, absolute most." And so that's the save my life. And so I know that's a long answer, maybe we should chop that up a little bit, but I'm gonna tell you, um, you know, something I usually tell people at the end, is that if, if you save somebody who's drowning, right? Let's, let's say y- you walk by and they're drowning, and you go in and you do the mouth-to-mouth and they cough up the water dramatically and you're like, "Oh my God, you saved my life," and I go, "Guess what? They're still gonna fucking die. They're just not gonna die that day." So what did you really do for them? You gave them more I love yous, more walks in the park, more trips, more experiences, basically. And so you've optimized their life for more experiences by pulling them out of the water that day. Um, and so when I write a book about optimizing your life, like, not wasting your time, being deliberate with your money, and getting the most out of it, I feel like I'm doing the same thing, to a certain extent. I'm giving you more I love yous, more walks in the park, more fulfillment, right? Just as you gave that person the opportunity for more fulfillment when you pulled them out of the water. And so I wrote the book to save my life so that I don't drown in the bullshit, right? And then hopefully you read the book, you apply the principles, and you don't drown in the bullshit and you get more life.