Unlike what the title may suggest, this is a book about how to get the most enjoyment out of life as possible.
Most of us work to fund a lifestyle of adventure and experiences but somewhere along the way we get stuck on auto pilot buying into the dream that we get to do all the things we want in the “golden years of retirement”. Even though a lot of the things we do are in fact only possible at a younger age.
As we grow older our income and net worth generally grows as our health declines. Yet it’s when we are fit and healthy at a younger age that we don’t have the funds to do all the things we may want to.
I had always thought about working to earn money in a job in terms of sacrificing part of my life in return for money. I’ve also even thought about the concept of borrowing from my future in order to have experiences because I knew I was going to be rich one day or certainly wealthier than I am now. This book puts exactly those thoughts into chapter 2.
I love any book which really questions the status quo about the majority of people’s beliefs and the way they live their life. It points out quirks that people don’t consider such as being able to actually earn more per hour in a lower paying job when you take into account the extra hours you work, the distance you have to travel and the extra clothes you have to purchase for the higher salary.
In chapter 5 it addresses the point that most people raise about leaving their kids inheritance. Why not do it while you’re still alive? Rather than leaving the outcome to chance as the author puts it.. the 3 R’s – giving random amounts of money at a random time to random people (because who knows which of your heirs will be alive by the time you die?)
Other points that are addressed include the worry of future medical costs (even less relevant in the UK than the US but you can take out medical insurance), going with the flow living on auto pilot and fear (which is probably the one holding most people back).
I think the biggest lesson to be taken from this book is that we are only able to do certain things that we want to do at a certain age. Once that age is past you will no longer be able to do that thing ever again.
Favorite quotes from the book:
It makes no sense to let opportunities pass us by for fear of squandering our money. Squandering our lives should be a much greater worry. – page 4
Many psychological studies have shown that spending money on experiences makes us happier than spending money on things. – page 13
Your life is the sum of your experiences. – page 13
Plan for your future – but never in such a way that you forget to enjoy the present. – page 18
The business of life is the acquisition of memories. In the end that’s all there is. – page 22
You need money to survive in retirement, but the main thing you’ll be retiring on will be your memories – so make sure you invest in those. – page 34.
Making deliberate choices about how to spend your money and your time is the essence of making the most of your life energy. – page 37
It is just easier to keep doing what you’ve been doing, especially when what you’ve been doing continues to reward you with society’s universal form of recognition for a job well money. – page 42
If you spend hours and hours of your life acquiring money and then die without spending all of that money, then you’ve needlessly wasted too many precious hours of your life. – page 43
If you don’t want to squander your life energy, you should aim to spend all your money before you die. – page 45
go-go years, slow-go years, and no-go years. – page 54
“See you at the grave!” – page 59
You should be focusing on maximising your life enjoyment rather than on maximising your wealth. Those are two very different goals. – page 70
Knowing your projected death rate and your annual cost of just staying alive. – page 71
Avoiding death is our number 1 priority, and that single goal dwarfs everything else.. “the human brain is wired to be irrational about death.” – page 72
Money has absolutely no value to you when you’re dead. – page 72
The date of your death in the future should affect what you’re behaviour is now. – page 73
Thinking about death can be distressing, so we tend to avoid thinking about it, and we behave as if it is never going to happen. We keep putting off wonderful experiences, as if in our final month we can easily squeeze in all those experiences that we had put off all our lives. – page 74
Dying with zero is not only about money; It’s also about time. Start thinking about how you use limited time, your life energy, and you’ll be well on your way to living the fullest life you possibly can. – page 75
If you’re really putting your kids first, as you claim you are, don’t wait until you’re dead to show your generosity. – page 79
If you were betting on how old some will be when they inherit money – assuming you know nothing else except that they stand to inherit – 60 is your best bet. – page 80
Die with Zero shows thoughtfulness by having you put your kids first, which you do by thinking deliberately about how much to give them and then doing so, before you die. – page 83
Auto pilot is easy, and it’s what most people around you are doing. So when you look around and do what everyone else is doing, you’ll be coasting on auto pilot just like everyone else. – page 84
A person’s ability to extract real enjoyment out of [their money] declines with age. – page 86
If you’re trying to maximise the impact of the money you give.. then you should aim to give the money as close to their peak as you can. – page 88
By giving the money to my kids and other people at a time when it can have the greatest impact on their lives, I’m making it their money, not mine. – page 89
If you’ve got 50 gallons of water, you wouldn’t pay a dime for an additional gallon of water. But if you’re dying of thirst in the desert, you might be willing to cut off your arm to get even one gallon. – page 93
The purpose of money is to have experiences – page 95
“Your salary will only go up, your earning power will go up,”… “and so you shouldn’t be saving now, you should be borrowing.” – page 104
I’m still a big believer in taking risks when you’re young enough to recover from the possible downside – but only if there’s an upside, a reward that makes the risk pay off. It’s always got to be risk/reward. – page 105
I was replacing one mistake with another: Earlier I was too thrifty, and later I was too spendthrift. – page 106
Strike a balance between spending on the present (and only on what you value) and saving smartly for the future. – page 106
A person’s ability to extract enjoyment from their money begins to decline with age. – page 109
Travel is the ultimate gauge of a person’s ability to extract enjoyment from money, because it takes time, money, and above all, Health. – page 110
People under age 60 are most constrained by time and money, whereas people 75 and older are most constrained by health problems. – page 110
You’d better spend the money when you still have the health. – page 114
The utility or usefulness, of money declines with age. – page 115
Money is nearly worthless at the very beginning and the very end of life. – page 115
It makes sense to adjust your balance of spending to saving over the years accordingly. – page 117
There is a time to work (and save) and a time to play, and the optimal life requires planning for both survival and thriving. – page 118
If you’ve spent decades dutifully saving and investing your money, it can be hard to stop – assuming you’re even aware you should stop. – page 119
Movement is life, and your experiences will be greatly diminished when your movement becomes painful or limited. – page 124
Preventative steps like eating right and strengthening muscles helps keep your health as high as possible for as long as possible. – page 125
The older you get, the less willing you should be to delay an experience, even if someone pays you a lot of money to do so. – page 132
This entire book is predicated on the hard, cold truth that we all die, and as we age, our health gradually decline. – page 136
…a last time I’ll be able to board a plane and fly somewhere exotic. – page 137
The problem of confronting overly delayed gratification and the resulting regret doesn’t occur just once at the end of ones life. – page 138
Her patients number one regret was wishing they’d had the courage to live a life true to themselves – as opposed to the life that others expected of them. – page 139
Being aware that your time is limited can clearly motivate you to make the most of the time you do have. – page 141
When something feels abundant and endless, the truth is, we don’t always value it. – page 142
The people you share experiences with truly affect the quality of the experience. – page 150
The ability to delay gratification serves us well… indefinitely delayed gratification means no gratification. – page 153
These basic statistics describe only what people are currently doing about their net worth, not what they should be doing if their goal is to maximise their lifetime enjoyment. – page 155
You ought to start spending down much earlier than what is traditionally recommended. – page 167
Our culture’s focus on work is like a seductive drug. It takes all of your yearning for discovery and wonder and experiences, promising to give you the means (money) to get all those things – but the focus on the work and the money becomes so single minded and automatic that you forget what you were yearning for in the first place. – page 168
Your goal isn’t to maximise wealth but rather to maximise your life experiences. – page 171
At a certain point in life, you simply won’t be able to consume above a certain amount of savings.- page 173
Time moves in only one direction, and that as it passes it sweeps away opportunities for certain experiences forever. – page 174
Every dollar you don’t spend at the right time will have far less value to you later and in some cases it will bring you no enjoyment at all. – page 174
One of the most important times to re- bucket your life is when you’re nearing your net worth peak. – page 175
If you’ve given something your all, you’ll get a lot of positive memories out of the experience no matter what happens. – page 179
The balance between risk and reward changes with time – until the window of opportunity is gone forever. – page 180
What’s easy shouldn’t determine what you do. Don’t let difficulty dissuade you from living your life! – page 184
People are more afraid of running out of money than wasting their life. – page 188
Staying the course instead of making bold moves feels safe, but consider what you stand to lose: the life you could have lived if you had mustered the courage to be bolder. – page 189
There’s a difference between low risk tolerance and plain old fear. – page 189
Overall: 98%