Review: Die with Zero

 Die with Zero is an unusual financial planning book. It starts with the famous adage, "You can't take it wih you," and unlike other financial planning books, takes it seriously. The idea is that if you're not living life to the fullest, you're not living the best life you could be, and that all the working, scrimping and saving is a means to an end: you should live life rather than working for "The Man."

The book discusses 3 major objections conventional thinking folks have about this: (1) what about the kids? (the answer is, you should actually give money to your kids while you're alive and they're young enough to make full use of those financial resources to live better, rather than waiting until they're old and you're dead!) (2) what if I love my job? (even if you do, you should spend money in such a way as to maximize your enjoyment of your job) (3) I don't want to run out of money (you should consider annuities as a way to guarantee that you have a fixed income for the rest of your life and spend the rest).

I think Bill Perkin's approach to life is actually really sensible. For instance, I know lots of people who refuse to stop working even when their health is actually deteriorated to the point where they couldn't keep up with their kids when hiking or cycling (I'm not talking about teenage kids either!).  Most of those people would have a much better quality of life if they worked less and paid a personal trainer to improve their health to the point where living is more enjoyable than being dead.

As another example: things like camping, backpacking, and expedition style bike touring are way more fun when you're young and healthy than when you're old and exhausted and aren't sleeping properly and have a chronic health condition. There's no point saving money for those sorts of trips to do when you're retired because when you're 65 you won't be able to enjoy them anyway!

I think more people should read this book and live their better life. And I agree especially with the part about giving money to your kids when they're in their 20s and 30s and able to enjoy those activities before they have kids. From that point of view alone you should read this book.