58 pages • 1 hour read
Bill PerkinsDie With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “Start to Time-Bucket Your Life”
In Chapter 7, Perkins introduces the concept of “time bucketing” as a strategy for life planning. He begins with a personal anecdote about watching Pooh’s Heffalump Movie with his daughters, noting how one day his younger daughter suddenly lost interest in it. This experience illustrates an important life lesson: Many phases of life end without warning or ceremony.
Perkins argues that humans experience multiple “deaths” throughout their lives as different versions of themselves fade away. The teenage self, the college student self, the new parent self—all eventually disappear. Unlike scheduled transitions such as graduation or retirement, most of these endings occur without recognition. This creates a problem: People often delay experiences, assuming they will have unlimited time to enjoy them later, when in reality each life phase offers unique but limited opportunities.
Perkins compares life stages to different swimming pools at a resort. Each pool has specific rules about who can use it (children, teens, adults, seniors), and once a person ages out of a particular pool, they cannot return regardless of their desires or abilities. Similarly, some life experiences are best suited to—or only possible during—specific ages or life stages. Many physical activities are more enjoyable or only feasible when people are younger and healthier.
The author references research by palliative care worker Bronnie Ware, who documented the most common regrets of dying patients. The top two regrets were not living authentically and working too much. These regrets highlight the danger of deferring meaningful experiences. Perkins also cites psychological research showing that awareness of time limitations increases happiness by encouraging people to savor experiences, similar to how tourists maximize their limited vacation time.
To address these challenges, Perkins introduces the “time bucket” method. This approach involves creating a timeline divided into intervals (typically 5 to 10 years), then allocating desired life experiences to these specific time frames. Unlike a traditional “bucket list” created reactively near the end of life, time buckets represent a proactive planning strategy spanning decades.
When creating time buckets, Perkins advises temporarily setting aside financial concerns to focus first on health considerations and personal aspirations. He suggests listing various experiences—ranging from travel adventures to personal accomplishments—and assigning them to appropriate age ranges. Some experiences might be age-flexible (reading novels, visiting museums), while others have natural timing constraints (physically demanding activities, experiences with children).
The chapter concludes with practical recommendations: Start with just three time buckets covering the next 30 years if the full exercise feels overwhelming, and identify experiences to prioritize before they become impossible due to age, health, or life circumstances.
Through this framework, Perkins encourages readers to recognize the finite nature of each life stage and plan accordingly, rather than indefinitely delaying experiences until opportunities disappear. The time bucket approach transforms vague lifetime aspirations into concrete, strategically timed goals that account for the realities of aging and changing life circumstances.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Know Your Peak”
In Chapter 8, Perkins discusses the concept of identifying one’s “net worth peak”—the specific point in life when an individual’s financial assets reach their maximum before beginning a deliberate spending decline. This concept challenges conventional financial wisdom, which typically encourages continuous wealth accumulation.
Perkins begins by sharing a personal anecdote about his 45th birthday celebration in St. Barts. Despite the substantial expense, he arranged an elaborate gathering with family and friends, including a private concert by Natalie Merchant. This extravagant celebration proved worthwhile; by his 50th birthday, his parents’ health had significantly declined, confirming the wisdom of not postponing meaningful experiences. He uses this story to illustrate his philosophy that memories, not money, provide lasting fulfillment.
Perkins then examines the conventional approach to retirement planning, which focuses on accumulating a specific dollar amount. He argues this approach is flawed because no financial target ever feels sufficient—the goal continually shifts upward, causing people to postpone enjoyment indefinitely. Instead, Perkins advocates for retirement planning centered around a specific date related to one’s biological age, not a target number.
Before implementing this strategy, Perkins emphasizes the importance of establishing a “survival threshold”—the minimum amount needed to cover basic expenses for one’s expected remaining lifespan. He provides a formula: Survival threshold equals 70% of annual living costs multiplied by expected years remaining. This calculation accounts for investment returns offsetting some withdrawal needs. Once this threshold is reached, individuals can begin spending down their savings.
According to Perkins’s research and modeling, for most people the optimal net worth peak occurs between ages 45 and 60. Waiting beyond this range often results in suboptimal life fulfillment as health naturally declines, limiting the ability to enjoy experiences regardless of financial resources. The exact timing varies based on individual factors including health status, earnings trajectory, and retirement plans.
For those who genuinely enjoy their work, Perkins suggests alternatives to full retirement: increasing spending while continuing to work, reducing work hours, or pursuing phased retirement options. The essential point is to avoid dying with unspent money that could have funded meaningful experiences.
Perkins acknowledges the psychological challenge of transitioning from saving to spending mode after decades of financial discipline. He recommends periodically reassessing life priorities through his “time-bucketing” exercise, especially before retirement. This process involves identifying activities and experiences desired in each life stage and allocating resources accordingly.
In closing, Perkins advises readers to consult medical professionals about their biological age and health trajectory, calculate survival costs based on planned retirement location, and determine when declining health might impact cherished activities. This information forms the foundation for identifying one’s optimal net worth peak and creating a strategic plan to maximize life experiences rather than accumulated wealth.
Chapters 7-8 Analysis
In Chapter 7, Perkins develops his argument by reiterating The Importance of Experiences and Memories throughout the chapter. He emphasizes that experiences must be planned intentionally because, unlike scheduled events such as vacations, most life transitions happen without clear markers or warnings. The framework of “time buckets” provides a method for mapping desired experiences to appropriate life stages based on physical capabilities, interests, and circumstances. Planning experiences becomes necessary because health inevitably declines with age, making certain activities impossible beyond specific points in life. This perspective challenges the common assumption that opportunities will always remain available, forcing readers to confront the temporary nature of their physical abilities.
The author engages directly in Challenging Societal Narratives About Saving and Spending by highlighting how modern society often promotes delaying gratification indefinitely. The text references research by palliative care nurse Bronnie Ware, who found that many people regret working excessively and not living authentically. Perkins uses this evidence to critique the mindset that prioritizes career advancement and wealth accumulation over irreplaceable life experiences. The argument fundamentally questions cultural assumptions about the purpose of life and the proper allocation of time and resources.
The chapter uses multiple metaphors to illustrate its central concepts, with the swimming pool analogy standing out as particularly effective. “The best analogy I can think of is a set of different swimming pools, kind some large resorts have,” Perkins writes, describing how different pools correspond to different life stages, each with specific rules about who can enter (137). This comparison helps concretize the abstract concept of time periods and their associated opportunities. The swimming pool metaphor demonstrates how certain experiences become inaccessible once particular life stages pass, regardless of wealth or desire.
Chapter 8 explores the concept of identifying when to stop accumulating wealth and begin spending it down. In this chapter, the text presents Becoming Intentional About Time, Money, and Health as interconnected variables requiring strategic management. Perkins explains that enjoying experiences requires all three elements, making it insufficient to maximize any single factor without considering the others. The author argues that continuing to work solely to increase wealth often leads to declining health and reduced free time, ultimately resulting in fewer possible experiences despite greater financial resources. This framework shifts focus from simply accumulating money to optimizing overall life fulfillment by balancing these three critical factors. The approach represents a fundamental reconceptualization of retirement planning, moving beyond financial targets to holistic life planning.
Perkins addresses potential counterarguments, including the concern that someone might enjoy their work and wish to continue it indefinitely. He acknowledges this possibility while maintaining that even those who love their work should still spend aggressively to avoid dying with substantial unspent resources. This nuanced position attempts to reconcile the book’s central thesis with diverse individual preferences regarding work and retirement. The approach demonstrates the author’s commitment to his core philosophy while allowing flexibility in its application across different circumstances.
The analytical framework employed throughout these chapters relies heavily on economic concepts of optimization and utility maximization applied to life planning. Perkins treats experiences as having varying values depending on when they occur in life, with the value function incorporating health status, interests, and circumstances. This approach borrows from economic theory while extending it beyond financial considerations to include experiential value. The framework provides a structured way to think about life planning that acknowledges both financial and non-financial factors.
Both chapters employ anticipatory regret as a motivational tool, encouraging readers to consider their future selves looking back with potential disappointment at missed opportunities. Perkins mentions research showing that imagining limited time remaining can increase present happiness by promoting intentional savoring of experiences. This psychological technique leverages readers’ aversion to regret as motivation for changing behavior in the present. The approach strategically uses negative emotions as catalysts for positive change in readers’ decision-making.
Ultimately, these chapters present an integrated approach to life planning that challenges fundamental assumptions about money, time, and experiences. The text posits that conventional retirement planning focuses excessively on financial targets while neglecting the critical roles of health trajectories and time constraints. By introducing frameworks like time bucketing and the net worth peak, Perkins offers alternative models for conceptualizing life planning that prioritize experiential value over wealth accumulation.
