We have left Florida and are slowly moving north through Georgia. As we drive we are listening to Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life by Bill Perkins. The book was recommended by a good friend who reads a lot, and I trust his recommendations. I confess, I wasn’t expecting much from the book because all my adult life I have already thought deeply about what kind of a life I have wanted to live, and how I have wanted to use my money to buy the best life experiences. I was wrong!
ENJOY YOUR DIVIDENDS
Perkins suggests that your life is the sum of all your experiences. He suggests that you could list all your experiences and rate them on a scale
of 0-10 to evaluate your life. I thought that would be a good exercise for us, and so after dinner one night Debbie and I looked at our calendar and the pictures we have taken since we began this adventure across the country (ninety-five percent of the pictures are selfies with us and the people we have been with). We listed thirty memorable experiences since we left our home on September 27th then separately we rated them. After we had rated them we compared scores and talked about the highs and lows of living on the road.
Perkins also believes that our experiences pay dividends, much like a financial investment in the stock market. He believes that each time we remember the experience and enjoy the positive emotion that comes from remembering, that is the dividend. So, a good experience yields not only the positive emotion at the time of the event, but the positive emotion that comes when you remember the event. I have never thought of remembering as a dividend, but I think it is true, and as we went through this exercise, Debbie and I enjoyed remembering where we have been and who we have been with the last five months.
ESTIMATE YOUR REMAINING TIME
Perkins also suggests that you should use a life calculator to help you think seriously about your own death and how much longer you might be alive. A life calculator is a free online resource that will ask you questions about your family history and lifestyle and then it will calculate at what age you will likely die. As you do this exercise, he encourages you to be realistic about your mental and physical decline in addition to thinking realistically about your death. After you have done that, the next step is to think about what activities and experiences you can enjoy now that you will not be able to enjoy later because of your inevitable decline in health.
The purpose of both these exercises is to help you think more deeply about how you are spending your time and your money. As much as I have always tried to be intentional about how I spend my time and my money, these exercises helped me to clarify my thinking.
EMBRACE THE POSSIBILITY OF BEING SURPRISED BY A BOOK
The book has been surprising; it has sparked long conversations between Debbie and me and it has changed both how I think about the money I have, and about the time I have left before I die. The book has also impacted how I think about my future and what I want in the next 15-20 years. Although I will make some adjustments in my life as a result of listening to Die With Zero, the book helped me think about my past experiences and kindled a feeling of gratitude for the chances I have taken and all the times I have invested in experiences and not in material possessions or savings. I am grateful that I didn’t live my life on autopilot but have been intentional about the choices I have made.
This isn’t the first time I have been surprised by a book. I can think of several books where I wasn’t expecting much from an author, but their books changed my life. I am so grateful that I live in a time when books are abundant and inexpensive. I am also grateful that I live in an age where I can listen to them while I am driving. I am grateful that there are so many books that are not just entertaining, but help me to live better. I am grateful for friends who read and share titles of good books with me.
I am also sad that there are so many people who do not take advantage of this gift. If you have not read Die With Zero I recommend it. But more than that, if you don’t read (or listen) to books, I would so encourage you to dive into this life-changing experience of reading. Reading will take you to new places and introduce you to the most fantastic people at a very low price.
