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Your Money Guide on the Side

How to Die With Zero | Bill Perkins

Your Money Guide on the Side

Tyler Gardner

Business, Education, Entrepreneurship, Investing, How To

4.92.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

And in case you missed it, check out last week's episode of Your Money Guide on the Side where we answered the question, How do I beat the stock market?  Is Future Planning Ruining Your Future? What if your financial advisor told you to spend your money now? To give away your inheritance early? To go on more vacations? To prioritize experience over investment? What if they told you the only inflation-protected asset is experience? Bill Perkins is a hedge fund manager, poker player, and author of the bestseller Die With Zero. On this week’s episode, he breaks down why money is just a means — and experience is the end. 📚 What We Discuss with Bill Perkins: 🛤️ 02:40 — Early revelations and going the non-traditional route 💡 05:10 — Borrowing from your poor self to give to your rich self 📆 07:35 — “What experiences belong when?” — and why delayed gratification can go too far 🤔 10:25 — What money can really buy — fulfillment vs. accumulation 🎢 12:22 — Staple experiences worth the cost — collecting memories that stick 🧠 13:35 — Memory dividends — the one return no market crash can erase 👵 15:40 — Retirement planning — running out of money vs. running out of time 🧘 17:50 — Letting go — why overplanning for the future can wreck the present 🕰️ 20:25 — “Life is now, life is urgent” — estate planning and missed chances 🏛️ 23:20 — When should inheritance be inherited? Challenging default thinking 🎯 26:15 — Hindsight and financial regret — is gold-plated better than good enough? 📖 28:20 — Learning from the past to make the most of what’s next 💸 29:20 — What is your time worth? The hidden cost of chasing more income 💡 What You’ll Walk Away With Why deferring joy is often just fear in disguise A new way to think about saving, giving, and legacy How to measure value through memory, not money A framework for spending intentionally at different life stages How to plan for the end of life without missing the middle 🧾 Resources Mentioned Die With Zero by Bill Perkins → https://a.co/d/9KKHOzT Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez → https://yourmoneyoryourlife.com If you're still game to support the show, leaving a quick review really helps — even one sentence goes a long way to help others find the show. You can also join thousands of other investing-minded folks by subscribing to the newsletter: www.tylergardner.com If you enjoyed this, check out episode 22 with Wendy Li — a former endowment CIO who managed billions for New York’s top institutions and shared how institutional investors evaluate risk, choose fund managers, and build resilient portfolios.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm not an anti-delayed gratification person. I'm a think about the context of your situation

0:05.6

and what experiences do you want when? Life is now. Life is urgent. Would you rather have one ski

0:12.6

trip in your 30s or let's say two and a half ski trips in your 50s? What is the money for?

0:24.5

Hello, friends. This is Tyler Gardner, welcoming you to another episode of your money guide on the side, where it is my job to simplify what seems

0:29.6

complex, add nuance to what seems simple, and learn from and alongside some of the brightest minds

0:35.9

in money, finance, and investing.

0:38.3

So let's get started and get you one step closer to where you need to be.

0:44.0

Today's guest is someone whose work hit me harder than I expected.

0:48.3

Bill Perkins is the author of Die with Zero, a book that came recommended to me by so many

0:54.0

people I trust that I finally

0:55.7

had to pick it up. And not only did I pick it up, but to be honest, at this point, I think

1:00.0

I've read it five times. Because throughout my life, I've been a great saver and investor.

1:06.2

I followed all the rules, save early, save often, invest in low-cost index funds, you know the deal.

1:13.3

But what I hadn't realized until reading Bill's book was that the years were indeed starting

1:19.3

to pass, and I'm still not quite finding how to balance my investing with my healthy spending

1:25.5

on everyday experience. Bill Perkins doesn't just question

1:29.6

the wisdom of saving for some day. He challenges it head on. Die with Zero is about optimizing

1:36.7

your life while you can, turning money into meaningful experiences, and measuring wealth in time

1:43.4

well spent, not just dollars saved.

1:47.1

And Bill brings more than theories to the table. He's been a hedge fund manager, a high-stakes

1:51.6

poker player, an entrepreneur, and a world traveler to say the least, someone who knows

1:57.8

what it means to manage risk and reward in the real world, not just on spreadsheets.

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