Die with Zero
May 6, 2026
5 min read
📚 arvy's Book Club
arvy's Teaser: Most finance books tell you to save more and invest smarter. Bill Perkins says the opposite: Stop hoarding money you'll never spend. His book "Die with Zero" is a provocation — and simultaneously the most honest book about money you'll read. His thesis: the richest people in the cemetery lost, not won. You shouldn't leave wealth behind — you should experience it.
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DIE WITH
ZEROBill Perkins
ZEROBill Perkins
The book in 60 seconds
Die with Zero (2020) by Bill Perkins — former energy trader, now entrepreneur and poker player — argues that most people save too much and live too little. His central idea: your net worth at death should be as close to zero as possible. Not because saving is bad, but because money you never spend is wasted life potential. He calls it "Memory Dividends" — experiences pay dividends in the form of memories, and the earlier you collect them, the more dividends you receive.
Published 2020 · Buy on Amazon
Idea 1: Your net worth at death is wasted life
The book's core provocation: Every franc you still have when you die is an experience you missed.
Perkins calculates: if you die with CHF 1 million and your life lasted 80 years, you failed to spend roughly CHF 50,000 per year in the final two decades — on things that would have enriched your life. Travel, time with family, health, adventure. Money in an account has no value when the account holder no longer exists.
The core idea
Most finance books optimise for maximum wealth. Perkins optimises for maximum life experience. That doesn't mean: spend everything immediately. It means: consciously plan when you need how much — and make sure you actually use it, instead of saving it for a "someday" that never comes.
Idea 2: Time Buckets — Experiences have an expiry date
Perkins' most powerful concept: Not every experience can happen at every point in time. You can backpack through South America at 25. At 70, not so much. You can build sandcastles with your small children at 35. At 60, they've moved out.
He recommends "Time Buckets": divide your life into 5-year intervals. For each, write down what you want to experience. Then plan your money accordingly — instead of deferring everything to "retirement".
Memory Dividends
An experience at 30 "pays dividends" over 50 years — every time you remember it. An experience at 70 pays dividends over 10 years. That's why Perkins argues: invest early in experiences — they have the highest "return" in terms of life quality. This isn't an argument against investing. It's an argument against deferring everything to "later".
Idea 3: Give while alive — not after death
Perkins' most counterintuitive demand: Give your children the money when they're 25–35 — not when they're 60 and you're dead. A CHF 50,000 gift at 30 changes a life: startup capital, a deposit, a career change. The same money at 60 is nice, but not life-changing.
The same applies to charity: CHF 10,000 to an organisation today achieves more than CHF 100,000 in your will — because you see the impact and the organisation can use it now.
"Most people optimise to die rich. I optimise to live rich."
From reading to doing
Perkins says: experience more. We say: automate the investing,
so you can spend the rest guilt-free.
Your savings plan runs. Your 3a is maxed out. What's left belongs to life — not to the savings account.
What this book means for Swiss investors
The Swiss paradox: You CAN'T die with zero
Perkins writes from an American perspective — no social system, no state pension, everything self-directed. Switzerland is the opposite: the three-pillar system forces you to save. Your 3a is locked until 60. Your pension fund until 65. AHV comes automatically. You can't die with zero even if you wanted to.
And that's actually good news: Switzerland solves Perkins' biggest fear — that you'll have no money in old age — systemically. AHV + pension fund cover ~60% of your last income. Whatever you save and invest beyond that is money you can freely decide about.
Perkins' idea — Swiss version
Pillars 1 + 2: Your basic security. Automatic, locked, non-negotiable — exactly right.
Pillar 3a: Tax savings + retirement provision — max it out, then forget it.
Free assets (savings plan): This is Perkins' playing field. Here you decide: how much do you invest long-term? How much do you spend now on experiences? How much do you give your children when they're 30 instead of 60?
💡 What happens to your free assets if you invest them instead of leaving them in a savings account? Our calculator shows you in 10 seconds.
Calculator →Where Perkins is right — and where he underestimates Switzerland
arvy's take: What's brilliant — and what's missing
What's brilliant: Perkins forces you to ask a question no financial advisor asks: "What are you actually saving for?" If the answer is "I don't know" or "security", you don't have a finance problem — you have a life problem. The book is an invitation to be honest.
What's missing: Perkins underestimates risk. What if you reach 95? What if care costs CHF 8,000/month? What if markets crash when you're 72? His book works best for people who already have enough — not for those still building. And he ignores that "security" itself is an experience: sleeping peacefully because you know you have enough has enormous value.
Our synthesis:
Invest automatically — live consciously. Your savings plan and 3a run without thinking. Everything beyond that, you split: 80% invested long-term (future you), 20% for life now (Memory Dividends). No guilt about the 20%. No hesitation about the 80%.
Perkins and arvy don't contradict each other. Perkins says: live. We say: invest so you can live. One without the other is incomplete.
The 3 sentences to remember
1. Your net worth at death isn't success — it's failure. It means you missed experiences.
2. Experiences have an expiry date. The world trip at 30 is a different experience than at 70. Don't wait.
3. The best financial strategy doesn't optimise for maximum wealth — it optimises for maximum life.
"Most people die before they spend their money. That's the greatest waste in the world."
📚 arvy's Book Club
Die with Zero
Bill Perkins · 2020 · The most controversial finance book of the decade
The book for everyone who realises that wealth building isn't an end in itself. Perkins forces you to ask the uncomfortable question: what are you saving for — and are you living enough while doing it?
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Written by Thierry Borgeat, Co-Founder of arvy. Reviewed by Patrick Rissi, CFA, and Florian Jauch, CFA.
Disclaimer: For general information only. Not personal investment advice. arvy is a FINMA-regulated asset manager. Amazon links are affiliate links.
Disclaimer: For general information only. Not personal investment advice. arvy is a FINMA-regulated asset manager. Amazon links are affiliate links.
