Die with Zero Chapter 7: Start to Time-Bucket Your Life

Perkins rightly draws a distinction: “We all die a multitude of deaths throughout our lives. [...] The day I die and the day I stop being able to enjoy certain experiences are two distinctly different dates.” With each passing year through retirement, it is more likely than not that the list of things we can experience gets shorter. He acknowledges that we ought to delay gratification given the practical reality that consuming 100% of income/available funds immediately often leaves us destitute. Retiring and spending your entire 401(k) in the first year (or even the first 10 years) would likely not be optimal. But what Perkins is attempting to confront is “overly delayed gratification” — the autopilot savings we read about last week. We could delay so long that our ability to enjoy what we’ve been waiting for is significantly diminished or even gone entirely.

He retells about when his daughters were younger and loved watching Pooh’s Heffalump Movie together. While Perkins’ would likely have the ability himself to watch that movie as long as he lives, the ability to enjoy it repeatedly with his daughters was limited not by his life stage, but by theirs. In this way, we must not only keep in mind our changing abilities, but for our loved ones.

Lastly, Perkins shares the work of Bronnie Ware, who worked as a palliative nurse and wrote about the five most common regrets she heard from people on her deathbed (https://bronnieware.com/blog/regrets-of-the-dying/). His goal with time-bucketing our lives is that we have few or no regrets when we are on our deathbed.

Perkins’ recommendations

• Draw a timeline of your life from now to the grave, then divide it into intervals of 5 or 10 years. Write down all the things you want to do/experience for the rest of your life in a big list (don’t worry/think about the financial costs). Now put them in their appropriate buckets for when you’d like to (and best be able to) have those experiences.

Let us know

• If you have children (or grandchildren, parents, grandparents), what experience do you want to have (or have more of) with them in the next 2-5 years before that phase of their life or yours is over?

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go spend some time making crafts with my 4-year old!

Until next time, happy reading!