Getting More Out Of Life
Hello, I hope the Fall is off to a great start! I visited St. Louis this past week and met with Forward Party volunteers to kick-off Forward Missouri. It was awesome.
This week on the podcast I interview Bill Perkins, poker champion and investor about his book “Die With Zero: Getting All You Can From Your Money and Your Life.” Bill has a unique and compelling perspective.
“What are the Key Performance Indicators for your life? I talk to businesspeople who know exactly whether their operation or division is succeeding, but if you ask them how to measure their own success, they have no idea.”
Bill’s Rule #1 is simple but profound: Maximize your positive life experiences. Bill asserts that our lives are the sum total of our experiences, and we should be pursuing positive ones whatever that means to us individually. He also puts forward a new idea: Memories Pay Dividends. That is, if you have an awesome experience, it actually gives you value later to reflect on it, tell your friends about it, cherish it, etc.
One implication to this is that there’s a right time to have different experiences, and in many cases you’re better served trying to pull it forward. “There’s a right time to do certain things, and if you miss it you don’t get the same value from it.” Travel in particular is something you might enjoy more when you’re in your twenties and can do so with fewer responsibilities. As Bill says, “Remember that ‘early’ is right now.”
I spent my twenties mostly single. I promoted parties in New York and went skydiving with some friends for my 30th birthday – that gives you a sense of how I spent that time. I’ve found that Bill’s right in that some of my memories from that period make it easier to do things that are, probably, a bit more age-appropriate now. (I met Evelyn when I was 31,)
Bill’s advice is to write down your goals for certain periods of your life – he calls them “Time Buckets.” Say from 25 – 30 or 46 – 50 you want to volunteer, learn a new language, achieve a fitness goal, visit Europe or whatever it happens to be. These goals will likely shift over time. But writing them down and following up on them should be a core activity.
Bill’s book has different guidance for people at different life stages. If you’re younger, it’s about being bolder when you have less to lose. “So many people don’t take advantage of those times when they can take risks.” He says that people tend to overrate the risks of taking action while not realizing that there are also risks to inaction. They also tend to overrate the benefits of staying in a current role or geographic location. For many people the sweet spot for certain experiences is between 26 and 35.
For people who are older, it’s often about trying to make more active decisions and avoid autopilot. “You want to save money for your kids? Maybe you should give them the money a bit earlier while you can enjoy it together.” He notes that the average age at which one receives an inheritance is 60, which is a bit after the time of life when money can help maximize life experiences. He observes that retirees tend to go from “Go-go, to slow-go, to no-go” and the money can make a bigger difference earlier.
Bill is now 52, and he talks clearly about how certain things that he used to enjoy are less exciting to him now. “I used to love just walking around a new city for 10, 15 miles. Now, I might do it but it’s shorter, in part because my knees hurt.” He’s got two daughters and is married. For his 45th birthday he got tons of people together, in part to make memories that would last a lifetime and to enable his Mom to attend while she was still healthy. That set of memories continues to pay dividends.
“I love spreading these ideas to help people live better,” Bill says. You can check out his bestselling book or its free companion apps at diewithzerobook.com. He also supports Forward, in part because he thinks we can move policy in a positive direction. Who knew that leading a better life can also mean trying to build a better democracy? Life is full and what we make of it.
