Die with Zero: Getting All You Can From Your Money and Your Life<\/a><\/em> by Bill Perkins last year. In it, he pitches the idea that we should all be maximizing our fulfillment in life, not wealth. What does that actually mean? It means that there\u2019s an optimal time to be doing everything you want to do in life. Traipsing around Europe, sleeping in hostels and drinking cheap beer is best done in your 20\u2019s. Family vacations to the Grand Canyon are best done before your kids move out. Running a marathon needs to happen before your knees give out. The times in your life when you have money, aren\u2019t necessarily the optimal times to spend that money on the things you\u2019d like to. There are a lot of people out there that spent the best years of their lives working so they could have money to do the things they want later in life. When they get to \u201clater\u201d they no longer have the energy or health to do those things.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOptimizing for Fulfillment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We spend a lot of our time during our 30\u2019s, 40\u2019s, and 50\u2019s working. We work so that we can retire in our 60\u2019s and travel, sipping margaritas by the sea. But, if how my body handles alcohol in my late 30\u2019s is any indication, drinking in my beach chair at 65 is one of the last things I\u2019ll want to do. I had two drinks last Thursday and woke up with a raging headache in the morning. I thought I was getting COVID. Turns out it was probably just a good old fashioned hangover (pun intended \u2013 one of those two drinks was a Smokey Old Fashioned). Two. Drinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, the point Perkins makes is that we really should be spending some (or a lot of) that money we\u2019re hoarding away in our 30\u2019s, 40\u2019s, and 50\u2019s enjoying our families and health while we still have them. When we\u2019re in our 60\u2019s, 70\u2019s, and 80\u2019s we don\u2019t need as much wealth. What are we going to want to do? Sit around and read, play cards, or go to a diner with our friends. When I\u2019m 80, I\u2019m almost certainly not going to be traveling as much. I\u2019m going to want to take a nap. Which is free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Optimizing Your Bucket List<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
I did something independently years ago that Perkins suggests everyone do to optimize their bucket list. Instead of keeping a list of everything you want to do in life, jumbled together, perhaps on paper or only in your head. Write it down, but split everything out into 5-year chucks. I split mine by decade. Mine looked something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
30\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- Run a marathon<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Publish my first book<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Hike the Inca Trail<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
40\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- Go to New Zealand<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- See a shark in its natural habitat<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Pay off the house<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Retire<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Take the girls to Paris, the Grand Canyon, Hawaii, Yellowstone, Tanzania<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
50\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- Downsize to a tiny house<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Travel!<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Hike<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Spend time with the girls and their families<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
This is not my entire list nor does it stop in my 50\u2019s, but you get the idea. Since starting the list, I have run a marathon and I\u2019m publishing my first book in June (just a few weeks after I turn 40). I had the opportunity to go to New Zealand this year, so I\u2019m swapping that with the Inca Trail and I\u2019ll do that in my early 40\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What this list gives me is the ability to prioritize and think about what I can do at each stage of my life. It made me realize that I needed to get my a** moving earlier on some things (e.g. marathon) and that I had plenty of time for others (slow travel).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Optimizing for Time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The question now becomes, how much wealth do I really need to reach my current life goals (and have a cushion for whatever life throws at me)? I\u2019ve been thinking about that too. Once I know that, I know how much of my time I need to sink into working vs. enjoying my life and \u201cworking\u201d on my bucket list. That answer is almost definitely not as much as I originally thought! But that\u2019s a topic for another blog post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the things I\u2019ve been pondering lately is the idea of maximizing fulfillment over wealth. It\u2019s a different way of thinking about intentionality which is crafting the life you really want to be living.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[136,61],"tags":[140,139,138,141,137],"class_list":["post-840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-financial-independence","category-simplification","tag-bill-perkins","tag-bucket-list","tag-die-with-zero","tag-financial-independence","tag-fulfillment"],"yoast_head":"\n
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