Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life

Death wakes people up, and the closer it gets, the more awake and aware we become. When the end is near, we suddenly start thinking, What the hell am I doing? Why did I wait this long? Until then, most of us go through life as if we had all the time in the world.

So it stands to reason that you should put some serious thought and effort into planning the kinds of experiences that you want for yourself. Without that kind of deliberate planning, you’re bound to just follow our culture’s well-trodden, default path through life—to coast on autopilot. You’ll get to your destination (death) but probably without having the kind of journey you would have actively chosen for yourself.

Too old to acquire significant new experiences, he could still derive great enjoyment from the highlight video. In fact, he thought it was the best gift ever. That was when I realized that you retire on your memories. When you’re too frail to do much of anything else, you can still look back on the life you’ve lived and experience immense pride, joy, and the bittersweet feeling of nostalgia.

What fewer people realize is that there are financial products designed to deal with longevity risk, too. Since many people are fearful of running out of money before they pass on, there is one product that they should definitely look into. These products are called income annuities (or simply annuities). Annuities are essentially the opposite of life insurance: When you buy life insurance, you’re spending money to protect your survivors against the risk that you’ll die too young, whereas buying annuities protects you against the risk of dying too old (outliving your savings).

In the British Virgin Islands, on an island called Jost Van Dyke, there’s a great spot on the beach called the Soggy Dollar Bar. It has that name because there’s no dock; people anchor their boats a little ways offshore and literally swim up to the bar, paying for their famous Painkiller cocktail with wet dollars

Her patients’ number one regret was wishing they’d had the courage to live a life true to themselves—as opposed to the life that others expected of them

But I still ask you: Why wait until your health and life energy have begun to wane? Rather than just focusing on saving up for a big pot full of money that you will most likely not be able to spend in your lifetime, live your life to the fullest now: Chase memorable life experiences, give money to your kids when they can best use it, donate money to charity while you’re still alive. That’s the way to live life.

Remember: In the end, the business of life is the acquisition of memories.

So what are you waiting for?