A month ago I read Die With Zero, a book that has made the rounds and achieved equal popularity with both the FIRE community and the Silicon Valley tech bros. I was intrigued by someone who could attract what are often regarded as fairly disparate communities.
A word about the author, Bill Perkins - I first encountered him as an interview guest on a podcast, and he's a charming speaker - a combination of sharp mind, interesting backstory and plenty of hustle.
As for his book, it hit the notes of the usual FIRE topics:
- We have a finite amount of money, time and health in this life.
- The amount of the latter two resources each of us are gifted can be hard to predict.
- The consequence of this realization should be an intentional approach to living as well as an allocation of resources favoring experiences with those we love over the accumulation of stuff.
No a-ha moments for anyone who has spent time immersed in the FIRE community.
What his book brought to forefront in a way that I found impactful was the concept that certain experiences are only available to us at certain stages of life, and failing to seize those opportunities means they are lost to us forever.
The example he cites from his time fresh out of college is a friend who starts on the ladder in a corporate finance job at the same time he does. While Bill saves his income as aggressively as he can to try to build an early nest egg (getting an edge by giving the benefits of compound interest a greater time to work their magic) his friend leaves his job and spends several months backpacking through Europe instead of continuing to grind.
The friend (I surmise this is the tech bro attractive part) falls in love with a beautiful woman and has sex with her on a Greek beach during his travels, or some similar youthful folly. He then returns broke and suntanned to start anew on the lowest rung of the corporate ladder.
Bill regrets never having had the experience of being a twenty-something backpacker in Europe (implied: he also regrets never having slept with a nubile young woman on a Greek beach).
Sure, his nest egg grew faster, but his experiential opportunity costs exceeded his gains.
That concept is at the heart of Die with Zero, and got me thinking about the remaining epochs of my life and how I'd like to spend them. I've learned enough about the evolution of my goals to accept my priorities will be different in 5 years, but I enjoy the exercise of holding myself publicly accountable by articulating them anyway.
While the kids remain at home, I'd like to:
- Work half-time, which feels like just enough to make it a well-paid hobby and keep me off the streets and out of gangs
- Continue to take 3 week summer family trips
- (I've accepted that at my kids' present ages, with AP tests looming immediately after spring break, they no longer want to travel over spring break - but I have no regrets having prioritized it during the window when it was available to us)
- Visit mom once a month
- Date nights with my wife every 1-2 weeks
- Coffee dates with each kid every 1-2 weeks
- Attend every kid event, performance or milestone
- Be a source of relief and information rather than a source of stress and pressure as my kids apply to college
- Enjoy in-person game nights at least once a month with the fellas
One we are empty nesters, I'd like to to:
- Slow travel 3-6 months of each year. A few ideas:
- Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines
- Australia and New Zealand
- Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa
- Morocco, Tunisia, Spain, Portugal
- Greece and Turkey
- Italy
- Armenia, Azerbaijan
- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia
- Norway, Sweden, Finland
- Cuba, Dominican Republic
- Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia
- Dirtbag trips with friends
- Camino de Santiago through Spain or Portugal
- Utah canyons
- Cycling trip?
- Be home when the kids are out of school for major holidays.
- Family trips where we treat the kids to travel so compelling they want to join and could not afford on their own at that stage of life; providing a budget and allowing them input into the destination
Once a grandchild is born:
- Live in the same town as our grandchild(ren)
- Before they are in school, provide childcare 2 days a week
- Once they enter school, offer after school pickup / chauffeuring 2 days a week
- Family trips as long as the kids' work schedules allow that work with small children; providing a budget and allowing our kids input into the destination
I'll continue to refine these lists of what a good life looks like for each stage as time passes and my health and abilities evolve, but I'm happy with this as a starting point.