Die With Zero: The Retirement Book That Flips the Script
I meet a lot of retirees who’ve done everything right. Paid off the house. Built a healthy super balance. Never missed a contribution. And they still can’t bring themselves to spend it. They’ll agonise over a holiday that costs a few thousand dollars, while sitting on a portfolio worth hundreds of times that. It’s one of the most common patterns I see in this job, and it’s rarely about the money itself. It’s about a lifetime of being told to save, with nobody ever teaching the second half of the skill: how to stop.
Bill Perkins wrote a whole book about that exact problem. It’s called Die With Zero, and the core idea is uncomfortable for most savers: the goal isn’t to accumulate as much as possible. It’s to use your money and your health while you still have both, because most people die with far more left over than they ever needed, having quietly worked, saved and gone without for years they didn’t actually have to.
You don’t have to agree with every page to get something out of it. Here are the ideas worth sitting with, along with where I think the book gets it right, and where it needs a caveat.
Memory dividends
Money sitting in an account earns interest. An experience, a trip with your grandkids, a big birthday overseas, pays you back every time you think about it for the rest of your life. Perkins calls this a memory dividend, and it’s a return you can’t get from leaving the money untouched. The earlier you have an experience, the more years you get to draw on that memory, which is a genuinely different way of thinking about return on investment than the one most of us were taught.
Your ability to enjoy things has a shelf life
The hike, the ski trip, the long-haul flight, these get harder to do well into your eighties, regardless of how healthy your bank balance is. Waiting until “someday” can quietly turn into never. The money might still be there. The knees might not. Perkins calls this the mismatch between wealth and the physical capacity to enjoy it, and it’s the single idea from the book that seems to land hardest with clients when I bring it up.
Give while you live
An inheritance usually lands when the kids are in their fifties or sixties, often already established, sometimes past the point where it changes much. The same money handed over at thirty or forty, for a first home deposit or to start a business, can do far more. Perkins’ argument: if you’re planning to give it to them eventually anyway, timing matters. This is a strategy worth discussing properly rather than deciding on a whim, since there are real considerations around fairness between children, aged care means-testing, and your own future needs. It overlaps closely with the kind of planning we do as part of estate and intergenerational planning (centaurfinancial.com.au/services/estate-planning/), where timing gifts well is often as important as the amount itself.
Aim for a peak, not endless growth
Most retirement plans are built to make a number go up forever. Perkins reframes it: your net worth should rise while you’re working, peak somewhere around retirement, and then come back down as you spend it on the life you actually want. A balance that only ever grows isn’t a win. It’s deferred living, a promise to yourself that keeps getting pushed to next year.
Spend with confidence, not guesswork
The fear of running out is what keeps most retirees stuck in saving mode. Perkins’ answer is to build in guaranteed income, whether that’s an account-based pension structured properly or an annuity, so the essentials are always covered. Once that’s locked in, the rest is genuinely yours to spend without the guilt. This is really the same problem we tackled from the Centrelink side in our piece on the September Age Pension changes (centaurfinancial.com.au/retirement/age-pension-changes-september-2026/): knowing exactly what’s coming in lets you make confident decisions about what you can afford to spend.
Hugh’s take
I don’t think anyone should aim to literally hit zero. Aged care costs, health surprises, and simply not knowing your use-by date make that too risky in practice for almost everyone. But Perkins is a useful, sometimes necessary counterweight to a lifetime of being told to save more. Most of the clients I worry about aren’t the ones who might run out. They’re the ones who’ll never spend what they’ve built, who’ll leave a bigger estate than they ever intended, purely out of habit and fear rather than a considered decision.
The version of this I’d actually recommend: know your number, build in a buffer for the unexpected, and then give yourself real permission to spend the rest on the life you’re still fit enough to live. That’s not reckless. That’s the whole point of doing this well. If you want an actual number attached to that plan rather than a general feeling, that’s exactly the kind of modelling we do for clients working with us on retirement planning (centaurfinancial.com.au/services/retirement-planning/).
FAQs
What is the main idea behind Die With Zero?
That the goal of saving is to convert money into meaningful experiences while you have the health to enjoy them, rather than accumulating wealth indefinitely.
Does Hugh recommend literally spending down to zero?
No. He recommends knowing your number, building in a buffer for aged care and health costs, then spending the rest with confidence.
How does this connect to giving money to family?
The book argues that money often does more for adult children in their thirties or forties than as an inheritance received decades later, though timing gifts well requires proper planning.
What is a “memory dividend”?
Perkins’ term for the ongoing emotional return an experience keeps paying, in the form of memories, long after the money is spent.
Is this approach right for everyone?
Not necessarily. It works best alongside a clear income plan and a buffer for unexpected costs, which is why it’s worth discussing with an adviser rather than applying as a blanket rule.
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Plan well. Live large.
Centaur Financial Services is a Gold Coast financial planning practice helping professionals, retirees, business owners, and investors make confident wealth decisions. Based in Robina and serving clients across Australia, we’re proud to be one of Australia’s most awarded advice firms. We specialise in retirement planning and back it with institutional-grade investment capability.
This article is general information only. It does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Centaur Financial Services Pty Ltd is a Corporate Authorised Representative (CAR No. 342372) of Abundant Wealth Partners Pty Ltd, ABN 35 680 570 487, AFSL 564749. Please obtain personal advice before acting on any of this content.
