‘Die with Zero’ May Be Unrealistic, But That’s Not Stopping Retirees From Trying

After decades of working, scrimping and saving with the goal of funding a comfortable retirement lifestyle, many retirees are starting to ride their nest eggs in a virtual race against the clock. 

The idea of spending your last dollar on your last day of life, or letting that last check bounce, is not necessarily new, but has been gaining fresh appeal and was popularized in the 2020 book “Die with Zero” by Bill Perkins.

The idea of spending down retirement savings to the last penny is particularly popular among affluent widows and solo agers, said Christian Amsberry, a financial planner at Concierge Wealth. “They come to me looking for permission to enjoy the wealth they spent a lifetime building,” he said.

While most people understand it would be nearly impossible to actually time one’s savings to reach zero on the last day of life, the appeal of trying is definitely gaining steam. For financial advisors, the trend is less a sign of reckless spending and more about freeing oneself up to enjoy the life that has been built. “In my experience, the biggest obstacle is not the math, it’s the mindset,” Amsberry said. “Accumulating wealth and deploying wealth are two completely different skill sets, and I think Bill Perkins is right that many financially successful people have an under-spending problem, not an over-spending problem.”

Saved by Zero

The appeal of dying with zero has been especially pertinent for clients who don’t have children, or whose children are already financially independent, according to Kyle Moore, founder of Quarry Hill Advisors. “The problem is that life doesn’t cooperate with that plan,” he said. “You don’t know whether you’ll live to 72 or 102, so trying to die with exactly zero requires making a bet you can’t win.”

But even as Moore is in one sense helping some clients tap the brakes on the pace of spending, he also recognizes the sometimes difficult transition from saving to spending.

“Accumulating wealth and spending it require opposite mindsets. It’s a difficult psychological transition for most people,” he said, adding that decades of trying to save more and spend less don’t just switch off the day a client retires. Moore recalled recently telling a prospective client: “If you hire us, you’ll probably die with less money than you would otherwise, and that’s exactly why you should hire us.” 

Penny Pinchers, Make It Rain

Adrianna Adams, head of financial planning at Domain Money, said dying with zero is one of her favorite conversations to have with clients. “The people who gravitate toward this mindset tend to be optimizers,” she said. “They want to squeeze the most out of every dollar, every experience and every stage of life.”

But Adams also sees the other end of the spectrum with clients struggling to make a smooth transition into spending from their retirement savings.

“On the practical side, I’ve found that structuring retirement distributions like a paycheck, with monthly or bi-weekly transfers into a checking account, makes a real difference for clients who spent decades as W-2 employees,” she said. “Keeping that routine creates comfort.”

Adams appreciates that the general idea of aiming to die with zero is to help retirees live their best life and enjoy the fruits of their decades of labor and sacrifice. “One of my go-to sayings that I learned from my very first mentor in the industry is: ‘If you don’t fly first class, your beneficiaries will,’” she said. “There’s incredible value in being the one who decides where your extra money goes, whether that’s on your own experiences, or on helping your family.”

Book Value

The “Die with Zero” book has become a staple financial planning tool for David Foster, founder and chief executive of Gateway Wealth Management. “I actually gave all of my clients a copy of the book a few years ago, and I also give a copy to any prospective clients early in our engagement,” he said. “The vast majority of my clients have no realistic chance of running out of money during their lifetimes, so I spend most of my time convincing them to either spend or give more money while they’re alive to enjoy it.”

Despite his best efforts, Foster said he has had little success convincing clients to spend more money on themselves. “But I have been very successful at convincing them to give money away to family and charities,” he said.

Most financial advisors can appreciate the struggle to transition from saving to spending, because in some respects they are charged with driving both actions. “I would not say most of my high-net-worth clients literally want to die with zero, but many are increasingly questioning whether they are saving too much for a future they may never fully enjoy,” said Scott Bishop, managing director at Presidio Wealth Partners. “Bill Perkins makes the important point that wealth should be converted into meaningful life experiences when people still have health, energy and relationships to enjoy them,” he added. “Successful people may spend 30 or 40 years being rewarded for saving, investing and working hard, and retirement does not automatically turn off those habits.”

Fun in Being Near-Sighted. Casey Wesson, senior vice president at Gainline Financial Partners, helps clients transition into spending mode by treating their retirement savings as an income stream, instead of viewing it as a fragile nest egg. “We set up a monthly fun money transfer to the client’s bank,” he said. “Most people spent decades getting a paycheck and it’s a lot easier to spend money that shows up the way it always did.”

The people most drawn to the die-with-zero mindset are lifelong savers who’ve become disillusioned with the pursuit of wealth as a dollar figure, Wesson said. “What they’re chasing isn’t zero so much as meaning,” he said. “They spent decades measuring progress in dollars, when the real measures were time with the people they love, experiences worth having, and the health to enjoy them.”

Wesson addresses this challenge by taking a 400-foot view and letting the clients focus on the 40-foot view.

“That means they always know their max spend for the year, which is a number they can act on without having to think about everything behind it,” he said. “But most of it is trust, because a lot of clients have carried this alone their entire lives — and it’s a heavy job.”