Bill Perkins (businessman)

"If you spend hours and hours of your life acquiring money and then die without spending all of that money, then you’ve needlessly wasted too many precious hours of your life. There is just no way to get those hours back. If you die with $1 million left, that’s $1 million of experiences you didn’t have. And if you die with $50,000 left, well, that’s $50,000 of experiences you didn’t have. No way is that optimal."

"When we’re infants, we get very little enjoyment out of money. Babies are expensive to take care of, true, but it’s not like they get a lot of enjoyment from spending money. When you’re a baby, there’s no greater happiness than Mom and the crib. In a way, the amount of utility that babies get from money is very similar to what the elderly get. Money is nearly worthless at the very beginning and the very end of life."

"Once you’ve finally determined your net worth peak, you must start spending down, or decumulating. This means you will be spending more in your real golden years, when you are in reasonably good shape in both health and wealth—between 45 and 60—than people usually do, because most people who save money for the future save for too late in life."

"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."