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RetireOps
Financial Philosophy

Die with Zero: Balancing Maximum Life Enjoyment with Long-Term Care Security

RetireOps Research

Expert Insights

The 'Die with Zero' Challenge

In his book Die with Zero, Bill Perkins argues that the goal of retirement planning shouldn't be to accumulate the largest pile of money possible, but to maximize your life experiences while you still have the health and time to enjoy them.

The core fear that stops most people from following this advice is Longevity Risk—the fear of running out of money at age 90, specifically due to rising healthcare or long-term care costs.

Modeling the 'Safety Buffer' vs. 'Experience Gap'

Most traditional models assume a flat spending rate plus a massive "emergency fund" left over at the end. Perkins suggests that this leading to "over-saving" for a scenario that may never happen, at the cost of your best "Go-Go" years.

To balance this in RetireOps, we focus on Self-Insurance Modeling.

1. Modeling Long-Term Care (LTC)

Instead of keeping a vague extra $500k in your nest egg, use the One-Time Expenses feature to model specific LTC scenarios:

  • The Scenario: A 3-year stay in assisted living starting at age 85.
  • The Data: Use industry benchmarks (approx. $60,000 - $100,000/year in today's dollars).
  • The Implementation: Add a recurring expense in the One-Time Expenses section with a start age of 85 and end age of 88.

2. High-Utility Spending in 'Go-Go' Years

Perkins emphasizes that $1 spent at age 60 provides more "memory dividends" than $1 spent at age 90.

Close-up of the Advanced Settings sidebar showing the Healthcare Inflation and Income Tax Rate controls.
Use the Advanced Settings to tune healthcare inflation and tax drag, ensuring your 'Experience' spending doesn't compromise late-life security.

Annual Cash Flow chart showing the U-shaped 'Spending Smile' profile with higher early and late-life costs.
The Spending Smile profile automatically allocates more budget to your 'Go-Go' years, with a planned dip in mid-retirement.

By using the Spending Smile profile, RetireOps automatically allocates more of your budget to your 60s and 70s. Because the model also accounts for Healthcare Inflation (set in Advanced Settings), it ensures that even if you spend more early, your late-life essentials are still protected by a higher growth rate than general inflation.

Self-Insurance and the Confidence Score

When you follow a "Die with Zero" path, your Confidence Score might drop from 100% to 90% or 85%. In the context of Perkins' philosophy, this isn't a failure—it's an optimization.

Detailed view of the Confidence Score metric card, indicating a robust 90% reliability rating.
A 90% score often represents the 'Sweet Spot'—enough safety to cover LTC via self-insurance, but low enough that you aren't working extra years to fund a portfolio that will likely go to waste.

  • 100% Score: Likely implies you are over-saving and missing out on experiences.
  • 90% Score: Provides a robust buffer for late-life care while allowing for maximum 'experience' spending.
  • The Healthcare Toggle: Ensure you adjust the Healthcare Inflation and Medicare Cost in the sidebar. This 'self-insures' your plan by specifically earmarking growth for medical needs.

The Bottom Line

You don't need to choose between a fun retirement and a safe one. By modeling specific late-life care scenarios as recurring expenses and using a 'Smile' spending profile, you can confidently spend your 'experience' budget today, knowing your 'utility' budget is mathematically secured for tomorrow.

Ready to find your Die with Zero balance? Add your LTC scenarios in the Advanced Calculator.