"The peak utility of money occurs at age 30"

Su Hawn's Library: September 2024

Buy: Die With Zero

The book in 3 bullets

• On your last day on Earth, you should have $0 in your account.

• There is a correct timing to give // spend money.

• Invest in experience “dividend”. 

Who is it for?

• If you have trouble spending money.

• If you spend on the wrong things.

• If you would like to understand what is the real purpose of saving money.

Why did I read it?

• I wanted to know if there is an “optimal” way to spend my money.

• I was too hesitant to spend money on things. Both small and big.

• I felt lost on “what’s next” or “what to do” after meeting the savings goals I had for myself outside of just increasing the goal to “save more”.

What does it help with?

• Spend better:

  • Those who get distracted and end up spending on useless things.

• Optimize your money:

  • Parents that keep on saving for their kids “one day”.

• Ease your mind about money:

  • Workaholics who just cannot stop obsessing about money.

What I got out of it

• If you have a high margin on your income. You need to start thinking about deploying that capital for happiness. However, you don’t have to make millions but you do need to have a pretty good margin on what you are earning.

• There is a right time for everything and it usually is bounded by your body.

• In the end, it’s more about the life you lived and not what you’ve bought.

Top 7 Quotes

1. The main idea here is that your life is the sum of your experiences.

2. A person’s ability to extract real enjoyment out of the gift declines with their age for a whole host of activities, you need a certain minimum mental and physical state to enjoy them at all.

3. The peak utility of money (the time when it can bring optimal usefulness or enjoyment) occurs at age 30, then at age 30 every dollar buys you one dollar’s worth of enjoyment.

4. If you want to keep working, be my guest. Just be sure to ramp up your spending accordingly so that you don’t end up dying with lots of money left over. That would be a waste no matter how much you enjoyed your job.

5. I’m still a big believer in taking risks when you’re young enough to recover from the possible downside—but only if there’s an upside, a reward that makes the risk pay off.

6. The person on their deathbed can’t do much of anything except think back to what they’ve already done in their life.

7. As a result, we spend many of our evenings watching TV, and we fritter away our weekends. In short, when something feels abundant and endless, the truth is, that we don’t always value it.

Su Hawn’s Potent Mix (Books to read together)

• Die With Zero

• Pathless Path

• 4000 Weeks

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