Apr 15, 2026
Delaying gratification is a core principle for many investors. After all, the longer you can delay major spending decisions, the more time you have for your excess cash to grow in productive investments.
From a financial perspective, this all sounds rational. But it’s easy to forget that your personal finances are only one facet of your life, and focusing too heavily on money could mean neglecting other aspects.
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In his bestselling book Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life, hedge fund manager Bill Perkins frames the mistake bluntly: people often optimize for wealth accumulation instead of life satisfaction (1). The result is millions of hours spent working for money that is never meaningfully spent.
Perkins encourages people to shift their perspective from net worth to what he calls net satisfaction. Here’s why a similar approach could lead you to a more fulfilling retirement.
Optimizing for net satisfaction
The average American adult is probably optimizing for a seven-figure net worth. According to Northwestern Mutual, the so-called “magic number” for a comfortable retirement for many Americans is $1.26 million (2).
Yet, adults in nearly every age group fall short of that target. Median net worth, according to Federal Reserve data summarized by Fidelity, is roughly $39,000 for households under 35, $364,500 for those aged 55–64, and $335,600 for those 75 and older (3). In other words, more than half of all adults are lagging behind their seven-figure budget.
To close the gap, you may need decades of hard work, tight budgets, and diligent savings and investments. It may also require delaying some essential life goals.
For instance, 43% of U.S. adults said they were having fewer or no children because of financial concerns, according to the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University's American Family Survey. (4) Similarly, some families may be delaying buying a home or retiring because they haven’t reached their goals yet.
But this line of thinking is misaligned with lived reality. You can backpack across Europe in your 40s, have children in your 50s, or go kayaking in your 70s, but many of these experiences may be easier or more enjoyable earlier in life.
Given that physical capacity and energy levels generally decline with age, particularly beyond age 60, according to research published in the journal Science, delaying gratification and retirement until your 70s may not be ideal for everyone. (5)
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All those extra hours and sacrifices mean little if the reward is unused wealth at the end of life. So, here’s what you can do instead to bring your financial goals more in line with your personal goals.
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What you should do instead
Instead of optimizing your life around a spreadsheet and vague financial goal, try to optimize your financial plans around your personal priorities.
In other words, focus on what’s important to you and what makes your life more enjoyable and satisfying, then create a financial plan to enable those priorities at appropriate times.
Perhaps the most important step in this process is to find a personalized retirement target. Instead of aiming for $1 million just because it seems like a comfortable round number, take some time to think about where and how you intend to live during retirement. If you’re willing to downsize, move abroad, or live a modest lifestyle, maybe you don’t need seven figures to enable that.
Similarly, if having kids and spending time with them is important to you, prepare for a few years in your 30s and 40s with lower earnings and higher spending. Instead of sacrificing time with family during this crucial period, you could plan to catch up in your 50s to enable retirement in your 60s.
Ultimately, it’s important to recognize that money is a tool to enable you to live the life you truly want. Sacrificing life and energy to meet an arbitrary money goal could be counterproductive. For some people, the worst outcome isn’t dying with too little money — it’s dying with too much.
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
diewithzerobook.com (1); Northwestern Mutual (2); Fidelity (3); Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University (4) Science (5)
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Vishesh Raisinghani is a financial journalist covering personal finance, investing and the global economy. He's also the founder of Sharpe Ascension Inc., a content marketing agency focused on investment firms. His work has appeared in Moneywise, Yahoo Finance!, Motley Fool, Seeking Alpha, Mergers & Acquisitions Magazine and Piggybank.
Managing Money • 12h ago
