Die with Debt

At the tail end of college I started racking up a lot of credit card debt. No sympathies, nothing related to school, as I was on a full Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholarship that covered tuition, housing and living expenses. Rather, I had developed a bad gambling habit. I found myself ditching classes to drive to the local casino, sometimes driving almost 2 hours to Cache Creek to gamble for 15 minutes, only to drive 2 hours back home broke and further in debt. In hindsight, gambling was just an escape from the malaise.

Luckily I dropped the gambling habit. And now I was making good money with my first new college grad job. Big fancy consulting firm. So was the plan to pay off the credit card debt? Hell no. In today’s dollar, I owed probably almost $60,000 spread across a dozen credit cards. Manageable, as I was making a good salary but it just seemed like a waste. Since credit cards are unsecured they couldn’t just repossess my car. They would have to actually sue me to get a judgement and then get a court order wage garnishment. Seems unlikely, so the gambler in me decided to stop paying.

Constant calls from the collection agencies. Credit score was in the toilet. Could not get a phone on the major carriers, even having to put down a hefty deposit for phone plan. Occasional anxiety if my next employer would pull my credit history. Wanted a new car and the subprime loan they offered had 27% APR, which I said okay and drove off the lot with probably the most expensive car loan you know.

Fast forward a few years and my credit had recovered. By now I was making even better money. Life was good. Would have been a sucker to pay off that $60k debt. My mantra was, die with debt. It’s the optimal strategy. Imagine you know you’ll die in exactly 2 years, wouldn’t you just rack up as much debt enjoying life as possible? Bad credit score and collection agencies don’t matter when you’re dead.

To brings me to Bill Perkins’ Die with Zero. You might have heard of it or even read it, especially if you’re into the financial YouTube community. Perkins argues we shouldn’t wait until retirement to spend our wealth because by then health becomes an obstacle and experiences during earlier years bring more value. You can say my Die with Debt takes this to the next level. Not only should you aim to die with zero, if you really want to experience life to the fullest, you actually should die with a mountain of debt.

Of course, debt can be a source of serious stress and anxiety. But I think with proper planning you should be able to die with debt while still living a stress free life. I’ll need to flush this out a bit more.