When Should You Stop Growing Your Net Worth?

Bill Perkins says he is 57 and is not trying to throw a party at 85. He is in the back quarter of his life, so spending current years to pile up capital for later years does not make sense. As a young man he wanted to be a millionaire before 30. He passed that mark, and there was never a number where hitting it meant he would quit. The early goal was a lifestyle and a rock-star picture, the cookie-cutter line people repeat when they say they want to be a millionaire by some date.

The idea that cemented in his 30s is that a net worth peak is a date, not a dollar figure. The body is a decaying asset. Its ability to turn money into fulfillment and useful experiences declines, and that decline steepens near the end of life. More money means nothing past a point. That slope is not there at 20 or at 30. Somewhere between 30 and 65 it picks up. The book Your Money or Your Life framed money as hours of life traded for other people's hours. The experiences he wanted at 25 are not the plan at 40 or at 55. Wealth, health, and time have to be spread across a life. For him, the purpose of life is to be fulfilled according to your own values.