Bill Perkins

Bill Perkins is an energy trader, hedge fund manager and author. He grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey. His father was a defense lawyer and his mother was a schoolteacher. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Iowa, where he played football as a walk-on.

He started as a clerk trainee on the New York Mercantile Exchange in 1991 and moved to Houston in 1995 to trade energy derivatives. In 2002 he joined John Arnold's hedge fund Centaurus Energy, and he later founded his own energy fund, Skylar Capital. He also plays high-stakes poker, produces movies and has co-founded companies that sell satellite data.

Die With Zero (2020) argues that most people save too much and spend too late. Perkins says money has value only when it turns into experiences, and that each experience has a window in life. After that window, health or circumstance closes it. He tells readers to plan their spending so that they use most of their wealth while they are alive, and to give money to children and charity while the gift can still make a difference.