Bill Perkins: How Trading Natural Gas Is Underwriting Insurance
Bill Perkins built his fortune shorting natural gas. Here is why he treats trading like selling insurance, and why stoicism beats intelligence.
$100M hedge fund manager: Do not make the mistake of dying rich
Hedge fund manager and author Bill Perkins discusses his energy trading career, his wealth philosophy from his book Die With Zero, and why people must optimize for fulfillment rather than accumulating excess money before dying. Perkins breaks down the mechanics of time bucketing life experiences, planning for physical longevity through the Centurion Olympics, and the psychology behind high-stakes art investing and avoiding the traps of fame.
Key takeaways
- Bill Perkins started as an entry-level clerk on the New York Mercantile Exchange floor before building his fortune trading natural gas derivatives in Houston after the market deregulated in 1995. Read more →
- Bill Perkins paid $15 million at Sotheby's for Ernie Barnes' 1976 painting The Sugar Shack, shattering its $1 million high estimate. Read more →
- Watching Michael Phelps and Dan Bilzerian convinced Bill Perkins that high celebrity turns public life into an isolated, security-bound cage. Read more →
- Traditional bucket lists assume you have one death at age eighty, ignoring the reality that your college self, your single self, and your self with young kids each die along the way. Read more →
4 articles from this episode
Bill Perkins on Why Ernie Barnes' Sugar Shack Was Underpriced at $15M
Bill Perkins explains why paying $15M for Ernie Barnes' Sugar Shack at Sotheby's was an economic arbitrage against historical museum bias.
Bill Perkins on Why Chasing Fame Destroys Personal Freedom
Bill Perkins explains why founder celebrity is a trap, how fame shrinks your world, and why he refused to build a guru empire around Die With Zero.
Bill Perkins on Time Buckets: Why Bucket Lists Fail
Bill Perkins explains why traditional bucket lists fail and how time bucketing life into 3- to 5-year brackets maximizes fulfillment.
More My First Million episodes
- Ex-Amazon VP tells us what it’s really like working with Jeff BezosNov 1 · 6 articles
- How to find your arbitrage (from the guy who’s done it 3x)Nov 1 · 5 articles
- 2 business ideas, moats and the best stuff we found on XOct 25 · 6 articles
- we need to talk about the Elizabeth Holmes doc (unfiltered review)Oct 25 · 1 article