Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life

Perkins was born in 1964, in Jersey City, New Jersey, to a criminal defense attorney father who briefly played football for the New York Jets and a schoolteacher mother. Perkins pursued a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of Iowa, where he also walked on as a defensive back for the Iowa Hawkeyes football team, though he left the team before his senior year. Despite not having stellar academic performance, his engineering education would later inform his analytical approach to financial markets.

Perkins began his financial career in 1991 as a trainee clerk at the New York Mercantile Exchange, earning a modest salary of approximately $16,000 annually. His determination was evident in his early career when he reportedly showed up at the Exchange daily until he secured a position. To supplement his income during this period, he drove a limousine in the evenings while dedicating his nights to studying market dynamics.

His career trajectory accelerated in 1995 when he relocated to Houston, Texas, during the deregulation of the electricity market. There, he managed a derivatives and options trading desk. The pivotal moment in his career came in 2002 when he joined Centaurus Energy, a hedge fund founded by former Enron trader John D.