The financial guide for people who've already "died with zero" — they just didn't get the book deal.
Part satire. Part survival guide. The first financial book that starts where you actually are: broke, working, and tired of advice that assumes you have money to optimize.
Because a book about the poverty penalty probably shouldn't have one.
There's a particular kind of silence that happens at 11:47 p.m. on a Wednesday when you open your banking app and see $14.23.
Not because something went wrong. Because nothing went wrong — this is just what Wednesday looks like. Rent cleared. Electric cleared. The auto-pay for your phone went through a day early, which is a fun surprise that cost you the difference between eating lunch at work tomorrow and pretending you're doing intermittent fasting.
Thirteen days until payday. Fourteen twenty-three.
And somewhere, on a podcast recorded in a home office that costs more than your annual salary, a man who made his fortune trading energy futures is telling you that your problem is you're saving too much.
— From Chapter 3: "Die With Zero" → Live With Zero (You're Already Doing It)
What's Inside
The poverty penalty — what being broke actually costs you (it's thousands per year in hidden fees, markups, and surcharges)
A $500 emergency fund strategy built for people with $50 of breathing room
The bandwidth tax — why your brain works differently under scarcity, and how to work with it instead of against it
A credential-stacking playbook for raising your income without a degree
A triage framework for spending when every dollar is spoken for
30 concrete playbook actions organized by income tier ($0-15K, $15-30K, $30-50K)
A satirical glossary of every piece of bad financial advice you've ever received — translated for people who are actually broke
You're not bad with money. You don't have enough money. Those are different problems. This book is about the second one.
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What Readers Are Saying
"Finally, a financial book that doesn't open by assuming I have a 401(k) and a latte habit to cut."
— Early reader
"The Appendix C glossary alone is worth the download. I sent three entries to my aunt who keeps telling me to 'just budget better.'"
— Early reader
"Funny, angry, and actually useful. The $500 emergency fund framework changed how I think about saving."
— Early reader
Reviews will be updated as they come in. Get your copy and add yours.
Buy the Book
The free PDF is the full book. Paid versions exist for people who want a paperback, prefer Kindle, or want to support the work.
How This Book Was Made
This book was edited using Galleys.ai — a multi-pass AI editorial system.
The human behind this project couldn't afford a developmental editor, a copy editor, and a year of runway. So he used the tools available. That's Chapter 6 in action.
The book went through 7 editorial passes — developmental, line-level, and copy editing — with prioritized issue reports instead of vague suggestions. The result is a 70,000-word manuscript that was produced for under $100 in total editorial cost.
It's not a replacement for a great human editor. It's what you use when you can't afford one yet.