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The Childfree Guide to Life and Money: Make Your Finances Simple So Your Life Without Kids Can Be Amazing
An essential and comprehensive personal finance and money management guide for Childfree and Permanently Childless people.
Design the life you want, then create the right financial plan to get you there.
Financial planning looks vastly different for DINKs (dual-income, no kids) and SINKs (single-income, no kids). But nearly all the advice out there assumes you have children or will have them someday. Everything from pursuing the kind of career you want; deciding whether you want to buy a house, rent, or hit the road as a digital nomad; to planning and filing taxes; budgeting and investing your money; and getting set up for retirement or your later years is different. Simply When you aren't following the Standard LifeScript (go to college, get married, buy a house, have kids), you have the time, money, and freedom to do what you want.
Childfree Wealth Specialist® Dr. Jay Zigmont flips FIRE—Financial Independence, Retire Early—on its head, showing how people without kids can live the FILE life—Financial Independence, LIVE Early—by following his eight No-Baby Steps. Whether you're single, coupled up, or planning the perfect Golden Girls living arrangement with your best friends, The Childfree Guide to Life and Money is the most comprehensive resource for designing your life, figuring out your finances, and living your best life.
Design the life you want, then create the right financial plan to get you there.
Financial planning looks vastly different for DINKs (dual-income, no kids) and SINKs (single-income, no kids). But nearly all the advice out there assumes you have children or will have them someday. Everything from pursuing the kind of career you want; deciding whether you want to buy a house, rent, or hit the road as a digital nomad; to planning and filing taxes; budgeting and investing your money; and getting set up for retirement or your later years is different. Simply When you aren't following the Standard LifeScript (go to college, get married, buy a house, have kids), you have the time, money, and freedom to do what you want.
Childfree Wealth Specialist® Dr. Jay Zigmont flips FIRE—Financial Independence, Retire Early—on its head, showing how people without kids can live the FILE life—Financial Independence, LIVE Early—by following his eight No-Baby Steps. Whether you're single, coupled up, or planning the perfect Golden Girls living arrangement with your best friends, The Childfree Guide to Life and Money is the most comprehensive resource for designing your life, figuring out your finances, and living your best life.
304 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 2024
78 people are currently reading
2457 people want to read
About the author
Jay Zigmont
3 books20 followersGrowing up broke, I never had the luxury of learning about money management. By 21, I had earned my first million, but without the right guidance, I spent it all by 25. This personal journey taught me just how critical financial planning is, especially for those of us who haven’t been taught the foundational principles.
My wife and I are childfree, and it has profoundly shaped how we approach our finances. When I searched for financial advice, I realized that most of it assumes you have kids, which didn’t align with our goals. That’s why I founded Childfree Wealth®—to offer financial planning tailored specifically to our community’s unique needs.
With over a decade of experience as a life and business coach, a PhD in Adult Learning from the University of Connecticut, and an MBA from SCSU, I bring a wealth of knowledge to the table. As a Fee-Only, Flat-Fee, Fiduciary, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®, and Childfree Wealth Specialist®, I’m committed to helping you create a financial plan that supports the vision you have for your life, free from assumptions that don’t fit your lifestyle.
My wife and I are childfree, and it has profoundly shaped how we approach our finances. When I searched for financial advice, I realized that most of it assumes you have kids, which didn’t align with our goals. That’s why I founded Childfree Wealth®—to offer financial planning tailored specifically to our community’s unique needs.
With over a decade of experience as a life and business coach, a PhD in Adult Learning from the University of Connecticut, and an MBA from SCSU, I bring a wealth of knowledge to the table. As a Fee-Only, Flat-Fee, Fiduciary, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®, and Childfree Wealth Specialist®, I’m committed to helping you create a financial plan that supports the vision you have for your life, free from assumptions that don’t fit your lifestyle.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
August 10, 2024
This book just wasn't for me. I liked the premise and hoped for some good tips on how to budget, plan and invest as a single, but the book was very specific to the US and repeated itself in my chapters without really getting into specifics. Also, the author pushed his other projects a little too much for my taste, so it occasionally felt like he was actually selling his other services.
March 5, 2025
ALWAYS down for a finance book that mentions romantic situations with >2 people!
August 6, 2025
i had such a fun time with this book i want to come back to it in ten years and see how its trailing with my life i felt like everything right now is telling me to slow down that i’m on a good path and it’s nice but this also felt realistic to actions — 🏸
February 12, 2025
A good book to use as a starting point for figuring out your life and finances as a childfree person. I found the advice to be solid and will be discussing aspects of this book with my partner. While reading this book, you do need to be aware of the fact the the entire novel is one big advertisement for the author's business (I kid you not, there are QR codes on every section leading back to their website.)
April 12, 2025
A rounded up 3.7/5.
This is a well written book by someone who clearly has a passion for the childfree lifestyle, and for helping people maximize their lives living it. There are a lot of good concepts covered, and simply explained, that make it easily digestible for anyone to grasp without ever being so vague as to not be useful.
The US centricity renders some of the sections moot for international readers (which, to be fair, the author does highlight early on). There is also a bit too much mention of, and direction toward, his Financial Planning business, though it never comes off as too pitchy or pushy. The whole book, in fact, never comes off as overtly preachy, and that's no small feat for books for this nature.
For older readers (~35+) there won't be too much new ground covered, though different perspectives or refreshers are always beneficial. Younger readers who have either decided to be childfree, or are considering it, will likely derive the greatest value from it.
Overall, it was a worthwhile investment of time with some interesting, if not groundbreaking, ideas, and a measured way of breaking down a means to maximize living without children.
This is a well written book by someone who clearly has a passion for the childfree lifestyle, and for helping people maximize their lives living it. There are a lot of good concepts covered, and simply explained, that make it easily digestible for anyone to grasp without ever being so vague as to not be useful.
The US centricity renders some of the sections moot for international readers (which, to be fair, the author does highlight early on). There is also a bit too much mention of, and direction toward, his Financial Planning business, though it never comes off as too pitchy or pushy. The whole book, in fact, never comes off as overtly preachy, and that's no small feat for books for this nature.
For older readers (~35+) there won't be too much new ground covered, though different perspectives or refreshers are always beneficial. Younger readers who have either decided to be childfree, or are considering it, will likely derive the greatest value from it.
Overall, it was a worthwhile investment of time with some interesting, if not groundbreaking, ideas, and a measured way of breaking down a means to maximize living without children.
March 8, 2025
As a 47-year-old CF woman I was thrilled to see a book on this exact topic, and read it with great curiosity: what false assumptions might have gotten baked into my financial education, mostly in my early 20s? However, I'm ending my read with just one new item on my to-do list: looking into long-term care insurance, especially for my spouse. So perhaps this book got to me a little late; or a little early, with regard to some of the strategies that apply more to people in their 70s.
ETA: I was wrong, there are two things. This book also introduced me to ESG investing, and taught me that Vanguard has more ethically-minded near-equivalents to big funds like VTI. That's of interest and is on my list for further investigation.
The author goes all-in on the "Die With Zero" concept (Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life), assuming that any reader who doesn't want children will not be trying to leave a financial legacy. There's also an assumption that we don't want our estate going to, well, the state; and both of these concepts are worth a good squinting at. Neither really applies to me.
There's an exercise near the very end that I liked, regarding a list of overall mental models that the author espouses. This list is strong, and it's too bad it's so buried, because I think a lot of financially educated adults will likely DNF before getting to it. The exercise is "take the list of mental models above and rate them", marking each one as "done", "doing" or "dump". And the list is as follows:
• Plan your life, then your finances. -- dump; these include each other.
• Ditch the Standard LifeScript and make your own. -- done!
• Financial Independence, FILE, and FIRE are possible. -- done!
• Finances are different for soloists, couples, and groups. -- acknowledged! Have already adapted my "couple" setup in important, nonstandard ways in order to get a handle on at least the "divorce" and "death" events from the "5 Ds" of "disinterest, divorce, drugs, disability, and death" (ouch).
• Boundaries are important. -- done!
• Having a legacy, and making an impact, is about more than having kids. -- done!
• Dying with zero is okay—find a balance of life, money, and health. -- dump! I mean, it is okay, but seems near-impossible to plan for, and why not go ahead and die rich instead of introducing a lot of needless worry into my final years?
• Budgeting tells you both what you can and can’t spend money on. -- true!
• It is possible to live a life without debt. -- done!
• Emergency funds turn a crisis into an inconvenience. -- true, done!
• Invest only in things you understand. -- is such a thing even truly possible? Still, I take the point of not getting too creative. Stocks are a concept I get, strangely-backed financial offerings whose underpinnings are unclear might be a worse idea.
• Invest toward your goals (not other people’s goals for you). -- done!
• Paperwork is important (wills, living wills, POAs). -- done!
• Insurance provides protection. -- mostly done. Need to look at long-term care insurance. Disability insurance seems to only cover a fraction of salary, which isn't especially useful in combination with FIRE...
• Planning ahead for Mom and Dad is easier than responding to an emergency. -- true! Doing, as in "working on it."
• To die with zero, you need to bend the net worth curve over time. -- dump. I don't want to. Although I do agree with a different quote that I found powerful: "each dollar you earn beyond your goal is going to an estate that is not your priority."
• You must pay taxes, but you get a choice of when and how. -- done? I have IRAs and 401(k) funds and mega backdoor Roth, anyway. Actually using them will require more math than contributing to them did.
• Buying a house is a choice, not a requirement. -- dump. I really like owning houses!
• It is okay to spend money on whatever brings you joy. -- yeah, like houses. And circus classes, and squirrel nesting boxes. I suppose this is always work in progress, but overall "done" or "doing", because I definitely don't have a typical budget.
And now you know what major ideas the book espouses, as well as a few things about me. I'll end with another quote that almost earns the whole book another star, and applies well beyond finances: "As adults, we can only focus on changing one to three things at a time. Keep focus and keep making progress. There will be setbacks." Yes... so there will.
ETA: I was wrong, there are two things. This book also introduced me to ESG investing, and taught me that Vanguard has more ethically-minded near-equivalents to big funds like VTI. That's of interest and is on my list for further investigation.
The author goes all-in on the "Die With Zero" concept (Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life), assuming that any reader who doesn't want children will not be trying to leave a financial legacy. There's also an assumption that we don't want our estate going to, well, the state; and both of these concepts are worth a good squinting at. Neither really applies to me.
There's an exercise near the very end that I liked, regarding a list of overall mental models that the author espouses. This list is strong, and it's too bad it's so buried, because I think a lot of financially educated adults will likely DNF before getting to it. The exercise is "take the list of mental models above and rate them", marking each one as "done", "doing" or "dump". And the list is as follows:
• Plan your life, then your finances. -- dump; these include each other.
• Ditch the Standard LifeScript and make your own. -- done!
• Financial Independence, FILE, and FIRE are possible. -- done!
• Finances are different for soloists, couples, and groups. -- acknowledged! Have already adapted my "couple" setup in important, nonstandard ways in order to get a handle on at least the "divorce" and "death" events from the "5 Ds" of "disinterest, divorce, drugs, disability, and death" (ouch).
• Boundaries are important. -- done!
• Having a legacy, and making an impact, is about more than having kids. -- done!
• Dying with zero is okay—find a balance of life, money, and health. -- dump! I mean, it is okay, but seems near-impossible to plan for, and why not go ahead and die rich instead of introducing a lot of needless worry into my final years?
• Budgeting tells you both what you can and can’t spend money on. -- true!
• It is possible to live a life without debt. -- done!
• Emergency funds turn a crisis into an inconvenience. -- true, done!
• Invest only in things you understand. -- is such a thing even truly possible? Still, I take the point of not getting too creative. Stocks are a concept I get, strangely-backed financial offerings whose underpinnings are unclear might be a worse idea.
• Invest toward your goals (not other people’s goals for you). -- done!
• Paperwork is important (wills, living wills, POAs). -- done!
• Insurance provides protection. -- mostly done. Need to look at long-term care insurance. Disability insurance seems to only cover a fraction of salary, which isn't especially useful in combination with FIRE...
• Planning ahead for Mom and Dad is easier than responding to an emergency. -- true! Doing, as in "working on it."
• To die with zero, you need to bend the net worth curve over time. -- dump. I don't want to. Although I do agree with a different quote that I found powerful: "each dollar you earn beyond your goal is going to an estate that is not your priority."
• You must pay taxes, but you get a choice of when and how. -- done? I have IRAs and 401(k) funds and mega backdoor Roth, anyway. Actually using them will require more math than contributing to them did.
• Buying a house is a choice, not a requirement. -- dump. I really like owning houses!
• It is okay to spend money on whatever brings you joy. -- yeah, like houses. And circus classes, and squirrel nesting boxes. I suppose this is always work in progress, but overall "done" or "doing", because I definitely don't have a typical budget.
And now you know what major ideas the book espouses, as well as a few things about me. I'll end with another quote that almost earns the whole book another star, and applies well beyond finances: "As adults, we can only focus on changing one to three things at a time. Keep focus and keep making progress. There will be setbacks." Yes... so there will.
March 15, 2025
Not exactly what I expected, there is a lot of specific financial advice in regards to tax codes etc. which is definitely helpful but was a bit of information overload for me. I’ll need to revisit it in the future. I did appreciate how it made me question what exactly my intentions were for my financial life if I didn’t intend on growing and bequeathing generational wealth. A good reminder that the “traditional” life plan is not what feels right to a lot of people and that’s perfectly fine. I worry that some of the advice around social security may be unfortunately outdated now. As a millennial I sadly don’t expect that I will be able to rely at all on SS at the end of my life.
September 26, 2024
As a childfree by choice woman, I really appreciated this book and the guidance it provides to help me build a more secure financial future.
The one challenge I had is that it is clearly written for an American audience, and I am Canadian. Would love to see some adjustments made for an edition to be for Canadians.
I'm now going through the book again and making adjustments to my financial planning, adapting the guidance as needed for Canada.
Definitely would advise childfree or childless people to read this book.
Thanks to the publisher for an eARC; all opinions are my own.
The one challenge I had is that it is clearly written for an American audience, and I am Canadian. Would love to see some adjustments made for an edition to be for Canadians.
I'm now going through the book again and making adjustments to my financial planning, adapting the guidance as needed for Canada.
Definitely would advise childfree or childless people to read this book.
Thanks to the publisher for an eARC; all opinions are my own.
January 3, 2025
I didn't come about this book with great expectations but now I am grateful to have received it in order to share my view on it.
It gave me a lot of things to think about, things I haven't considered before though I gave this situation quite a lot of my attention.
I can honestly say this is a book I will keep coming back to, I found a lot of great information and ways to plan for my next years. It's truly a book on adulting.
Along with the great mix of information I encountered here I appreciate greatly the many psychological insights the author brings up and the fact that he walks the talk, he knows exactly the place he is writing from and that, along with his teachings, is invaluable.
It gave me a lot of things to think about, things I haven't considered before though I gave this situation quite a lot of my attention.
I can honestly say this is a book I will keep coming back to, I found a lot of great information and ways to plan for my next years. It's truly a book on adulting.
Along with the great mix of information I encountered here I appreciate greatly the many psychological insights the author brings up and the fact that he walks the talk, he knows exactly the place he is writing from and that, along with his teachings, is invaluable.
April 4, 2025
Not for everybody and not for me. It's written for a certain person, which is not me. I don't measure my success and/or happiness by my financial portfolio. I'm not interested in making money for the sake of making money. I'm not interested in hording wealth. I have no issues paying taxes, etc. There are some interesting topics and some sound nuggets of advice, but assess if this will be valuable to you and worth your time before delving in.
I received a free copy for review; all opinions are my own.
I received a free copy for review; all opinions are my own.
May 3, 2025
I really enjoyed this book! It was concise but thorough and the different financial topics were organized and explained well. I read it start to finish this time around but I could easily see myself picking it up here and there to read a relevant chapter as my financial needs change. If you’re familiar with personal finance there probably won’t be much new information for you in this book but I really appreciated the specific advice geared towards the childfree community. This book is a great resource that I will be holding on to!
February 4, 2025
Finally, the finance book I've been waiting for! I will definitely be returning to this again and again for reference. It's definitely more of compilation and has greatest use as a stepping-stone rather than going 100% in depth into everything (if they did, the book would be massive). Very useful as a reference tool to make sure you're on the right financial path for the future you envision for yourself. If you want more, be sure to check out their podcast, The Childfree Wealth Podcast.
December 26, 2024
Great information. I've learned so much from Dr. Jay and the Childfree Wealth podcast that I had to read this book. I devoured it in a day and my husband will read it next. I've tabbed some pages and he will have tabs to add where he wants to discuss and this will definitely be a great conversation starter for our money dates!
March 1, 2025
Excellent, clear, and super practical guide to a very different way of thinking about life when you don’t plan to have kids. Already 5* as limited guidance on this area - only wish 1) the finance sections applied more to non-Americans or global nomads and 2) that he didn’t write CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER TM so much. We gettit, it’s a qualification.
March 27, 2025
I was so excited when I discovered this book! There was tons of helpful advice and information in here, and while a lot of it went over my head, it still made an impact on me. I plan on rereading/listening to this book with my partner when we are closer to getting married so that we can discuss everything in more detail and plan for our future.
January 1, 2025
Am I overly anxious about long term and end of life care costs? Yup. Did this book provide some realistic food for thought for me as a child free person? Also yes.
Candid discussion of what to consider from debt, budgets, investing, insurance, and also overall health and happiness.
Candid discussion of what to consider from debt, budgets, investing, insurance, and also overall health and happiness.
February 27, 2025
The information was good but not really different from any other “financial” book. Most of the topics discussed were very surface-level, so it doesn’t feel like I learned anything new. It was also super repetitive which started to get annoying.
March 31, 2025
Great overview of considerations for a child free lifestyle. A balance of a cover to cover read and reference book.
I wouldn't say it's a full guide as much as a consideration list with some extra available resources.
I wouldn't say it's a full guide as much as a consideration list with some extra available resources.
September 2, 2025
I really didn't find this book that helpful to me. I read through it, hoping to find something useful, but the most interesting thing I discovered is that there is such a thing as alien abduction insurance.
October 30, 2025
fine. didnt learn a ton. a couple of little nuggets but mainly told me what i already know. if i had more money id probably find this useful. also i feel like every person who hasnt had student loans says to pay them off right away and they clearly have never had loans and it shows.
December 21, 2025
I just want to clarify that I gave it a lower star because it’s focused on the USA exclusively and there is no Canadian version or points to a direction todo the research. The other chapters are great. And if I was American or living in the USA I would give it a 5 star.
January 25, 2025
Short and sweet, with practical advice on personal finance. Appreciated the sections on wills and long-term care planning.
February 3, 2025
Had to read since I don't have kids but was mostly stuff I already knew but there are some important messages about planning for how your later life will go
February 27, 2025
Excellent book filled with practical information for those without children.
March 10, 2025
Great book! Really good tips on how to navigate a child free life and finances. Can’t wait to utilize the tools I learned.
March 22, 2025
This book provided me with a few things to consider and will be a conversation starter at least.
April 8, 2025
Good overall finance advice book, it was a little to general if you read it after some of the classics of this genre. But could be a great 1 stop shop for some.
April 26, 2025
I’m sorry but the putting pets in the should category vs the must category left a bad taste in my mouth, also every other page with a QR code to his website felt like billboards flashing in my face
July 19, 2025
4.5
I find him calling his general framework the “no baby” steps deeply funny.
I agree with other reviewers that at times him referring us to go to his website for his programs can be grating.
I find him calling his general framework the “no baby” steps deeply funny.
I agree with other reviewers that at times him referring us to go to his website for his programs can be grating.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews