Smart Mom, Rich Mom: How to Build Wealth While Raising a Family

by Kimberly Palmer

Of all life’s financial shocks, few compare to bringing home an infant. Just one tiny person costs $250,000 to raise—not including college!

How will you pay for it? That agonizing question fuels mothers’ choices about their careers, budgets, and families. Some lean in, some scale back or seek new opportunities—there are no easy answers . . . but lots of rewarding possibilities.

Smart Mom, Rich Mom explores how women today are navigating the financially challenging career/parenting years. Written by a national money columnist and mom of two, the book chronicles people who have stayed in the game—full-time, freelance, self-employed, and more—and emerged more prosperous and empowered.

Smart Mom, Rich Mom mines their experiences to uncover both career advice and spending and savings strategies that everyone can use. Stories, checklists, action steps, planning tools, and more explain how to:

Prepare financially for parenthood—whether you’re expecting your first child or your third Balance thrift with generating income and investing wisely Find flexibility at work while safeguarding your earning potential Save for both college and retirement despite increased expenses Plan for unexpected events, like a layoff or illness And much more

Kids change our lives, adding joy but draining bank accounts. Smart Mom, Rich Mom helps you adopt healthy habits—and make hard decisions—that pay off in abundance.

Genres: Finance, Nonfiction, Feminism, Audiobook, Business, Money, Personal Finance

256 pages, Paperback

Published June 9, 2016

About the author

Kimberly Palmer, author of The Economy of You: Discover Your Inner Entrepreneur and Recession-Proof Your Life, was the senior money editor at US News & World Report for nine years. She is an adjunct professor at American University, where she teaches a course on mastering social media. She lives with her family, including two children, in the Washington, D.C., area.

Reviews

[Denise · Rating 1 out of 5]

Claims in the beginning that financial books aimed at women focus too much on infantalizing advice like cutting back at the grocery store and not buying shoes instead of investments and wealth building, priming you for something the opposite... then spends the next 40 pages on "tips" like googling for promo codes before you checkout online (does anyone still not know to do this? I mean really), putting money into your savings instead of getting "$200 highlights" (lol u ladiez and ur hair) and cutting back on restaurant meals.

Congrats Madam Palmer, your book is exactly the same as every other shitty Redbook article on financials 4 women.

[Chantel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Highly disappointing read. I'm a stay at home mom. I do this because it's SMART for our family. In our area, childcare would eat up over 80% of my salary, and health care and classroom needs (I was a teacher) would eat up the other 20%. I was looking for a book to help me while I'm at home spend my money well and continue to build wealth. Instead I was met with a woman who condescendingly repeated that "smart" women always make money even when they have children. Or smart women don't buy the shoes or go to the salon. Really? I already don't do that! Or how about smart women plan their family around their career... this book is what is wrong with American families. All she seemed to care about was getting ahead in finances and it was cut throat and very demeaning to someone who read the book, as a mother who focuses on family first, and thought this book may help her make wise decisions in the tight budget that motherhood forces on us. Ugh. Don't waste your time. Stick to crystal Paine and Dave Ramsey if you want real advise!!!

[The Suburban Eclectic · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the personal anecdotes and the tone in the beginning was engaging and relevant. Yet, as it went on the chapters felt very similar and repetitive. However I found the checklists and templates at the back the best part and I look forward to using them.

Palmer advises women to keep working in some capacity one they become a parent. I'm assuming she means outside the home as there is plenty to keep a mom busy when she's the main caregiver. It is sage advice and I have done the same. Nonetheless, I wished that there was more information for women that do not have as many options. For example, if you're a military spouse/main caregiver or you not in a place career wise that you could take a pay cut or hour reduction in order to work and care for your family. This book seems more designed for career women or those that have a substantial support system. Nice advice, but I was looking for more concrete financial step by step tips and I felt this was too much of a broad overview that I have seen before.

Arc provided.

[Jessie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly skimmed, nothing new here. My summary of all personal finance books is this:
1. Stop buying so many lattes you dummy
2. Don't carry a credit card balance for god's sake
3. Use coupons or whatever? I don't know, whatever it is that poor people do to save a few cents
4. Invest, it will make you so rich

All personal finance books ignore the elephant in the room that is just simply not having enough money. I can only afford to invest what I can afford TO LOSE. This is why investing is terrific for people who are already rich. Because if you have 30 million dollars and you lose half of it, you still have 15 million dollars. You're still wealthy. But if I lose half my money it will mean that I will no longer be able to afford to, you know, eat and pay my mortgage. The issue is not how good I am with money, it's that I need more of it.

[Amanda Harman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good tips geared towards the working mom, but doesn't go into the type of details I would expect from a book with this title. More of a financial parenting memoir than a how-to guide.

[Clio · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were definitely some misses in this book, and I can see how it made some other stay-at-home moms mad. But this is a book about building wealth, and taking yourself all the way out of working-for-money mode DOES make it harder to get back into it if you need it. She isn't saying our job isn't important. She is saying it is better for your family's wealth if you can do something that you get paid for rather than taking yourself 100% out of the workforce, which I think most people would agree with if they thought about it logically.

There was some good advice to be found here, even if the is also some weirdness like "hello fellow ladies, if you have never made a goal before, let's compare having a goal to a thing like buying new leggings! we ladies just adore leggings and handbags!"

But just ignore that stuff! Here are the good things:

1) Picture your future self (like literally age a picture of yourself if you need to) so you can better picture who you're saving your money for - "embrace and honor" your future self. I just like this. It's positive and it's good advice not just in the money realm but in general, it can help you make more mature decisions.

2) Her advice to working moms - I think the most important part here is "refuse to feel guilty." Because you WILL feel like you're not at work as much as other people and not as home as much as you should be and not doing quite enough for anybody. But you are doing a lot more than most people and you will get a lot more done if you aren't wasting time and energy feeling guilty! Also good in this section - ask for help! Help with your caretaking, help with cleaning your house, help from your family and commiseration and encouragement from other mothers.

3) She shares her household paperwork system in great detail. I found this helpful and I'll probably copy it out to save for my own reference because I am drowning in household paperwork and have yet to establish a great system for myself.

4) Her whole section on different philosophies for doing allowance for your kids is great - there are a lot of great ideas here.

5) This: "As moms, we can prepare for this stage of life (empty nesting) by beginning new ventures and exploring different paths even while young children are still at home. That might be possible by beginning a daddy-child outing tradition on Saturday afternoons so that you can stay home and write. Or it might mean sneaking out early Sunday mornings for a solo yoga class, just to have time to think. Many moms I spoke with opted to wake up early, before their children, or to stay up late, engaging in an activity that made them feel creatively alive, like running their Etsy shop or blogging. Taking care of yourself, and your ambition, is not only good for you, it's good for your family too." - To me this is the heart of this book and I think it's important.

[Natali · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is better served if you see it as a mom's manifesto rather than a how-to guide to managing money. The author lists A LOT of things that smart moms should be doing like managing investments, saving for retirement, managing online identities and personal documents, etc. If I were the kind of person that did none of this, I might find this to be really overwhelming. Maybe someone can take this step-by-step and start doing each thing the author recommends but like I said, it is a lot and that is not very likely.

However, as someone who does a lot of this for my family, I found this book to be empowering because it was as if I were listening to a kindred spirit preaching the things that I believe too: that women are just as capable (if not more so) of managing their family's wealth and need not be afraid of the task.

Maybe the typical reader will be somewhere in between: the kind of mom that does some of this and can learn from the rest. If that is the case, there is a lot of executable idea that will pay off in the long run. I hope that is the case and that anyone who picks up this book empowers herself to get in the drivers' seat of their career, money, and goals.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had some good ideas however I didn't like the author's (I don't have the book in front of me right now so I can't quote verbatim) insinuation that only smart mom's make their own money and don't rely on their husbands. This was not a book geared to mom's who want to be homemakers and help their husband's grow their money together - it's really about mom's working, even part time and having their own accounts, etc. There were some good ideas about investing and while there are some single moms or widowed moms interviewed most re-entered the workforce so a lot of the advice I had to tweak to my own situation in that I continue to be a homemaker even after being widowed.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how this book changes the conversation from clipping coupons to a more powerful message of how to create wealth and financial independence for your family. The big picture discussion, along with tips to create wealth, with humor and real-life mom examples, was so helpful. This book is fabulous!

[Cassie | Uplifted Book Club · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. I always have preached protecting yourself before getting into a relationship. I have my college degree and I was ridiculed for wanting to get that before I got married, which I thought was so ridiculous. I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to keep a foot in the door of my profession, while being a mother. Motherhood is the front seat and the career is the middle seat of the minivan. Lol.

The author shared so many great tips and tricks for advice and help break through so much of the noise that can surround women when it comes to money conversations. I really appreciate creating a space that women are allowed to know more and told to know more. Definitely opening up more conversations with my daughters the more I learn the more I get to teach! (I have four daughters and a special-needs son, so we are a different dynamic in our home altogether.)

Also, she does talk about childcare like it’s nothing to be worried about sending your kids to childcare which I don’t agree with, but she does acknowledge that being a lifestyle option. I think it’s wise to look at life from all angles, and I think there’s a lot to learn from this book. It’s good to no be going into your lifestyle blind. If anything, it’s solidified desire to be a stay at home mom, and raise my own children instead of putting them in a childcare. It seems that is the reason enjoy this book, but that was only a part of a chapter. It wasn’t even the entire book goes on to talk about caring for your parents and talking to your parents about their finances and how to carry out their wishes, and all these things that are really important.

[Robin Drummond · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm an empty-nester, so the "mom" part wouldn't seem to apply to me - but, no.

Kimberly Palmer has laid out a somewhat new model for thinking about money (and credit, and benefits, and retirement, and emergencies, and entrepreneurship, and...) At first I thought it was a rehash of what I consider to be common-sense guidelines for being smarter about our money. I was wrong. I learned a lot - and I have taught a fair number of financial literacy courses.

I recommend this book for every woman, regardless of your 'mom' status, or not. It's a painless read and includes organizing suggestions, additional educational resources and plenty of options for reading about how other women overcame mountains of debt and no cash to eventual success and a different way of dealing with finance. I especially liked the recommendation to read the memoir by the Charles Schwab offspring who ended up divorced, jobless and owner of a multi-million dollar gambling debt from her very controlling ex-husband. And no, daddy f=refused to bail her out.

My biggest takeaway: family finance is really a slight step away from personal finance, since the odds are overwhelming that almost all women will be on their own at some point. Take care of yourself. It's an ugly world out there!

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this over a weekend and plan to return to reread in a couple years. It definitely got my wheels turning on a lot of things. I loved how the author asked the reader to define what a rich life is for herself and not just financially rich but overall what would be a satisfying life. The end of the book that included the plans is very helpful and a great boon to the reader. The other part that resonated with me was talking to your children and your parents about finances. The book includes a list of questions to ask. This is definitely important and something I need to pursue but wasn't sure how or what to ask. Lastly, another part of the book that was unique was imagining your older self - the person you are saving for. I loved the author's ideas on how to do this - simple but so effective. We are so disconnected at times from realizing what the future will hold and it's certainly ideal to be prepared. This book wasn't only about building wealth but also doing it in a wise, checked all the boxes, clear way.

[Kimberly Tierney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like I have finally found the finance book I have always been looking for. I seem to have picked up this book at the perfect time for my life because I feel like she was talking right to me with every word. There is one key point she talks about that doesn't fit my life, getting involved as a woman in the financial management and understanding of your household. I am the finance manager of our home, and I can honestly say that my husband has no idea how our daily finances are taken care of. This is not done out of control issues, its done because of our lifestyle. We are a military family. My husband was gone a lot in the first eight years of our marriage, and if I didn't manage our finances, or make the major financial decisions, they would not have gotten taken care of. So this is a point that I think really needs to go both ways. Women and men need to work together within their marriages to understand their finances. 

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

So once a year I try to read a financial book to make sure that I am keeping up with the times. This is not a good book. First, it is extremely generalized and there are other books that do that much better. Second- super insulting. Come on ladies stop wasting your time couponing and stop getting your hair done. We need to invest money. But oh wait you need to use a coupon code to buy stuff online. At once demeaning and elitist. How many people in the US can afford to invest in the stock market? And hey girls sacrifice and add to your 401k- because of course the value of that will never crash. Unless you are us I guess. Add in some very unspecific save more advice and that is this book in a nutshell. Thank God I just borrowed it from the library, I definitely saved money on not buying this.

[Jean Bowen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It did have some good financial advice but written for career women. it was an exhausting read and rather uninspiring:

WORK, WORK, WORK, put money aside, don't waste your time couponing . . . look up coupon codes. . . Your husband is going to die before you do . . . SO PREPARE!!! Or you'll have no idea what to do. . . Do you even know how to login to online banking? YOU BETTER. This isn't the 1950s anymore. WORK, WORK, WORK, NEVER EVER STOP, even when you do - DON'T. Until of course you retire which you may never be able to do unless you: WORK, WORK, WORK!

Dave Ramsey's books are more motivating.

[Brenda Wells · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think this author just dashed off this book, with little interest in it other than publishing another book. A good financial book that takes into consideration the realities of motherhood and its effect on earning and saving, and the likelihood that we we will become a parental caregiver at some point would be a great idea. One that sees women as capable of understanding actual financial advice rather than admonitions to save rather than get your hair done or eat in rather than dine out. But this is not that book.

[Rebekah Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for ideas on how to make or save money, and this one has some good advice.

It helped me think again about how I spend money. Do I really need a day at the spa or could that money go into something else?

Am I serious about preparing for retirement?

Can I learn how to invest more wisely?

I didn’t find this book earthshakingly insightful, but it had helpful things to think about.

[Sara Mae C · Rating 1 out of 5]

It had such promise! It starts out talking about how finance books geared toward women often talk about coupon cutting and eliminating unnecessary spending, which is incredibly different from finance books for men. The author promises this will be different.

Then she proceeds to say we need to cut back on spending and sign up for rewards programs to save a few bucks here & there. I’m so disappointed with the first 56 pages that I’ll be shelving this as my first DNF of 2025.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot even as someone who is not yet pregnant/parenting. While I have an issue over the focus on male-female parenting structure, I feel like the information was applicable to me and I am grateful to have more jumping off points as I prepare not only for parenthood, but also for other major financial responsibilities that could happen through my adult life.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t get through the whole book. I liked some of the facts she included about retirement accounts and milestones for amount savings, but thought too many of her points, examples, and analogies focused on generic “girly” stereotypes.

[seffron holroyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good solid read.

This book was a great read from a woman's perspective for women themselves , and delves into our daily lives and struggles..
Full of great advice, ideas and resources.

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a younger audience, but a good reminder to save and plan for the future.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

some bits of helpful information. However, it often feels counterproductive. She treats women as the shoppers, coupon clippers that she's encouraging us not to be.

[Zi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been eye opening and life changing for me.

[Alesia · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book for helping moms get organized and really good information who moms who might need that money advice.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Advice for women on keeping their game in good order while tending to children. Best for the professional classes, but the admonition to stay connected while away is a wise one.

[Kaylee LeAnne · Rating 3 out of 5]

It wasn't anything ground breaking, but I did have a few ah-ha moments.

[fabby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks for the advice ,It seems we still have a lot to learn and this book is full of great tips

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my country, moms have the traditional role of handling budget and finances of their families. That is why the many of ideas here in this book are familiar to me personally. My mom was the main decision maker when it comes to financial decisions.

In my own family now, both me and my wife are jointly making decisions in our finances. We don't make big purchases without consulting each other. Since me and my wife are embracing the non-traditional role of spouses, Reading this book is a great help especially for me to find out how smart moms do what they do best.

This book is full of practical insights that will help women in particular be their own financial experts. There are also discussion on how to instill financial literacy to children as early as toddlers. I find it helpful that the book encompass the financial challenges of women and how they can solve it. I can use these ideas to help both me and my wife do better financial decisions.

If there is anything that I would want the book to explore more, it would be the ideas on how husbands or partners help their wives be financially capable. The book focuses too much on women doing things on their own while forgetting that many of these women have partners who can help them achieve what the book wants to achieve. I guess by reading this book, I just need to figure that on my own too. Lol

[Christine Lussier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a digital copy of Smart Mom, Rich Mom from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I found the chapters easy to understand & the reviews at the end of each chapter helpful. At one point, my concern is that if the reader has not started saving for the future they could become overwhelmed. However, there are plenty of examples & ideas for the reader to put to use. This book can definitely be used as a tool in teaching financial literacy.