Jay Zigmont PhD - Portraits of Childfree Wealth

Live, Learn, Plan and Childfree Wealth

https://www.childfreewealth.com

Copyright 2022

All rights reserved.

I need to give a special thanks to all who participated in this book. It is genuinely your book, and I am just a narrator. You shared your life story and the impact of being Childfree on your life, wealth, and finances. You shared more than I could have ever expected and to you, and I cant say thanks enough.

Thanks to my Editor Ashley Maready and all of my Beta Readers

And as always, thanks to my wife, who puts up with my craziness.

This book is a collection of 26 stories about Childfree Wealth, Life, and Finances. I call each of the stories a portrait as it is a snapshot of life, not intended to be all-inclusive. There is no way I could do anyones life story justice and have it fit within this book. To that end, I tried to focus on what is important to my interviewees and the impact that being Childfree had on them. You will find extraordinary stories in this book that inspire you and make you cry. Some portraits challenged my assumptions and provided support for my own choices.

To create the stories, each person (or couple) met with me for an interview of about an hour via Zoom. For research nerds, you can find my research plan and interview tool in Everyone in this book volunteered to share their lives. I recruited volunteers primarily online through Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, and other sources. Additionally, many people who were interviewed recruited their friends to be part of the book. As a result, the portraits reflect a large range of ages, genders, sex, marital status, cultures, and more.

After each interview, I transcribed what they said and did my best to create a portrait of their life. I intentionally tried to use direct quotes to allow each person to tell their own story in their own words. What that means is you will find a variety of voices in this book, and some may touch on tough topics or use what some consider inappropriate language. I intentionally chose not to censor anyone. This is your only trigger warning, as you may find quotes in here about real life, including death, sex, loss, and other difficult topics.

I look at my work in this book as a narrator or guide, with each portrait having its own hero. My goal was to allow each portrait to tell its own story and to pick out teachable moments to help you learn about Childfree Wealth, Life, and Finances. You will see some themes that became obvious throughout. Here are a few that might help you to gain context:

• The reasons for being Childfree are as varied as the people themselves. There are themes around why people choose to be Childfree (medical, financial, social, environmental, and others), and they are all valid. However, what was most surprising to me was the number of people who commented that they did not realize until later in their life that there was even a choice to be Childfree.
• There are very few or no regrets from people being Childfree. There is a clear theme that most people have no regrets about their choice to be Childfree. There are some fears for the future, but those are not regrets.
• Being Childfree does not automatically make you rich. What you will find in the portraits is that there are people who are barely making ends meet and others who are financially independent. I did find that Childfree people tend to have less debt than the average American. The way I look at it is that if you are Childfree and barely keeping your head above water, you would drown if you had a child.
• There is a relationship between growing up poor and in poverty and being Childfree. Unfortunately, I dont have enough data to determine if this is a correlation or causation relationship. Still, you will find that many of the portraits discuss growing up poor, in poverty, or lower class (their words).
• COVID-19 had an impact. This research was completed in February 2022. We had just been through two years of COVID-19 and shutdowns. Depending on when you read this, that may not seem like a big deal, but it was for many at the time.
• Childfree Financial Independence is simple. Most of those who achieved financial independence did two things: 1. They got out of debt (and stayed out), and 2. They maxed out their retirement plans. It is a rather boring and simple equation, but it seems to have worked for many.
• Childfree people choose not to follow the LifeScript. While there isnt a formal written LifeScript, you will see this term frequently in the Childfree community. It is a bit tongue in cheek, but represents all of the normal expected life choices, such as having a child.
• .
• Childfree Wealth reflects the ability to have the Time, Money, and Freedom to achieve your goals and dreams. While each person might have put those in a different order, the bottom line is that being Childfree allows you all three.

How to Read This Book

My intent is not for you to read this book cover to cover. Each portrait is a stand-alone story. The result is that you may see some repetition in the themes (particularly in the notes from me), but that is intentional. I wanted you to be able to pick up this book, read one portrait and then take the time to reflect on it. Some portraits will hit you hard, and others you may not be able to connect with. That is okay.

One of my struggles was to decide the order of the portraits. I played with sorting them by age, income, life stage, and more. In the end, I decided to use alphabetical order by name. People choose to use their own name or a pseudonym, so even that may be a bit random. If you dont like the order I presented the portraits in, visit the table of contents, and you can pick a portrait based on the topic.

You will see that some topics (such as A Portrait of Freedom) are duplicated. This is because I allowed each participant to weigh in on what to call their life a portrait of, and freedom was a common topic. That does not mean that the portraits are the same. They just have a similar theme in the eyes of the participant. We all have different definitions of freedom (and other terms), so each perspective is helpful.

I encourage you to do some active reflection on each story. What can you learn from it? What emotions does the story bring up in you? How does it support (or challenge) your own choices? Do they have goals or dreams that you share? How do you need to change your life to live your best Childfree life?

I also encourage you to discuss the portraits with friends and family. Share the book and the stories with others. It may help you to have a great discussion with others if you can center it around a portrait. For example, when I shared Carly: A Portrait of Struggle online, there were great discussions about income inequality, being Childfree, and supporting each other.

Try not to judge. Everyone in this book has had a different life than you. They have made different choices and will continue to make different choices than you would. Each choice is not better or worse, but just different. While they may have followed a different path than you, I genuinely believe that each portrait can help you learn something.

A note on definitions: For this book, I defined Childfree as Not having children and not planning on having children. This is my definition, and yours might be different. Gatekeeping was not my intent, but its important to have a definition for research purposes. You will see that some portraits stretch and challenge this definition, which is okay.