Childfree Life by Design
Childfree Life by Design is a podcast for people who are Childfree or permanently childless and thinking seriously about money, legacy, and what comes next. It tackles financial planning, estate planning, and life decisions for adults building a future without children and without a default script to follow.
Hosted by experts in financial and life planning, the show cuts through outdated assumptions about family, retirement, and aging. Conversations focus on utilizing wealth, solo aging, long-term care, relationships, and how to plan with clarity when you don’t have kids.
This isn’t about justifying your choices or debating labels. It’s about practical guidance for planning life without children making smart financial decisions, defining legacy on your own terms, and building support systems that actually work.
If you’re Childfree, childless, or planning without kids and want thoughtful, trusted education, this is where those conversations happen.
Disclosure: This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Please consult your professional advisors before implementing any ideas discussed. For full disclosures, visit Childfreewealth.com.
Episodes
206 episodes
What No One Tells You About Rental Properties | Bri Conn CFP® & Justin Brown-Woods
Rental properties, passive income, and long-distance real estate investing sound great on social media. The reality looks a lot more like what Justin Brown-Woods actually lived -- two properties across Michigan and Ohio, squatters, stolen coppe...
You Hit Your Financial Goals. Now What? | Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® & Dr. Bill Yount
In this crossover episode, Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® sat down with Dr. Bill Yount, host and founder of the Catching Up to FI podcast, for a conversation that starts where most financial conversations never go. Bill recently hit financial independen...
Preparing for Major Life Events | Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® & Bri Conn, CFP®
Every major life change comes with a to-do list most people don't think about until they're already in the middle of it. The job switch that leaves you a month without a paycheck. The move that triggers a tax bill from a state you no longer liv...
Life Can Change on a Dime | Bri Conn CFP®, Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® & Maddy Roche
In this episode, Bri Conn CFP®, Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP®, and Maddy Roche share four real client stories, the kind that start with someone doing everything more or less right, and then life intervening in ways nobody planned for. These...
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Planning the Life You Actually Have | Bri Conn CFP® & Hillary
In this episode, Bri Conn CFP® sits down with Hillary, a client who is Childfree not by choice, for a real-life Childfree Wealth® checkup. Hillary has already done much of the emotional heavy lifting, moving through grief, redefining what her f...
Finding Your True Calling When Society Has Other Plans | Bri Conn, CFP® & Sister Monica Claire
Sister Monica Clare knew from a young age that marriage and children were not her calling. She just spent decades being told otherwise. By the time she made it to the Groundlings in LA, she had checked every box society handed her: the career, ...
Women and Credit: The History That Still Shapes Your Finances | Bri Conn, CFP® & Grace L. Williams
Women could not open their own bank accounts without a man's signature until 1974. That is not ancient history. The people who lived through it are still alive. And the financial world Childfree women are navigating today was built in that shad...
Money, Independence & the Childfree Woman | Maddy Roche & Bri Conn, CFP®
Finances have never been a level playing field for women, and for women who are Childfree, the landscape gets even more specific. It was only 1974 when the Equal Credit Opportunity Act gave women the legal right to open their own credit account...
Designing Your End of Life | Maddy Roche & Zeena Regis, MDiv
In this episode, Maddy Roche sits down with Zeena Regis, MDiv, Director of Priority Populations at Compassion and Choices, to explore one of the most requested, and most avoided, conversations in the Childfree community: medical aid in dy...
Planning Without Next of Kin | Maddy Roche & Chris Dale, CFP®, CeFT®
In this episode, Maddy Roche sits down with Chris Dale, CFP®, CeFT®, founder of Life After Grief Financial Planning, to share the real-life story of helping a client navigate aging, medical emergencies, and end-of-life decisions.From hos...
The Importance of Care Plans | Maddy Roche & Bri Conn, CFP®
In this episode, Maddy Roche and Bri Conn, CFP®, explain why legal documents alone aren’t enough. Estate plans grant authority. Care plans provide direction. They spell out the details that make real-world care possible: where to find your mail...
Building Childfree Trust® - Partnership with Welon Trust | Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP®, John Steiner, CFA®, & Robert Allan, CFP®, CFA®, CPA
Who makes decisions for you when you can't? For Childfree people, the answer has never been straightforward. Dr. Jay Zigmont sits down with Robert Allan and John Steiner from Welon Trust to reveal how they spent two and a half years building so...
Protecting Your Pets: Emergency Planning & Long-Term Care | Bri Conn, CFP® & Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP®
What happens to your pets if you're suddenly unable to care for them? For Childfree people with animal companions, this isn't just about planning for after you're gone. It's about having a solid plan for emergencies, temporary disability, and e...
Childfree Trust®: Who Makes Decisions When You Can't? | Maddy Roche & Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP®
Who will make decisions for you when you can't? For Childfree people, that question has never had a good answer until now.In this episode, Maddy Roche and Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® introduce Childfree Trust®, the first nationwide professiona...
Special Episode 20: CES 2026 | Behind the Scenes of the World's Biggest Tech Show
The Childfree Life By Design team just got back from CES in Las Vegas, and they're sharing everything: the coolest tech, the weirdest products, and what it's really like to run a booth at the world's biggest consumer electronics show.Fro...
Legacy Without Lineage: Leadership Lessons from NASCAR | Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® & Drew Blickensderfer
What do you want the second line of your obituary to say? For most people, it reads "father of three" or "survived by spouse and children." For Childfree people, that line looks different. This episode tackles the identity crisis that comes whe...
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Building Your Bench | Maddy Roche & Bri Conn, CFP®
Who's on your bench? When you're building a Childfree life on your own terms, the professionals and teammates you surround yourself with make all the difference in how well you age.In this episode, Maddy Roche and Bri Conn, CFP®, walk th...
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Reimagining Wealth with Carl Richards, CFP® & Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP®
What if the way you think about wealth is keeping you from building it? In this episode, Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® and Carl Richards, CFP® creator of the Sketch Guy column in the New York Times, sit down to explore how simple drawings unlock ...
Building Financial Habits | Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP®, and Fiona Waller, MSW, LCSW, CFP®
Building better financial habits is less about willpower and more about understanding how your brain works. In this episode, Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP®, and Fiona Waller, MSW, LCSW, CFP® dive into the behavioral side of personal finance, exploring w...
Welcome to Childfree Life by Design | Dr. Jay Zigmont & Bri Conn
Welcome to a brand new era! After two and a half years as the Childfree Wealth® Podcast, we're excited to introduce Childfree Life By Design. This isn't just a rebrand; it's an expansion of our mission. While finances remain a cornerstone, we'r...
A Fond Farewell and the Evolution to Childfree Life by Design, Ep 171
We've reached the final episode of the Childfree Wealth podcast hosted by Bri and Dr. Jay, CFP®! It's been an incredible two-and-a-half-year run with 171 episodes published and over 100,000 downloads, and we couldn't be more grat...
My Mother's Money with Beth Pinsker, CFP®, Ep 168
Caring for aging parents is a universal experience, but for the Childfree, the dynamics are completely unique. In this episode, Dr. Jay sits down with Beth Pinsker, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® and retired MarketWatch columnist, to discuss he...
The "Die With Zero" Dilemma: Can Don Learn to Spend?, Ep 167
Join us for a fascinating conversation with Don, a disciplined saver who's embracing the "Die With Zero" philosophy but finding it hard to shift gears! We dive into his journey of planning generous gifts to family and charities now, rather than...
Tax Planning To and Through Early Retirement with Cody Garrett, CFP®, Ep 166
What does it really take to plan your taxes to - and through - early retirement? In this week's episode, Dr. Jay sits down with Certified Financial Planner® and author Cody Garrett to unpack the key ideas from Cody’s new book, Measure T...
Navigating Your "Enough" in Retirement with Claudia, Ep 165
Ever wonder if you truly have enough to retire, or if your long-term plans are actually achievable? This week, we dive deep with Claudia, a bright, resourceful, and wonderfully human individual who, despite a significant net worth, finds hersel...