Parent Like a Millionaire (Without Being One)

Outsmart Big Baby, Save on Childcare, and Secure Your Family's Financial Future

By: Kristy Shen, Bryce Leung, JL Collins - introduction

Narrated by: Kristy Shen, Bryce Leung, JL Collins

From two leaders of the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement, an essential guide to the finances of having and raising kids no matter the size of your budget

New parents are often stressed about their finances. Even Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung—who both retired at age 30 with over a million dollars in the bank—worried about the cost of becoming parents. Leaders of the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) movement, Kristy and Bryce may not be experts at parenting, but they are experts at saving.

In this book, they reveal how to:

• Make your money work harder than you do
• Avoid the pressure to buy baby gear you don’t need
• Find your nest, optimize transportation, and hack childcare
• Go on unlimited family vacations
• Give your child a world-class education

Each chapter in this book is filled with money-saving tips—and more money means less stress, which leads to happier families. The financial advice in this book is tailored to help you reduce your stress so that your family can thrive.

Critic reviews

“Full of smarts, love, sass, and clever strategies, Parent Like a Millionaire should be the first purchase of your pregnancy. It will save you thousands as your infant outgrows or rejects ninety percent of those must-have products. Kristy and her husband Bryce are ‘Financial Independence Retire Early’ super-stars so of course they'd bring us this very useful manual for financial hacks for parenting.”
—Vicki Robin, New York Times bestselling co-author of Your Money or Your Life

“Parent Like a Millionaire is filled with the practical strategies all parents need to navigate the financial stressors of expanding their family. This book will keep you from making those knee-jerk decisions that feel reasonable in the moment, but could hurt your finances long term.”
—Erin Lowry, author of the Broke Millennial series

“This book reminds us that when parents feel supported and financially at ease, the whole family can breathe. It’s honest, funny, and beautifully raw—a hopeful, empowering guide to building a joyful home with less financial pressure and more peace.”
—Ken and Mary Okoroafor, Sunday Times bestselling authors of Financial Joy and The Wealth Habit.

“As educators who’ve helped tens of thousands of people with their finances (but haven’t had to change a diaper at 3 a.m.), we can tell you: this is the book we’d give to every parent we know. Kristy and Bryce are some of the smartest people we have ever met and they have taken their engineering mindset and created a parenting and money manual that’s fun to read and genuinely life-changing. Read this book if you want to buy back your time, stress less, and raise happier kids (without needing a millionaire’s bank account).”
—Katie and Alan Donegan, BEM, founders of Rebel Finance School

“Kristy and Bryce are your fun, intelligent friends who figured out that society was lying to us with the fear mongering that ‘babies are so expensive.’ Using the principles of the Financial Independence Movement, they show you step-by-step how you can save money on every aspect of raising your child and live a happier, less stressful life in the process. This book is a must-read for new parents or anyone even thinking about having a kid in the next few years!"
—Brad Barrett, co-founder and host of the Choose FI Podcast

Original Ideas and Simple Financial Education

A well-positioned book with a strong core idea that you don’t need significant wealth to raise kids. It offers a fresh lens by connecting financial principles to parenting decisions, emphasizing habits and environment over dollars. That said, much of the content is fairly basic from a personal finance perspective, so those already familiar with core concepts may not find it especially deep. Overall, it’s a worthwhile read for the mindset shift and parenting application, even if it doesn’t break new ground financially.