8 Personal Finance Tips For People With ADHD

Personal Finance + ADHD

Difficulty managing personal finances can be difficult for anyone. People with ADHD face unique financial challenges that can make managing personal finances even more difficult.

If you have ADHD and find yourself struggling to manage your personal finances, you are in good company! According to The Guardian…

• 65% of people with ADHD believe that having ADHD makes managing money more difficult

• The most common issues that people with ADHD face are impulse spending (58%), difficulty budgeting (51%), and struggling to save (49%)

As impulse spending is the most common issue that people with ADHD face, let’s take a moment to talk about spending.

Spending + ADHD

Spending is a single aspect of money, a necessary aspect in fact. Therefore, spending responsibly is an important skill for everyone to learn.

Impulse spending and overspending, or spending beyond your means, does not mean that you are bad with money. More importantly, impulse spending and overspending does not mean that you are a bad person. Remember…

• Overspending is a verb, not a noun.

• Your spending is not a reflection of who you are.

Having ADHD does not mean that you are incapable of having a strong financial future.

• ADHD does not define your capacity with money. 

• Having ADHD can be a strength in financial management.

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8 Personal Finance Tips For People With ADHD

1. Nix The Spreadsheets: Automate!

Forget the spreadsheets and automate. Automate. Automate. Automate. Automation is recommended for everyone, not just for people with ADHD. Automation reduces human error - in our busy busy lives it can be easy to forget when our credit card or utility bill is due.

Automating can feel like a lot of work at first. Fortunately, you only have to spend time getting organized and automated with everything once. You may occasionally need to automate something new - for example, retirement contributions when you start at a new employer - but for the most part, once you have automated your finances, you are set to forget!

• Explore these freeing budgeting alternatives

• Automate credit card payments, bill payments, retirement contributions, retirement investments, etc.

• Schedule just ten to fifteen minutes once a week to check your bank account and credit cards for any errors. This can be while walking your dog, watching tv, or between sets at the gym.

2. Eliminate Spending Triggers

We all have triggers that cause us to spend. Triggers can be internal, external or emotional. Identifying and eliminating spending triggers can reduce overall spending.

• If having your credit card saved on your phone and laptop leads to increased spending, delete your credit card information from all devices.

• If retail emails lead to impulse spending, unsubscribe from all retail emails. You can spend time unsubscribing from all at once, or as you receive emails each day, you can unsubscribe from them.

• If upcoming events (holiday party, birthday party, etc.) lead to impulse spending, consider asking the host how specifically you can contribute.

• To learn more about emotional spending triggers, read 6 Unique Steps to Improve Your Emotional Spending Habits.

3. Assess Your Purchases

Many people with ADHD are ambitious visionaries - they see a postcard and envision an art project or they have an idea to rearrange the living room that is more functional. While in so many ways this is beautiful(!!), unnecessary or unused purchases can create financial strains.

The goal is not to eliminate spending altogether, rather to simply reduce the amount of spending that you are doing, so you can achieve your financial goals and have financial safety and security. Create a list of questions specific that you can ask yourself before making a purchase. For example…

• “Do I have the money for this purchase?”

• “Is this a need or is this an exciting idea?”

  • “If this is an exciting idea, how likely am I to follow through with this idea?”

  • “Could I save this exciting idea and purchase for when I have more time and capacity?”

• “If I find an item that sparks a exciting idea, can I wait 72 hours to make this purchase?”

4. Plan For Impulse Spending

While planning to spend impulsively may sound contradictory, it is actually very responsible! If you know that you are going to impulsively spend, instead of exerting so much self-control in an attempt to contain your impulses, plan for them. Planning to spend impulsively will not only improve your finances but it will also reduce feelings of shame.

• Open a savings account for impulse spending. Automate your contributions to the account. If you have money in the account, impulse spend away!

• Move your emergency and long term savings accounts to a different bank than your checking account and impulse spending account, so you are not tempted to use them - out of sight, out of mind!

5. Tell Yourself A New Story

Repeatedly, telling yourself that you are bad with money or that you are incapable of managing your personal finances will only hold you back from achieving the financial safety and security that you are seeking. You do not need to tell yourself that you are excellent at managing money - just that you are capable.

• Write down three to five ways that you are responsible with money (everyone has three to five ways at least!)

• Increase your financial literacy

  • Read or listen to a personal finance book, such as I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Rami Sethi

  • Listen to the ADHD Money and Finance Podcast

• Focus on improving one area of your finances each month

  • January: Automate accounts

  • February: Increase retirement contributions 1%

  • March: Open an impulse spending account

  • Etc.

6. Expand Your Community

Community helps to increase connectedness and decrease feelings of shame. Connecting with other people with ADHD who struggle to manage their finances can help you to feel less lonely and to learn different ways that people manage their money that work for them. You may find that you have ideas that others could benefit from too! Follow…

• Tina Mathams - the ADHD Accountant

• David DeWitt CFP - ADHD Money Talk

• Ellyce Fulmore of Queerd Co.

7. Ask for Help

There are many aspects to personal finances - spending, saving, investing, taxes, charitable giving, etc. Find the aspects of personal finance that you feel confident about and do those yourself. Find someone (a professional or a trusted friend or family member) who can help you with the rest (this is called outsourcing). If you have joint finances with a partner or spouse, communicate with one another about what areas of finance you feel most confident managing. Consider…

• Working with a Certified Financial Therapist (CFT), an Accredited Financial Counselor, or a Certified Financial Planner (CFP)

8. Keep Trying

If you experience a financial setback, know that everyone does - keep trying. If none of the tips in this blog post work for you, seek support elsewhere - keep trying. If you feel like you are taking two steps forward and one step back, you are still making forward progress! You deserve financial safety and security - keep the end goal in mind.