As a personal finance writer, my job is to empower people by giving them the tools to make financial decisions that will positively impact their lives. But as someone with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) myself, I’ll freely admit that I often find it hard to follow a lot of popular personal finance advice.
People with ADHD, like me, struggle with executive functioning skills, which can have a huge impact on their quality of life, including their ability to manage their money. People with ADHD have great difficulty tackling boring or unpleasant tasks (like budgeting), have trouble keeping track of details (like when bills are due), and have poor impulse control (like overspending).
Living with ADHD can be a challenge, and when it affects your ability to manage money it can impact not only your day-to-day finances, but your mental health as well.
Before I was diagnosed with ADHD, I tried countless common strategies to manage my money, but each time I was left feeling frustrated and hopeless. I’ve since realized that I was following advice intended for people without ADHD, but my brain works differently and I have to manage my money differently.
These are just a few of the methods I use to manage my money as someone with ADHD: Whether you have ADHD or just want to try a new budgeting strategy, consider these steps to pay off debt, increase your savings, and budget like a pro.
1. “See it or forget it” isn’t always the best idea.
Traditional budgeting advice emphasizes setting up automatic deductions from your checking account and forgetting about it. While this is great advice for many people, it didn’t work for me. If you don’t check your bank account often, you might not realize until weeks or months later that you’ve forgotten to cancel a subscription or that a recurring bill has skyrocketed in price.
My solution is a homemade budget that tracks my bills, monthly expenses, debt payoff progress, and monthly budget. I get paid every other week, and every payday, I pay all my bills for the next two weeks and move the money into savings. Whatever’s left over is free to spend. That way, I know exactly how much money I have available for food and discretionary spending for the next two weeks. Managing my money in this way gives me control over my finances and makes me more confident in my financial decisions. (You can also try this by setting up installment savings if your bank offers it.)
Here is a sample page from my personal budget spreadsheet, which I use to keep track of money coming in, bills coming up, bills paid, and how much money I have left after paying my bills.
If that’s not right for you:
While maintaining a meticulous spreadsheet works for me, for many people with ADHD, budgeting can be confusing or anxiety-inducing. Make sure you’re careful with your budget. If that doesn’t work, consider a budgeting app that will do it for you. YNAB is highly rated among people with ADHD for its systematic budgeting strategy.
2. Make budgeting as manual as possible.
“Manual” means literally having money in your hands to better understand your cash flow. It’s very easy to spend only with debit and credit cards, but sometimes it’s too easy. Some people with ADHD find it hard to keep track of their spending when they have to swipe their card for every purchase.
I use a physical planner for my weekly meetings and to-do lists, and my desk is full of sticky notes, notebooks, and other papers. If this is your process, why not make your budget physical as well? After paying your bills, take out your discretionary funds in cash. Get some envelopes, label them, and separate your funds just like you would a budget sheet.
For example, if you have $500 on hand after payday each month and you’ve paid your bills, you could put $100 in an envelope labeled “savings,” $300 in “food and household expenses,” and another $100 in “entertainment.” This is also called cash stuffing, and it’s a great way to help people with ADHD who have trouble visualizing money. Don’t just visualize the money, have it in your hand.
3. Reward yourself frequently.
Setting a savings goal isn’t usually everyone’s favorite way to spend a Friday night. People with ADHD often have trouble focusing on topics that don’t interest them or provide immediate rewards, which can make it hard for some to stick to a budget or prioritize saving. But while saving doesn’t provide immediate rewards (at least, not as much as spending money), it’s an important tool to help you reach your financial goals.
So why not reward yourself now for reaching your goal? If you want to save more, try rewarding yourself for every $300 or $500 you save. Keep rewards small (like dining out instead of designer clothes) and give them often. If you only set a reward for when you save $10,000, it’ll be hard to stay motivated.
David DeWitt, a certified financial planner who specializes in financial planning for people with ADHD, says his clients have a hard time thinking about far-off possibilities like buying a home. They need smaller, more realistic goals.
“When it comes to money, we tend to expect a large discount for future rewards and a very high premium for short-term rewards,” DeWitt says. “We place a high value on something we can see, feel and understand tangibly because it’s in our minds.”
Need more motivation?
Consider apps like Habitica or Do It Now, which are habit trackers that gamify your habits by letting you fight monsters, dress up your character, etc. Paying off extra debt can give you points to slay a dragon, which might get you a little more excited.
4. Create barriers to avoid impulse spending.
Impulse buying can be a big problem for people with ADHD. The urge to buy something right now, even if it’s outside of their budget, can be too strong to ignore.
If you struggle with impulse buying, consider the 24-hour rule: When you’re tempted to buy something online, leave it in your cart for at least 24 hours. The next day, you might find that the thrill of buying something fun outweighs the anticipation of the actual item.
I’ve also had success with a “no waste week” – where I commit to not buying anything other than groceries and other essentials for a week to cut down on my monthly expenses. Meeting my goal and successfully making it through the week without buying anything extra is a huge motivator.
DeWitt says he couldn’t break his spending habit until he was able to understand his values. It wasn’t until he started weighing the benefits of buying something now against the security of saving that he was able to begin to change his habits. But it’s not an overnight process, he says.
“If you’re a real impulse buyer, prepare yourself for it to take a long time — maybe a year or more — to keep going, going back and dealing with it, but it will pay off,” DeWitt says.
5. Rely on your support network.
Unfortunately, talking about money is still taboo for many Americans, but as someone with ADHD, I’ve found it’s much easier to achieve my goals when I rely on my family, friends, and support system.
If you have ADHD, you may know that it’s much easier to tackle a project when someone else holds you accountable. Apply the same principle to your personal finances: collaborate with people who have similar financial priorities to you. Swap budgeting tips, share deals in your city, or even start a savings challenge.
These conversations can be hard to initiate, but because I’m more comfortable talking about my own situation than asking about others’, I tend to get the conversation flowing by asking for advice for myself. For example, in the past I’ve asked friends (usually other people with ADHD who understand my situation) things like, “I’m struggling to save more money. Do you have any tips you use right now?”
My friends shared helpful advice, like tips on how to spend less on groceries or how to save money on books, that they wouldn’t have shared if I hadn’t asked. After I asked, they usually shared stories of their struggles to pay off debt and save more.
Learning to manage your personal finances can feel alienating, especially if you’re trying a completely new approach. But you might be surprised at how many people, with or without ADHD, can empathize with your struggle to stay focused on your goals. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Conclusion
Whether you have ADHD or not, taking control of your personal finances isn’t always easy, nor does it give you instant results. These are some tips that have worked for me, but a different approach might suit your brain better. There’s no one way to approach personal finances. Learn what works best for you, and use those skills to create your own budgeting rulebook.
