Adult ADD and Money

Adult ADD/ADHD Money Guide

Welcome to Adult ADD and Money. Many people who visit this website are looking for advice and strategies on how to manage their day to day finances. The following is a guide that is specifically designed to help people with ADHD manage their money. Each chapter contains a few key posts in order to give you the best information in that particular area. 

The rest of this website is my personal blog where most of my articles relate back to ADD and/or money management. I hope that you enjoy this website.

 

Chapter 1: Six overlooked reasons why you are struggling with your finances.

Chapter 2: Basic Knowledge

Chapter 3: Challenges

Chapter 4: Spending

Chapter 5: Managing & Savings

Chapter 6: Best of the Guest Authors

  

Four things I like about "ADD and your Money"

ADD and your Money by Stephanie Moulton Sarkis, Ph.D., is the only book that I know that is solely about ADD and money management. I highly recommend this book for any adult with ADD who wants to take action when it comes to dealing with their finances. Here are four things that I like about the book.

1. The book deals with emotional and relationship issues before dealing with ways to organize and manage your finances.

2. Lots of suggested activities that engages the reader into action.

3. It got me to think about thermal receipts. In the book there is a section about managing receipts. One tips was to make photocopies of thermal receipts because they can fade quickly. Its a great tip, but I have a something to add to it. On more than one occasion, I have put my work clothes in the dryer to remove wrinkles so that I can wear the clothes later that day. A few times I have left thermal receipts in my pants, and after removing my pants from the dryer, the receipts were completely black and unreadable. So make sure to keep thermal receipts away from the heat.

4. I really liked the activity "Can someone guess your PIN number?". Often people don't make the connection that the information in your wallet or phone can give a thief easy clues in guessing you ATM PIN#.

(2005 Repost) Money and the Holidays

Here is another holiday repost from 2005.

Fall is in the air, and pretty soon the holiday season is going to creep up on us before we know it.  Now is the time to start planning and preparing (if you haven't already) for anyone to get through the holidays debt free.  I know what that many adults with ADD are still working on sending out last year holiday cards, but by starting out with small habits today you will reduce the holiday anxiety. We have enough anxiety actually dealing with friends & family. Right around now I like to make a list of the type of gifts that I am going to buy for friends and family and how much money I would like to spend on each gift.  By preparing this list now it will allow you to do three things.

1. If you like to buy all of your gifts at the last second, you can start saving the money you need now to fund these purchases. The list will also  give you a starting point of what stores you want to visit.

2. If you have issues saving the money that you WANT to spend during the holidays. You can reevaluate your list to reduce your spending, or you will have enough time to make or design some of your presents.

3. You can also start buying some of your presents now, to take some of the sting out of the holiday season. When I go on my regular shopping trips, I like to get at least 1 item on my list. It is also a good time to buy on-line because you don't have to pay extra for speedy delivery or worry that you are not going to get the item before the holidays.

The thing that everyone needs to remember about the holidays, is that it is a time to be around friends & family and to appreciate all of the blessings that you have received over the year.  No one wants to see you get stressed or go into debt buying things.

Ways for an ADD adult to waste money during the holidays (2005 Repost)

Here is a fun repost from 2005:

1. Buying and serving 10 vegetables with your holiday meal, because all of them looked good at the store and you couldn't pick just 3.

2. Buying extra gifts because you missed the deadline for holiday orders and the gifts that you ordered for people should show up on the 27th.

3. Buying extra gifts because you forgot where you hid some of your gifts.

4. Not cashing grandma's check because you threw it away with all of the other "junk mail" on your table.

5. Buying extra gifts because you desperately wanted to play with the video game that you bought for your nephew.

If you can answer yes to less than three of the questions above consider it a successful holiday season.

1. Buying and serving 10 vegetables with your holiday meal, because all of them looked good at the store and you couldn't pick just 3.

2. Buying extra gifts because you missed the deadline for holiday orders and the gifts that you ordered for people should show up on the 27th.

3. Buying extra gifts because you forgot where you hid some of your gifts.

4. Not cashing grandma's check because you threw it away with all of the other "junk mail" on your table.

5. Buying extra gifts because you desperately wanted to play with the video game that you bought for your nephew.

If you can answer yes to less than three of the questions above consider it a successful holiday season.

Top Five ADD / ADHD Posts November 2009

Here are five of my favorite blog posts for November:

Received the first copies of “ADD and Your Money”! (Stephanie Sarkis Blog) - P.S. don't forget to sign up for Stephanie's free teleseminar about " Help for the Financially Disorganized" on Tuesday, December 1st at ADDClasses.com

The Worst Dinner I Ever Cooked (Moms with ADD / ADHD )

What Has Helped Me with Adult ADD (Adult ADD Strengths)

ADHD Diagnosis and Treatment is Imperative for Relationships and Self! (ADDer World)

Adults with ADD: Top 5 Ways to Have a Happy Thanksgiving (Experiencing ADDvantages)

Most Expensive Presents

Let me start this post by stating that I am annoyed. I am annoyed this year that the holiday season has began with full force before Thanksgiving. Radio stations are all ready playing Christmas music 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It seems that every store is having several black friday sales before Thanksgiving. From every angle it seems that I am getting bombarded to begin preparing for and celebrating for the holiday season. The prolonging of the holiday season is also taking an additional toll on adults with ADD who are susceptible to over stimulation and the barrage of extra tasks and decisions the should be made before the end of the year.  

I know that our struggling economy is a major reason for lengthening the holiday season, so in order to help stimulate the economy, and perhaps shorten next years holiday season, may I suggest a couple of presents (found on luxist.com) that you could give a loved one this year.

Most Expensive Bottle of Beer

Most Expensive Christmas Ornament

World's Most Expensive Xmas Gift  (Hint: its only 500 million dollars)

 

None of these gifts are in my holiday budget this year. In fact I think that these gifts are absurd to give to anyone. What I really want to make sure of is that people put the holiday season into its proper perspective. The whole point is to spend time and celebrate with the people you care about. It is not about what people give each other or how much money is spent. I implore everyone to focus on finding ways to reduce financial and social stress during the holiday season.

The Big Break Up ( When changing financial habits isn't just about the money)

Recently I had to end a relationship. I will admit that I was still happy in the relationship, but the relationship wasn't good long term for me. I never really discussed the relationship with my wife, but the evidence was clear. Sometimes I would leave half filled styrofoam cups of coffee in the car, other times the car would be filled with bags and wrappers that had the name of the one I was having this relationship with. Ever since I ended the relationship I have been a lot less nervous and I have had a few more dollars in my pocket. If you haven't figured it out by now, I decided to end my daily ritual of getting an iced latte and a breakfast sandwich on my coffee break at work.

Many people have pointed to cutting out the daily trip to the coffee shop as a simple way to reduce expenses. The method is truly a very simple way to reduce expenses. But simple is not always easy. Personally for me, cutting out the daily trip to the coffee shop is extremely difficult. There are several reasons why the breakup with the coffee shop was hard, there was the physical high I got from the caffeine and sugar, the purpose it gave me to physically leave my work for 15 minutes, and the ability to interact with people who I didn't work with.

For me a simple habit, had both physical and emotional ramifications and was not an easy habit to break. I think it is safe for me to assume that many adults who have ADD and try to cut the coffee shop will find it difficult. Many adults with ADD use caffeine as a way to self medicate, and if the coffee break has any emotional connection, it makes it an extremely tough habit to deal with. I am not saying that you shouldn't try to deal with reducing the number of trip you make to the coffee shop, all that I am really saying is to take it easy on yourself if you find it difficult to break a simple habit. Often there are other underlying reasons why you are not ready to end a habit.

One Key Focus

Recently, I consolidated some debt into my credit card. I am not going to go into the details, but after reviewing my finances I have made my main financial focus to pay off the balance on this card within 18 months. I believe that this is a slightly ambitious goal but also one that is achievable with a little persistence and a little sacrifice.

Focusing on one key financial goal is generally a good idea for someone with ADD. Having one large goal is easier to focus on because it should have a significant impact on your life, it is also easier to track versus having several smaller goals. In the past I lost financial focus when trying to manage several smaller financial goals. I tended to not deal with smaller financial goals because I could not easily visualize the benefit of achieving them. While I do not have ADD, I am pretty sure that many adults with ADD who are reading this post can relate to my past setbacks. From time to time I will keep you updated of the challenges that I will run into when trying to achieve my goal.