Adult ADD and Money

New Resources

I just wanted to let you know about several new resources for people with ADHD:

Attn: Money is a new blog that is moderated by Dr. Kenneth Kaye and his son Nick Kaye. It is a financial blog that focuses on helping people managing their bills and for the family members and others who help people managing their bills. There is also a section of the blog for posts that deal with ADD.

ADHD Allies™-  Each month, ADHD Allies™ will add a variety of insight and information on the myriad topics that can be associated with ADHD, including inheritability, parenting, finance management, workplace challenges and more.

I have participated in onof the podcasts on the website that deals with organizing finances.

The ADHD Entrepreneur

I am always on the search for articles, that can be helpful to AD/HD business owners. The freedom, passion and creativity invovled in owning a business is often a great match for people with ADHD. David Giwerc, MCC is a great speaker with a passion for AD/HD business owners and wrote a wonderful article titled How Your AD/HD Affects Your Business. I have attached a small quote from the article. "Unfortunately, many of these AD/HD entrepreneurs have no idea how their AD/HD is affecting their ability to do business. At my seminars about entrepreneurship and AD/HD, I get questions like "I've been very successful. Why do I need to come to you?" "So what if I have AD/HD?" is another popular question."

7 Days to Tax time

Here are a couple of useful articles for dealing with the drudgery we all feel with filing taxes:

The Deadline Disorder -It's a Taxing Time of the Year for Chronic Procrastinators - "Unappealing tasks such as filing taxes turn many people into procrastinators, but Sawyer is far from alone in electing to put off everyday chores. According to Joseph R. Ferrari, a professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago, some 20 percent of us are chronic procrastinators. "That's very high," Ferrari said, adding that research reveals there are more chronic procrastinators in the United States than there are people with clinical depression."

Taxes are Taxing - " Many adults with ADD would rather scrub the floor with a toothbrush then work on preparing their taxes. Here are some tips to help make taxes less taxing:"

Organize Financial Documents the ADHD Way - "Orderly record keeping may not be the most interesting project for an adult with attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) to undertake, but I've learned, through hard experience, that it has to be done. With tax time upon us, it's even more important than ever to get a head start on personal filing."

Free Adult ADD Job Search Skills Program

Organized Job Search Program

For Adults with ADD

In Association with addclasses.com

Space is limited to 25 people.

Free 4 Week Program

Begins May 4, 2009

Registration Info

What you will get: 4 hour long MP3 recordings of the classes Peer Support and Accountability Tools You Need To Really Get it Done Targeting Prospects That Fit Your Needs Items You Need To Do To Get The Interview: Resume, Cover Letter, Organized Email Process Clear Steps to Streamline the Project and Process Real Action Items: Get Clear on How The Project Moves Forward Motivation and Momentum 5 Day Checklist: Having the items you need available for the interview Things You Need To Do After The Interview: Follow-Up Important: Reducing Adrenaline & Nervous Anxiety ...Communication skills and having your "story" ready for interviewer.

The regular cost of this 4 Week Audio program is $147

We understand how hard people are being hit by this economy!

We want to help and are offering this class completely FREE!

Space is limited to 25 people.

www.adultaddjob.com

Back to Basics - Your Credit History

With the problems that we are having with the economy, there seems to be many more articles and news reports about money management.  If you combine the negative economic news with the seemingly infinite amount of information about money management, it would be easy for anyone to feel overwhelmed and uninspired. These feelings are often magnified for adults with ADHD. When I feel overwhelmed and uninspired, I find that it helps to focus or refocus on the basics.

One of the problems with the lending industry is that many organizations strayed away from basic lending principles. Since many people were able to get loans without having to focus on their credit worthiness, it can now be overwhelming when lenders are going back to basics and placing more focus on credit history.

 

Your credit history and your ability to pay back the loan are the two major factors of whether you will be approved for a loan. Anytime that you apply for a loan or a credit card it is reported to one of the three major credit bureau reporting agencies. Also your payment history for all of the loans and credit cards you currently have are also reported to these credit bureaus on a regular basis. Additionally if you fail to pay things like your rent, utility bills, and medical services it can also be reported to these agencies. Lenders, employers, and landlords can use your personal report from one or more of the credit bureaus to get an accurate picture of your credit history.

Why New Small Businesses Fail and ways to avoid it - Poor Marketing

People with ADHD often have the traits that make them ideal small business owners. The Small Business Administration estimated that over 50% of small businesses fail within the first five years. For some of these small businesses failure is inevitable, sometimes there is nothing you can do to stop a business from failing. However in many of the cases the owners made key mistakes that could have been corrected. The Women's Enterprise Centre has a list of the Top 10 reasons why small businesses fail. I really liked the list and will go over how ADHD entrepreneurs can overcome the reasons on the list.

I think that if you ask the majority of ADHD business owners they will tell you that marketing is a personal strength. On the surface there are several aspects of marketing that would seem to suit ADHD business owners. Marketing requires passion and creativity, aspects where ADHD business owners typically excel.

However there are several marketing mistakes that ADHD business owners are more prone to make.

1. Inconsistency - In order for marketing to be effective it needs to be done on a consistent basis. It could take several times for your audience to respond to your marketing. The message that you are trying to send to your audience also needs to be fairly consistent, mixed messages will confuse potential customers. Therefore it is important to ask yourself what key points about your business you want to communicate to your customers, and to make sure your customers are receiving your message.

2. Not responding to feedback - An important part of marketing is getting feedback from your customers to see how they view your business. Owners often downplay the role of customer feedback because they are so focused on delivering a product or service.

3. Too much creativity – Adults with ADD are drawn to visual cues, and ADD entrepreneurs tend to focus on the visual portion of their marketing. While the visual cues are important, they are worthless if the consumer is not getting the message that you want to give them. The extra creativity can also lead to overspending on marketing, and unnecessary spending can doom a growing business to failure.

  

The 1 Month Budget

As someone who does not have ADHD, I love to plan. There have been times in my life, where I have prepared and tried to stick to budgets that have been for a year or longer. Honestly I think my budget plan was pretty sound, and logically there should have been no reason why I could not stick to it.

What I did not take into account was the physical, emotional, and mental barriers that we encounter every day. My budget did not take into account that things broke, and had to be repaired or replaced. I did not take into account times when I just wanted to do something, or get something. I did not deal well when I was unable to stick to my budget, and therefore gave myself permission to continue to make bad financial decisions because I had already blown my plan for the year.

I still continue to do longer term financial planning when it comes to certain financial goals. My current budget however is for just a month. I know there are a lot of people reading this, that just shiver when I mention the term budget, however having a one month budget is simple enough to prepare, and is an important tool to help you prioritize your spending. If you prepare your budget on a spread sheet, it is something that should only take a couple of minutes each month to update. The most important aspect of the one month budget for me is that it forces me to focus on the present. It is harder for me to push off paying down a loan, or putting less money in my savings, because I can't put if off on my budget. It is important for allof us to keep the majority of our financial focus on the present, it is where all of the action takes place that will help shape our financial future.