Adult ADD and Money

Top Five ADD/ADHD Posts September 2009

Here are five of my favorite blog posts for September:

Elvis, ADHD and Facebook (My ADD/ADHD Blog)

ADD and Loving it Canadian Documentary on Adult ADHD on Global TV (Adult ADD Strengths)

More Attention, Less Deficit (thinkythink)

Adults with ADD: It's Time To Get Serious About Boundaries (Experiencing ADDvantages)

What is ADHD? (ADDer World)

"Trust Me" over the "Bank of Mom and Dad"

With our struggling economy many more adult children feel like they are being forced to ask their parents for financial help. On September 30th, a new reality show called "Bank of Mom and Dad" will air on the SoapNet cable network. Each week the show will deal a 20 something women who parents will move in with them and with the help of a financial expert, will try to help their daughter to adjust their financial lifestyle to what they can actually afford. The concept seems somewhat interesting, but I have severe doubts on whether a reality show is the right format to help someone reform their finances. Perhaps I will review the show later next week.

If you are interested in truly helping your young adult children achieve financial independence try reading Trust Me , by Kenneth Kaye Ph.D. with Nick Kaye. It is an excellent guide for parents of young adult children who are struggling with their finances. It deals not only with setting up a plan to get back your child on the road to financial success, but deals with the emotional and trust issues that financial struggles can bring. Nick Kaye also does an excellent job of giving parents the insights of a young adult who has had financial struggles. (I know that I related to many of his struggles)

Trust Me also deals with several interesting topics, including how to deal with your children if they have to move back in, basic financial education, tax issues, and information dealing with trust funds and partnerships. The chapter that I found the most interesting was Attention Money Disorder which deals with how Learning Disorders affects financial management skills. The chapter was inspired by how Nick’s Attention Deficit Disorder affected his financial choices, and by the research that Dr. Kaye did on ADD in order to have a better understanding on how it affected his son. This chapter gives great tips and insights, and I plan on reviewing it more in depth in a later post.

I am a big fan of reality television and I will watch the Bank of Mom and Dad, but if you really want information to help you deal with the parent/child financial relationship I strongly recommend that you purchase Trust Me.       

$ 696 Billion on Hospital care

According to a special report in the September 23rd edition of USA today, 31% of the United States health care spending in 2007 was for hospital care. The total dollars spent on hospital care in 2007 was 696 billion dollars.

Why is this number so important, it is 1 and a half times the amount that the US spent on physcian and clinical services. It is my opinion that if the US were able to find a way to focus more of our spending on preventative measures ( clinical and physcian services) we would have a more efficent system and healthier citizens.

I am not in favor of a full government system like several other countries. But there has to be measures made to promote preventative care. Insurance reform is critical, but the private sector is also working on ways to encourage preventative care. For example drug stores are setting up clinics that are being used for cheaper and conveinent preventatative care.

This is critical for everyone but especially for adults with ADD who are concerned about their money. Got any ideas to improve our system, let me know what you think.

Top Five ADD/ADHD Posts August 2009

Here are five ADD/ADHD Posts that I liked that were published in August

You Have A.D.D./A.D.H.D. and You Will NOT Be Rich and Famous

For Partners of People with AD/HD: Not Enough Cooks in the Kitchen

Stupid ADHD Impulses I Kind of Like

 ADD at the Movies

Time Management Tool - Analog Clock

Boston Globe - Happiness: A buyer's guide

When reading the Boston Globe this morning, I was very intrigued by an article Happiness: A buyer's guide by Drake Bennett.

The main point of the article, is that money has the potential to buy a little bit of happiness, if it used properly. People were generally happier if they spent their money on pro social activities, like giving money to charities, buying gifts for others, going out with other people, and going on vacation with other people. When you think about this, it makes a lot of sense. People who are socially active tend to be happier than people who spend most of their time alone.

If our relationship with money was that simple you would hope that more people would be happier, however there are a couple of paradoxes that makes this idea more complex. Part of the reason we purchase material items is to impress our peers and friends and feel better about where we are in our social circles. The same social circles where spending may make us happier. Thinking about money, (earning money and spending money) tends to make us less social. Yet using money to increase happiness requires more social behavior. In order to reduce the effect of these paradoxes, a person needs to reflect on what long term benefit they are getting from earning and spending money.

My opinion is that no matter where you are in life, you are going to be happy if you feel you have the time and money to share experiences with other people. Having a little extra money, makes us feel a little more secure and more open to sharing time, money, and experiences with others. Other than security, I think the benefit of having more money when it comes to happiness is minimal.

Are Baseball Players Faking Adult ADD?

I found a recent article in FanHouse.com about Nick Green of the Boston Red Sox very interesting. For the last three years Green has been using Adderall under a doctors prescription to help with his ADD. Green story of success with ADD is very inspiring but the most interesting part of the article, is that Adderall is a stimulant, and under Major League Baseball rules stimulants are banned unless you can prove you use ir for therapeutic purposes.

In order to get an exemption a player has to be diagnosed be an approved Major League Baseball. Ten percent of all Major League Baseball players have qualified for a therapeutic exemption for stimulants to deal with their adult ADD. Many critics think that this number is very high compared to the general adult population and feel that many of the players are faking their ADD in order to get the stimulants to help them deal with a long season. While I have no doubt that a certain percentage of the players who qualified for an exemption did so in part to gain the competitive advantage, baseball is an ideal sport for adults with ADD to succeed because:

* It requires impulsive decisions that often have to made in less than a second

* You need to be able to hyper-focus for short bursts.

* Baseball relies more on individual production, than most other team sports. (Adults with ADD are not known for always being team players)

* There are many times during a game when a player can tune out without it hurting the team. 

Jeff’s A.D.D. Mind - "You Have A.D.D./A.D.H.D. and You Will NOT Be Rich and Famous"

You Have A.D.D./A.D.H.D. and You Will NOT Be Rich and Famous this was a title of a blog post on Jeff's A.D.D. mind. The main point of the article was to debunk the myth that "ADHD is a gift". The article was well written and made some compelling arguments, but personally I felt the negative tone of the article clouded some of those arguments.

I commented on his blog post.

" ADHD should not be looked at either ” the scourge” or a “gift”. Most people need to make adjustments with how their mind works in order to be successful. People with ADHD typically need to make more adjustments.

With ADHD there are certain aspects where someone could use the traits associated with ADHD to be successful. Most entrepreneurs I know are impatient, manage multiple projects at once, and have a need for high stimulation. But, just because you have certain traits it does not mean that you have a higher chance for overall success than the general population. 

Jeff responded " I think you would be hard pressed to find a single trait in Hallowell’s list that can be “repurposed” for success."

All of the traits that were listed could be a cause for failure. But it would be irresponsible to overlook that many of the same traits can be beneficial for success  

While I can not "repurpose" every trait that Jeff listed from Dr. Hallowell, I will do my best to explain how several of the traits he listed CAN be beneficial for success.

A sense of underachievement, of not meeting one’s goals (regardless of how much one has actually accomplished).- Desire is a key element for success, When people feel that the have achieved their goals the lose this desire to succeed. A sense of underachievement is what drives many people to success.

Trouble in going through established channels and following “proper” procedure. - True innovation is achieved by not going through established channels and following procedure. Success is often had by changing the rules to do something better or by bending the rules to do something geared toward your strengths.

Many projects going simultaneously; trouble with follow through. - The more projects that you have going, the greater the chance that one or more of them is going to lead to something successful.

A tendency to say what comes to mind without necessarily considering the timing or appropriateness of the remark. - Saying what comes to your mind, can help you to get what you need faster. The need to consider appropriateness or timing can cost you time and money.

Podcast - AD/HD and overspending

 The Virtual AD/HD Conference is hosting a podcast on AD/HDand overspending with Ariane Benefit. The podcast will help promote her session at the Virtual AD/HD Conference on Oct 7. The session "Overcoming Overspending: Why Adults with AD/HD Overshop and How to Stop."  should be very interesting for people who have to directly or indirectly deal with overspending and shopping issues. 

Best of Shopping Tips

Here are the best of my shopping tips for adults with ADHD:

Before you go out shopping write down everything that you want on a list. (Stick to the list) It will help to limit impulse buys. I was tired today and forgot to write down a list and I purchased cookies that I did not need to buy. Almost all stores are set up to take advantage on shoppers who are impulse buyers(One of the main traits of adults with ADD). I think setting up a list is more important when you are planning on going shopping at large department or warehouse stores, there are many times that my wife and I have gone to the store with the intent of only purchasing a few items, but left with a cart full of items that we did not need. (We seemed to always forget one of the items that we went there for in the first place)

I find it helpful when going to my favorite grocery store to write out my list exactly like the store is set up. I think it can be very helpful to better visualize your shopping list (click on my list on the left)

Here are two other tips I think are useful when shopping

1. Try to avoid the malls and the gigantic superstores.

Malls and superstores can be over stimulating for an ADD adult. Everything in a mall of superstore is designed to be more distracting; there are more people shopping, the music is loud, there are more choices, and more displays. It is easy to make poor impulsive choices or to get discouraged and not buy anything at all. A lot of adults with ADD like to go to smaller stores that they are familiar with in order to reduce the stimulation, I find that in the smaller stores there are more unique choices to help you better fit your needs.

2.  Divide you shopping into smaller trips.

Don't try to buy everything you need into one trip or one day. By making shopping trips smaller it will allow you to focus more on what your buying and what your actually need or more importantly what you don't need.

Making Your Own Rules

I have been looking at my library of books about personal finance, I find it overwhelming and I do not have adult ADHD. You can have any rules that you want when it comes to managing finances as long it cover a few core areas.

1. Education - There are so many people who are looking to take advantage of the under-informed. Education is key in figuring out what you want and more importantly why you want it   

2. General Philosophy- Do you like to play it safe, or are you a risk taker? Are you a saver or a spender? How much do you give to others? There are no right answers to these questions, but you need to know yourphilosophy on money, so you can understand and defend to yourself your financial decisions.

3. Goals - One you have established your philosophy, its important to set some goals that are in line with your money management philosophy

4. Systems - It is important to have a game plan with managing daily spending, paying bills, and making day to day decisions.

5.Analysis - Are your goals, systems, and philosophy working for you. What are you doing well and where do you need to change.