Most U.S. households have trouble saving money. Statistics show that Americans, on average, save only 1 to 2 percent of their family income. Individuals with ADHD have an even harder time saving for their future due to issues with attention, impulsivity and executive function. In fact, they experience serious financial problems at four times the rate of the general population.
While the statistics can seem daunting, there are some basic
Resources for Getting Control of Your Financial Life
If you have ADHD or executive function issues that make managing finances difficult, there are a number of steps you can take to make it easier to:
- Get support to set goals and stay on track
- Develop a budget
- Control spending
- Eliminate debt
Below are several excellent resources to help with all these aspects of financial well-being. They include tips for behavior changes and applying technology to help those changes.
- https://blog.fastbraiin.com/blog/adhd-money-management-plan
- https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/9-tips-managing-adhd-and-debt-2013-05-29
- https://www.everydayhealth.com/add-adhd/money-management-tips-for-adults-with-adhd.aspx
- https://www.additudemag.com/adhd-budget-how-to-save-money/
The Ultimate Investment – Yourself
Taking control of your day-to-day money management is one part of the equation for financial well-being. What you do to earn a living and being able to fully enjoy that is the other part. Understanding the strengths that the ADHD brain has is important to making career choices you can be happy with.
Characteristics commonly associated with ADHD include:
- Curiosity– a willingness to explore what life has to offer
- Hyperfocus – when sufficiently stimulated, you can laser-focus for long periods of time
- Creative thinking – divergent, non-linear thinking which synthesizes two or more otherwise-disparate concepts together
- Impulsivity – acting intuitively and quickly despite uncertainty
- Performing under pressure – people with ADHD enjoy the pressure of deadlines and crises, they come alive where most might crumble under the stress
- Risk-taking – the willingness to take a chance, even if the odds look stacked against you
Finding and following a career path where you can fully utilize these traits is probably the best thing you can do for your long term financial success.