Speaking as someone diagnosed with ADHD-C, on medication & still struggling to stay on track even with a 90k salary – I would LOVE to know what strategies you are employing to keep you on track.
My main strategy has been setting up direct deposits to go straight to savings & withdrawing a monthly allowance to my checking. This prevents me from ever spending more than I make. Additionally, I automatically send 20% of my paycheck to my 401k, and whatever I have above my emergency fund goal in savings goes straight to the roth IRA (15k). I live in a HCOL, but don't think I can escape it without sacrificing pretty much everything.
I'm essentially saving around half of my income, but tend to pull money out of my emergency fund because of impulsive purchases or forgetting purchases that should've been expected. It feels nearly impossible to keep up with myself at times, so I need these self-imposed guardrails to keep me in check.
ADHDers – what are your strategies?
byu/csGrey- infinancialindependence
Posted by csGrey-
5 Comments
Marry someone the opposite of you. And then let them manage the finances.
Automatic 401k contributions and siphoning out part of every paycheck into a separate account, in preparation for next year’s IRA lump sum, do most of my heavy lifting.
Anything you can set and forget is very ADHD friendly.
Undiagnosed but had two separate bosses ask me to please get it sorted, so there are signs.
Numbers to me are abstract. I understand how they work, it’s just that they dance around in my head, so I can’t do mental maths and I can’t remember them from the top of my head). This meant that any kind of card was a problem for me, as I used it until the account was empty.
I created a budgeting spreadsheet that I accessed from my phone. It basically tried to replicate YNAB, and I updated it on the spot every time I spent. Over time I got rid of bad spending habits, so I moved to updating it every morning, and eventually, on Mondays with my morning coffee (except cash, that has to be on the spot or it is lost forever). Financial position (as opposed to expenses) is updated the last day of every month
Graphs of all kinds basically keep me hooked. Seeing the line go up is addictive.
It sounds like you’ve done a great job identifying where you’re spending extra, which is the first huge hurdle:
> tend to pull money out of my emergency fund because of impulsive purchases or forgetting purchases that should’ve been expected
So with those two sources of extra spending listed, your next steps might be:
1. Identify: when/why am I making these impulse purchases? Is it retail therapy when you had a bad day at work, FOMO when a friend buys something new and you want it too, little treats to celebrate an achievement, etc etc? Usually there’s a mental itch you’re trying to scratch with that instant gratification of buying yourself a little present, so figure out the source of the itch and if you have alternate ways to satisfy the wants.
2. The forgotten purchases – are these recurring expenses you can predict? Or sudden things that don’t have a strict timeline like “I knew I needed my brake pads replaced sometime soon and that day has come”? If the latter, honestly you’re using your e-fund properly. If the former, how are you tracking expexted cost of rent and utilities, and can you track this type of purchase the same way?
It’s interesting that I think my ADHD actually helps. I obsess over the numbers and have satisfaction when I see them go up and up.
My main problem is remembering to cancel my free trials or subscriptions I don’t need anymore, and or calling my ISP to get a rate deduction, or handling the non financial daily tasks