Budgeting can be particularly challenging for individuals with adult ADHD. The difficulty in maintaining focus, combined with impulsivity and forgetfulness, often leads to financial disorganization.
Keeping a budget visible and front of mind is essential to manage finances effectively and reach your financial goals. In this post, we will explore strategies to help ADHDers keep their budget top of mind, ensuring better financial management and reducing stress.
ADHD budgeting challenges
One of the biggest hurdles for ADHDers is the "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" mentality. When your budget isn't visible, it's easy to forget about it, leading to overspending and financial chaos. Forgetting to track spending can also be a big pitfall. Finally, people with ADHD are more likely to be diagnosed with learning difficulties like dyscalculia, which can compound ADHD budgeting challenges.
Impact of not seeing your budget
When your budget is out of sight, it's easy to neglect it. This neglect can lead to accumulating debt because you're not regularly monitoring your spending or adjusting it according to your income and expenses. Missing payment deadlines becomes more likely, resulting in late fees and potential damage to your credit score. Keeping your budget visible helps you stay accountable and make more informed financial decisions.
Pitfalls of not tracking your spending
Without a clear understanding of your spending habits, it’s easy to fall into financial disarray. When you don’t track spending, you are more susceptible to financial mishaps like:
- Unplanned Expenses: Unplanned expenses can creep up, leaving you short on funds for essential bills or savings.
- Consistent Overspending: This lack of awareness can also result in consistently overspending, as you're not tracking where your money goes.
- Spending Patterns: Knowing your spending patterns allows you to identify areas where you can cut back and save more effectively.
- Client Example: Many of my clients ask for help with their finances, and often the most common response to my question, "How often are you tracking your expenses and creating a budget to tell your money where to go?" is that they don't. Because of this, they are not telling their money what to do; their impulses are, and our impulses often don't have long-term benefits.
Financial management with dyscalculia and ADHD
Dyscalculia is a learning disability that affects a person's ability to understand and work with numbers. This condition can make managing finances particularly challenging for ADHDers, as it complicates tasks like calculating remaining funds and anticipating future expenses.
Budgeting with ADHD: Practical strategies
If you struggle with math and understanding financial concepts, or with keeping your budget visible and sticking to it, it's crucial to use tools and strategies that simplify these tasks, ensuring you stay on top of your finances despite these challenges. The following practical strategies can help keep your budget visible and your finances in check:
Track your spending
Track all your expenses for a couple of months to understand where your money is going and in what amounts. This foundational step is crucial for effective budgeting, as awareness is key to making informed financial decisions.
This practice is similar to learning how to budget your time better. Just as timing how long tasks take can improve your time management, tracking expenses helps you understand your current financial behavior and gives you a solid starting point for creating a budget.
Use visual aids
Having a visual representation of your budget can help keep it front of mind. Use bulletin boards, sticky notes, or a whiteboard in a frequently visited spot to display your budget and financial goals. In fact, it may be even better to place your financial plan in multiple places where you will see it frequently - for example, on your phone, iPad, desktop, wall, fridge, bathroom mirror.
I had a client tell me this felt like a waste to them, and it felt silly that they needed so many reminders when others didn't. However, the ADHD brain needs visual cues, because out of sight, out of mind is a real thing for us.
Set digital reminders
Set up reminders and alerts on your phone or computer using budgeting apps, calendar alerts, or to-do list apps. Notifications can prompt you to review your budget regularly and remind you of upcoming bills or financial goals. Widgets on your home screen can also provide constant visibility and reminders of your financial status.
Schedule routine financial check-ins
Schedule regular times to review your budget, categorize expenses daily, and adjust your spending as needed.
Weekly/Monthly Budget Meetings
Have regular budget meetings with your partner to review your financial status and goals. If you're single, consider having these meetings with a friend, coach, or financial advisor who can help hold you accountable.
Many couples face stress and problems related to money, often because they don't discuss finances and aren't on the same page. Having regular budget meetings not only improves your financial situation but also enhances communication with your partner.
My spouse and I each have a fun money budget, and any spending over that budget (and anything over about $20) is discussed. It's not about asking for permission but about respecting each other and the shared financial goals.
Time blocking
One of my clients finds time blocking very effective. They set aside a specific time each day to check their transactions and categorize them, as well as for weekly meetings with their partner. While the schedule may occasionally shift, doing this three times a week is far more effective than not doing it at all.
Work with an ADHD coach
An ADHD coach can provide personalized strategies and support to help you manage your finances better. They can help you:
- Create systems that work for you and keep you accountable.
- Make a decision about which system you’ll use
- Tailor a budgeting system to your unique needs and life
- Schedule regular, short budget review sessions to keep you accountable
- Set and break down large financial goals
- Develop reward systems to maintain motivation
- Introduce practices to increase awareness of spending triggers and impulses
- Set up systems to organize receipts, statements, and other financial papers to reduce overwhelm
ADHD budgeting tech tools
Technology can be a powerful ally in managing your finances. Here are some tools to help you stay on top of your budget:
- Budget Apps for ADHD: Use apps like Mint, YNAB (You Need a Budget), EveryDollar, or Notion to track spending and budgeting.
- Widgets and Digital Tools: Utilize widgets on your smartphone’s home screen to keep track of your budget. Widgets can provide quick access to your financial status and remind you to review your budget regularly.
- Spreadsheets and Templates: Google Sheets or Excel can be customized to suit your budgeting needs. Create templates that are easy to update and review regularly or use a pre-made ADHD budget template - several are available online, so you can get started quickly.
Eyes on the prize
By keeping your budget front and center, you're not just managing money – you're taking control of your life. While adult ADHD can make budgeting more challenging due to the “out of sight, out of mind” effect, applying strategies and/or tech tools that work for your brain can make financial management much less overwhelming, and makes setting and achieving financial goals much more attainable. If you need a little extra accountability, or just some support identifying and implementing tools that work for you, an ADHD coach can help you every step of the way.
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