Overcoming Money Challenges

There are several reasons why it can be difficult for an ADD adult to manage money:

1.  There are infinite choices involved with spending and managing money. The decisions can become overwhelming and an person with ADD will be more likely to avoid making decisions altogether.

2. The concept of money is not easily visualized ( people with ADD respond better when they are able to visualize a concept)

3. Day to Day management of money can be boring and tedious ( people with ADD have a greater difficulty completing task that are boring and tedious)

Here are a couple of tips to deal with some of the difficulties with money management

Reduce!  - Limiting you choices and decisions can do wonders for your ability to manage money. Examples of this include:

• Shopping at smaller stores where there are less choices.
• Writing down a shopping list of the things you need to buy before you go shopping. This will limit your decisions at the store and will reduce impulsive buys.
• Reduce the number of credit cards you use. This will reduce the number of bills that you pay

Use visualization techniques to help you in you battle with money management (yes it is a battle)

• Use a calendar to help you track when bills need to be pay.
• If you are saving for a specific goal, use pictures to remind you what you are saving for. It can be a lot easier to save for a house if you can visualize what you hope to buy when you have finished saving.
• Use different colors for different types of expenses if you are preparing a budget or Net Worth statement.

Unfortunately there is not a lot that can be done about money management being boring. There are things you can do to make money management easier:

• Make an appointment with yourself to pay bills. This should be done at a time where you are close to your mental peak. Try to maintain a regular schedule where you are paying bills around the same time with a regular interval. It is easier to put off paying bills when you do not have an established routine.
• The environment where you pay bills is also very important. It should be an area where you have all of the supplies to pay bills with minimal distractions. The key is to try to avoid having reasons why you can not pay your bills or manage your money.

Comments

[Angie Hartford]

How'd you know I was paying bills today?

Thanks for the tips; I'll definitely try some of them.