Adult ADD and Money

Defaulting on a Student Loan

Recently I received an e-mail from a reader who had defaulted on a private student loan because of a communication issue with their lender. Managing student loans can be difficult for anyone (especially for adults with ADHD) because often you do not begin paying the loan until after you have completed your education. In many cases is could be several years before you have to start paying off student loans, and it is easy to misplace important documents and/or forget to update your address.

Student Loan Borrower Assistance is an excellent resource for people who want more information on how student loans work. This site has a lot of information about dealing with repayment, collection, default, and bankruptcy as it pertains to your student loan. If you are having an issue with any loan(student loan, auto loan, mortgage, etc.), the most important thing you should do is to contact your lender. For most situations your lender will work with you to find a mutual beneficial resolution. I realize that it can be difficult to contact your lender but it will save you a lot of time and frustration in the future. Sometimes there can be confusion when dealing with these loans so make sure to:

Document any communication you have with your lender: This mean writing down the time, who you talked to, and any agreement that was made, if you talked with someone on the phone or in person. You also want to save a copy of any written communication between you and your lender.

Try to stay patient: It often takes additional time to resolve issues related with loans. The person that you are communicating with might not have the ability to resolve your problem right away. It can be difficult to keep your cool when dealing with a stressful situation, but if you do you are more likely to get a more desirable outcome. Hand in hand with patience is being persistent, sometimes it will take more than one phone call to resolve your issue.

Best of: Questions

"I don't have ADD, but I do know people who are ADD and bipolar. Is there a way to insulate yourself emotionally and stressfully against these financial surprises? Can you anticipate these problems to a certain extent to ease the blow?  I'm just curious."   READ MORE >>

"Had a boss that many said had AD&D. Intensely focused on some things, disinterested in others but never could figure out which one he would be interested in. Mixed up my sense of priorities and made it really difficult to know what he would concentrate on. Just curious if this is ADD or something else.” READ MORE >>

What "causes" ADD, and can you have some, but not all, of its characteristics? READ MORE >>

Is your ADHD to blame for your money issues?

Is your ADHD to blame for your money issues?   

I am sure that many readers of this blog will answer yes, without the slightest hesitation. The truth is that this is a loaded question because:

1.  It is not healthy to place blame on yourself for problems that you are facing. Blaming yourself for things that you can not change does not improve your finances. The guilt that you create in blaming yourself can cause additional problems. Two things that people do to avoid the guilt is to overspend and to avoid the problem all together.

2. By blaming ADHD for your money problems you are essentially enabling yourself to continue to make poor financial decisions in the future. It is important to acknowledge the role that your ADHD has played with past financial difficulties. But some people use their ADHD to justify their poor money decisions. You should take your ADHD into account when trying to find solutions to your money problems, just keep in mind that it is not impossible to manage your money with ADHD.

Please feel free to leave a comment if you disagree with me.

What has been your biggest impulsive purchase?

As someone who does not have ADD, I can not think of a time when I have made a large impulsive purchase. In fact most of the stupid things I have done with my money have been repetitive small expenses that I did not need (see five ways I wasted money this week ). Adults with ADD can be prone to making impulsive decisions and are also attracted to high reward, high risk decisions. This can end up in a great success or could wind up being a great problem.
What is the biggest impulsive purchase that you have made and what did you learn from it? Please leave a comment

All Financial Matters - Question of the Day Marathon

Adults with ADD find it easier to overcome challenges by interacting with other people who are dealing with similar challenges. JLP at AllFinancialMatters has organized a Question of the Day Marathon for the month of August. Each weekday during August, a different personal finance blogger poses a question for readers to answer. I think you will find that the questions are interesting and thought provoking, some of them might cause you to focus on hidden aspects that affect the way you view money management. Here are the questions for the last week.

8/17 Journey to Financial Freedom - Do you have any side income other than your paychecks?

8/18 PennyFoolish - What are your vices?

8/21 Consumerism Commentary - While growing up, what were you taught about personal money management by your immediate family and surroundings?

8/22 No Credit Needed - What was the very first thing you purchased using credit? What was the very last thing you purchased using credit?

8/23 mapgirl's FiscalChallenge - How much of a balance do you leave on your checking account(s)?

ADD & Bipolar Mood Disorder

ncnblog asked:

I have a quick question, hopefully you can help me out. (Actually, a couple of questions, now that I think about it.)

I have a good friend from church who talks about being "hyper-attentive": or being in a state of "hyper-awareness" about his surroundings and the tasks he has to accomplish. He talks about being able to complete a series of tasks, rapidly, one after another, focusing his attention on each task, with an almost "insane" intensity. Now, the strange part is, this guy is VERY "unorganized, forgetful...etc." All of the "stereotypical" terms for people with ADD. (I hope I am not offending you, I am just trying to describe this guy, using every-day words.) Anyway, he talks about forgetting where he put things, not being able to pay attention in school (when he was a kid), of waiting until the last minute to complete tasks, only to forget to do them or come up short of time. BUT, he says that he has the very brief, very intense times in his life, usually less than 2 or 3 days in length, where he has a "super"-human ability to focus and get things done. I have seen evidence of this: he put off painting his bathroom for like 2 YEARS, and then in ONE WEEK, he painted the bathroom, the kitchen, the den, AND he put up a shed in the back yard. Then, it was like he came off of his "high" or whatever, and settled back into his routine. I guess my question is: Could he have ADD, and could the chemicals (sorry, I don't know the right terms)..but could the chemicals that "cause" ADD, when absent, be present in ABUNDANCE during these times of "hyper"-focus. In other words, is there an OPPOSITE to condition from ADD, like Attention "Too-Much" Disorder? I know this sounds weird, but this guy is amazing. He is one of my best friends, but he will hit these flurries of activity, like once every couple of months, and he is a DIFFERENT guy. Thanks for whatever input you could give, and sorry about the long post...

Without a proper diagnosis it would be impossible to determine if he has ADD.  A lot of the characteristics that you talk about seems like characteristics of many adults with ADD. The super intense times that you talk about in your question could be a symptom of bipolar mood disorder. Again without a proper diagnosis it would be impossible to determine if your friend suffers from bipolar mood disorder. Adults with ADD are more likely than the general population to suffer from Bipolar Mood Disorder. I am not an expert on ADD or Bipolar Mood Disorder, but if you look at the Questions section of this blog you will find articles and resources dealing with both ADD and Bipolar Mood Disorder.

ADD Boss

Ask Uncle Bill asked: "Had a boss that many said had AD&D. Intensely focused on some things, disinterested in others but never could figure out which one he would be interested in. Mixed up my sense of priorities and made it really difficult to know what he would concentrate on. Just curious if this is ADD or something else.”

Without a proper diagnosis it would be impossible to determine if your former boss had ADD. However, the ability to hyper-focus on certain subjects and be disinterested in others is a characteristic of ADD. As someone who does not have ADD I can understand how frustrated you must have felt with your bosses shifting priorities. One way to deal with a boss like this is to have an honest conversation with your boss about how his shifting priorities are hurting your productivity. While this might not work for every boss, many bosses will at least have an understanding of the frustration that they are causing, and this should foster a better working environment. Another tool is to regularly meet with your boss and write down the major projects or priorities that you should be working on. This will help your ADD boss remember the priorities that he set for you and will give you both a framework to refer to in order to evaluate your job performance.

What "causes" ADD

ncnblog asked:

What "causes" ADD, and can you have some, but not all, of its characteristics?

While there is a lot research being done on what causes ADD/ADHD there is no definitive answer on the cause. What is known is that people who have ADD/ADHD show less activity in the part of the brain that controls attention. It is also clear that ADD/ADHD runs in families, people who have a close relative with ADD/ADHD are about 6 times as likely to have ADD/ADHD than someone who does not have a close relative with ADD/ADHD.

There are three main components to ADD/ADHD,  distractibility, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. ADD/ADHD  affects everyone differently and it is possible to show some, but not all of the characteristics of ADD/ADHD. I encourage anyone who wants more information to go to the following sites below for much more detailed information about this issue.

http://www.livingwithadd.com/

http://www.add.org/articles/factsheet.html

http://www.add.org/articles/whats_it_like.html

Am I a "shopaholic"

"Mrs. B. Daley" commented

Why do I feel the need to shop all them time and spend money on things I don't really need? I think I am truly a "shopaholic!"

I have attached a couple of previous post I have done on the subject. The first post is about ADD and compulsive shopping. The second post is about ADD and addiction. I have also attached a yahoo group for support of shopping addicts.

http://addfinances.blogs.com/blog/2005/07/adult_add_and_c.html

http://addfinances.blogs.com/blog/2005/07/adults_with_add.html

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/shopping_addicts/

ADD and Bipolar Mood Disorder Part 2

Monty Loree of http://money-maturity.blogspot.com asked "I don't have ADD, but I do know people who are ADD and bipolar. Is there a way to insulate yourself emotionally and stressfully against these financial surprises? Can you anticipate these problems to a certain extent to ease the blow?  I'm just curious"

One of the biggest weaknesses that adults with ADD have is that it is harder to anticipate financial surprises because of the inability to focus on mundane activities. For example you could anticipate that if bad sounds are coming out of your car you should probably take it to the repair shop. Many adults with ADD will mentally and emotionally block out the sounds because they do not want to deal with the problem. When the car breaks down an ADD adult is not prepared because they have blocked out the problem. I think the best way to handle financial surprises is to make sure you have an emergency fund set up to deal with these issues. It is also important to focus on solving the issue rather than the problem itself. It can also be helpful to discuss the issue with someone that you trust to help you cope with the problem.