It’s March! Here at ADHD Big Brother, we have themed March to be about finances!

Most adults with ADHD have had, or are currently dealing with, financial crisis of some kind.

Maybe you are like me and are still trying to pay down a crazy amount of credit card debt from decades of spending like we have money and because our impulses got the best of us.

Maybe you’ve been through bankruptcy.

Maybe it’s all about the ongoing “ADHD Tax” which includes, but is not limited to, late fees, overdraft fees, and groceries that often go bad because that thing we were excited to make was forgotten.

Whatever the situation, it’s worth taking a fresh look at how we manage money. And no, that doesn’t mean a cool new budgeting app.

As discussed on this week’s podcast, it all starts with our money story. I had a great conversation with the ADHD Accountant, Tina Mathams , on the podcast this week!

Listen to Episode 182 of the ADHD Big Brother Podcast

My big takeaway from that episode also doubles as a challenge to you!

What is your money story?

We all have stories we picked up in our younger years, usually from how money was (or wasn’t) talked about at home.

For me, my parents didn’t talk about money. We always seemed to do ok, but my mom would always be angry when she was working on bills.

Part of my money story is that “I’m fine, just don’t talk about it…and bills make me uncomfortable, so I should avoid them!” I can actually see some dysfunction brewing there! Perhaps this explains why I would spend on a credit card, and ignore the bills, and then get late fees…interesting!

I also have a money story that tells me that being rich is bad. Having too much money means I would be a bad person. This is really interesting to me. I know it’s all bullshit, and yet it no doubt flavors how I handle money…get rid of it as soon as it comes in because too much would be bad!

What is your ideal vision of financial management?

There was another great question posed by Tina in the podcast episode. If our financial management was ideal, what would it look like…to us? Not to our family, our spouses, but to us.

This would make for a great visualization exercise. Meditating for 10 minutes on what life looks like one year from now as we are managing our finances in our ideal way. We might not be making additional money, but perhaps how we are handling things is more efficient, more planned, more intentional?

What is one thing you can do this week?

At ADHD Big Brother we are about the doing of the work. We are about accountability. We are about taking what we learn and putting it into action…literally. ADHD doesn’t get managed by learning something and saying “Oh yeah, I’ll try that at some point.”

Let’s get to the doing!

What is one thing that is in alignment with that ideal vision that you can start scheduling into your day, today?

My challenge to you is this:

What will you do this week? Leave it in the comments. Will you commit to journaling your money story? Will you commit to meditating on your ideal vision of financial management? Will you commit to doing the one thing that is in alignment with that ideal vision?

My ultra challenge to you:

You will, no doubt, forget this article easily 30 minutes after you read it. So if your intention is to do the work, I challenge you to decide right now when you will put in the time to work on this, and create it as an event in your calendar. Make sure it’s labeled and there is an alert that will remind you when the time is now.

And if you need extra accountability, head over to ADHD Big Brother and see how we do it, how we take the knowledge and turn it into action. Done and done!