adhd money hacks - tips to stop adhd money panic

As an ADHDler I spend half my life trying to subpress my impulsiveness. I won’t go into the details of how that makes money management difficult but if you have ADHD you probably know what I’m talking about lol

I figured out a few things to manage my income. They help reduce the sheer panic I feel when a bill comes in that deducts money from my account, and the heartbreak of having another month pass where I didn't manage to save anything even though I earn enough money to assign some savings.

Tips / Instruction list

Here goes my cool instruction list (bullet points are optional advice/instructions):

1. start thinking of your bank account as a revolving moneyplace.
   → this can help with the anxiety that comes from seeing the money in your bank account drop every time you pay for sth until you get paid

2. find out how much you are expected to spend on your bills and put this aside the moment you get paid.
   

   • in a spreadsheet, make a list of all your bills. in one column note how often they come in (every month, week, year etc), in another column use the previous column to calculate the annual sum of the bill
     → I would highly recommend that you include irregular bills like the cost for registration/warrants for your car etc. this prevents the shock of having to fork up money unexpectedly.
     → I include ballpark figures for variable costs, e.g. public transport. i worry too much so i include the “max” amount it might cost but an average will probably do.
   • divide the annual sum of bills by the amount of times you get paid a year (here in NL I get paid monthly, so divided by 12. in Aotearoa New Zealand I used to get paid fortnightly, so divided by 26)
   • add a “bills” account. every time you get paid put the calculated recurring amount into the bills account
   • now when a bill comes in you can pay from the bills account or transfer the corresponding amount across from the bills to the spending account without “losing” your hard-earned money!

3. pay your bills on time if they have to be paid manually!
   

   • keep a to-do list app (I use ticktick) and put a reminder on the due date to pay the bill. (general life-hack: assign a reliable time of the day, e.g. 10pm after you sit down in bed to check all your to-dos, so if you wiped out any notifications you have this safe time to still complete the task)
   • honestly, don’t lose your hard earned money on fines, that’s terrible. but in case you do get a fine, don’t eat yourself up about it. shit happens and you are doing the best you can!

4. decide how much money you want to save and put it aside the moment you get paid.

   • you can go for a lump sum, or you can go for a percentage of your pay (this makes it easy to keep up if you get a pay rise)
   • when you get paid, put the money into the highest-yield savings account your bank offers. they usually have restrictions of how often you can withdraw to get the interest so don’t touch it once it’s in there!
     → be realistic with how much you can save. pick a “safe” amount that you will be able to put aside for sure. if you do have leftover at the end of a paycycle, the extra money is bonus savings (or treat yourself to some LEGO, i’m not your boss!)

5. if you have an expensive hobby, decide how much you “allow” yourself to spend on it and put it aside the moment you get paid.

   • add a bank account for this hobby and transfer the amount you decided when you get paid.
   • whenever you buy something relating to the hobby, use the hobby bank account or transfer the amount immediately to your spending acct
     → example: my hobby is traveling, and some months are more expensive than others. to keep an eye on my spending I decided that we can put x amount aside a month that can be spend on transport and accomodation (i consider expenses during the trip is “regular” expenses, e.g. grocery shopping or entertainment)

6. now, every time you get paid all the money in the account is fair game (as long as you feed yourself). :)))))))) hehe

Example setup

Here is my personal spreadsheet with some values removed for anonymity. This is so you can visualise what I mean and copy the system.

Image source: some adhd subreddit