ADHD Money Talk

Getting your money right helps in many ways because money touches so many aspects of our lives.

Nothing has ever existed that has created more wealth or has been more influential in the transformation of families and people over time than the stock market.

If you’re an investor, you’ve more than likely noticed how volatile the stock markets have been. However, if you stay the course, you can avoid stepping on the emotional merry-go-round by always keeping the big picture of your future retirement in sight.

Studies show millennials have been giving up on the stock market. Over the past year, 49% have reportedly sold all or some of their investments, compared to only 21% of gen X and 17% of gen Z.

When asked, the main reason millennials sold their investments was to cover household expenses, losses from crypto investing, inflation, and fear.

The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index that tracks the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on exchanges in the United States.

If you buy into the S&P 500

• After 20 years you’ll have a hundred percent chance of earning a positive return on your investment
• After 15 years, you’ll have a 95% chance
• After 10 years, you’ll have an 89% chance
• After 5 years, you’ll have an 81% chance
• For one month, you would have a 61% chance

The best advice is to not let the volatility of the market stop your contributions. Instead, see it as an opportunity to continue to contribute when the market's lower when you'll get more return for the same amount of your contribution.

Resources:

Ally article: https://www.ally.com/do-it-right/trends/weekly-viewpoint-august-26-2022-dont-quit-on-investing-3-reasons-to-stay-the-course
Book by Brian Feroldi: Why Does The Stock Market Go Up? Everything You Should Have Been Taught About Investing In School, But Weren't

Head over to our YouTube channel for the full experience on future episodes.

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President Biden announced a plan on August 24, 2022, to forgive student loan debt through the end of December 2022, with payments resuming in January 2023. 

• To be eligible for the $10,000 debt cancellation, your annual income must have fallen below $125,000 (for individuals) or $250,000 (for married couples or heads of households)
• If you received a Pell Grant in college and meet the income threshold, you will be eligible for up to $20,000 in debt cancellation.
• Some of the changes originally made by the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Waiver will become permanent provisions of PSLF, even after the waiver ends on October 31, 2022, and will be publicized through an awareness campaign aimed at eligible individuals. These changes will involve allowing credit for late or lump sum payments and deferment or forbearance for people with qualifying employers
• Another newly proposed rule not yet implemented is an income-driven repayment process known as the IDR plan, which will limit payments on federal undergraduate loans to 5% of the borrower's discretionary income and forgives loans of less than $12,000 after ten years of payments.

With an estimated 43 million student loan borrowers in the United States, this relief plan has the potential to positively impact a significant number of households.

Resources:

https://www.gobankingrates.com/taxes/filing/13-states-tax-student-loan-forgiveness

https://www.dewittcm.com/adhdmoneytalkblog/a-lot-of-adhders-have-student-loan-debt.-now-some-relief-is-on-the-way

https://www.kitces.com/blog/biden-student-loan-debt-forgiveness-relief-plan-2022-eligibility-income-limits-pell-grant-payment-freeze-pslf-idr

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Stability and organization are two words that best describe an ideal world for the ADHD brain. What happens, then, when someone with ADHD has a variable income?  There’s no guarantee of stability, and it’s difficult to organize your expenses when you don’t have a fixed income.

Creating a Repeatable Structure

Establish a budget with a repeatable structure that doesn't require constant tweaking:

• Make sure you have enough income to cover your basic expenses
• When does the income come in in the month? Does it allow for scheduling?
• Look at your previous years of income and see if there are any seasonal patterns
• Build in some conservatism for any money leftover
• Create a working capital account to put any leftover money in to cover shortfall months
• Be more intentional with your spending to bring your overall expenses down
• Put a reminder in your phone to review your budget each month and look for areas of improvement
• Identify your savings goals and big-ticket items

Draw a Line You Will Not Cross

Define a list of things you will not do and post it somewhere visible to avoid pitfalls that will derail your progress

• Dipping into your emergency funds
• Using credit cards to smooth out shortfalls
• Falling victim to impulse spending
• Predicting when your monthly income will be higher or lower

Following this plan using these conservative methods will result in having money left over at the end of the year, allowing you to put that money toward your savings goals.
 
Remember, your goal is to spend less than you make. If your spending habits are well under control, these strategies will help you reach that goal.

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://www.adhdmoneytalk.com/s1e36

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As a CFP®, I’m often asked about my services - and what makes me different from others who provide financial coaching or advice.

To begin, the term financial planner encompasses a pretty broad area. For example, some advisors:

• Work like an insurance company and sell insurance on commission
• Fee-based by selling other investment products like annuities
• Fee-only planning as a flat fee for service rendered
• Investment managers paid via a retainer fee

The fee-only option is what I do by providing financial planning services.

I am a fiduciary, legally and ethically obligated to do what's in the client's best interest or best faith efforts toward doing what's in the client's best interest. I do not get paid commissions for selling products, and I don't sell insurance or annuities.  

The Name Game

Anyone can call themselves a financial planner, financial advisor, or financial services professional, but you must be careful. There's always a risk that they're just an insurance salesperson and not doing any financial planning. 

If you're considering working with a financial planner, check their certification history.

 Be sure you're working with someone looking at their clients' entire financial landscape and advising them on how to achieve their short and long-term financial goals. 

The Niche of Working with ADHD Clients

People with ADHD need more accountability, handholding, and frequent touch points. If we go cold for six months, we need someone knocking on our door. We want a planner who will say, okay, you're ignoring me. I'm coming to find you. 

I try to keep my clients accountable. If you pay me and I do not hear from you, I will tell you that this may not be the best fit because I want progress for my clients. 

I decided to work with people with ADHD because I understand the struggle and can help them bridge the gap between ADHD, financial chaos, and creating wealth.

It has to start with small achievable steps that feel attainable and are filled with accountability.

Here are the areas I can help you with:

• Cash Flow and Budgeting
• Debt Management
• Identify Insurance Needs
• Investing
• Opening Accounts and Managing Money
• Planning for your Child's Education
• Referrals for Tax and Estate Planning
• Student Loan Management

To see the plans that I offer, or to work with me, check out my ADHD Planning & Coaching service: https://www.dewittcm.com/adhd

Helping ADHD'ers unleash their financial potential through planning and coaching.

Head over to our YouTube channel for the full experience on future episodes.

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Some call it their 'Life Happens Fund,' others their 'Emergency Fund.' Whatever you call yours, make sure you have one. But then you might want to take that thought one step further. I'm about to tell you why.

My Dog Willow

Recently Willow, my Bearded Collie, became very sick to the point where she needed to be hospitalized. Anyone who has gone through this before knows how expensive it is to hospitalize a pet. Throughout her illness, I had to make tough decisions where I felt I was choosing between my dog and my money. The stress and anxiety brought on by the situation were overwhelming. Of course, I chose my dog; thankfully, Willow is recovering.

Looking at our now-depleted emergency fund started me thinking about pet insurance and how the situation might have been different if I had already had a pet policy.

The Benefits Pet Insurance

If I had pet insurance, I would not have hesitated to take Willow to the veterinarian when her symptoms started. I would have been able to file a claim and have a majority of the bills covered, thus circumventing any guilt or arguments about how much money we would need to spend on our dog.

I've come to realize having pet insurance is my way of saying I love my dog, I care about her, and I'm doing this to protect her because I want her to live a long, happy life. It would also enable me to avoid the 'in the moment' emotional stress and anxiety when decision-making worsens.

Another benefit of having pet insurance is passing the risk of your dog getting sick to the insurance company in exchange for the peace of mind of your dog's safety in the case of an emergency.

The Costs of Insuring a Pet

How much does pet insurance cost? After a bit of research, I discovered the following facts.

• Insuring a four-year-old Bearded Collie is about $30 a month.
• A Bearded Collie has a lifespan of about 13 years.
• If we had insured Willow as a puppy, we would have spent roughly $1,700 to date, considerably less than what we paid during her illness.
• Assuming we had the plan in place since Willow was a puppy and she'll live approximately 13 years, factoring in an 8% increase in premiums each year, that would mean spending roughly $7,700 during her life, or $600 per year.

 
That's a much more easily digested amount spread over a decade than most of that amount paid out once during an emergency.

For more information, visit the show notes at  https://www.adhdmoneytalk.com/s1e34

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Shell Mendelson has more than 30 years of experience in the field of Career Counseling, and has ADHD herself.

She knows it can be difficult to find a job you like, let alone a career you love.

In this interview, Shell shares ways to identify fulfilling work, why it’s important to have passion in what you do, and why she doesn’t recommend disclosing your ADHD when applying for a job.

Job Hopping and Finding Your Passion

“I learned that if I wasn't really happy in my day to day work, I wasn't gonna do that well on it” - Shell Mendelson

Shell tells us a story about when she strayed from her path and was fired from her job.

When we are dissatisfied and overwhelmed about our jobs, it leads to sadness and an extreme lack of satisfaction in life.

We find ourselves job hopping and losing confidence in our abilities.

When working with clients, Shell helps them create the equivalent of an accommodation plan, but more personal and designed for you as an individual.

Disclosing ADHD on a Job Application

When applying for a job, you wanna understand the working conditions that are needed for you need to thrive in.

There are not many companies that recognize ADHD, and you can get people questioning your performance.

If you know the kind of working conditions you thrive in, you can address that right from the outset.

Shell says you can just say, “I need to be and have these particular conditions that I thrive in. And when I am allowed to work within these conditions, you will have the very best employee you've ever seen.”

Make More Money

Knowing what you want puts you in a better position to make more money.

Our ADHD brains are interest based. If we are interested in what we're doing, if we have energy behind it, if we have a good feeling about what the growth potential in what we're doing, then we can be fulfilled and be creative in our work.

Shell teaches ADHDers to use the creativity that their brains love to use in order to learn, grow, and maybe make a shift now-and-then when the timing is right.

Stay ahead of the burnout we all feel so you can make some shifts in your career and keep it sustainable.

Considering the Cost of College

Shell tells the story of an 80 year old person who is still paying off their student loan debt.
People often don't look at what the starting wage is after they leave college.

Before making the decision on a certain college major, look at how much a certain career field is paying. Knowing this can help you make a better decision before spending thousands of dollars, or paying interest on student loan debt longer than you actually work in that career field.

About Shell Mendelson:

Shell offers more than 30 years of experience and education in the field of career counseling and coaching.and coaching. Shell helps others FOCUS on defining, illuminating, creating and transforming lack of clarity to a well-defined career direction and abundant livelihood.

Following her own diagnosis of ADHD later in life, Shell understands profoundly how ADHD can impact one’s work experience and keep many of us from choosing the best ADHD-friendly career path and taking next steps to a fulfilling, sustainable and profitable work life.

Website: https://passiontocareer.com


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The final segment of our three-part series, we'll wrap up our discussion with Dr. Russell Ramsay, co-founder and co-director of the University of Pennsylvania's adult ADHD treatment and research program and associate professor of clinical psychology in the department of psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine.

We all know we should do things like eat better and get our money straight, but what kind of implementation strategies do we use to put those things in motion?

Focusing on the Positives

The average ADHD person has up to 20,000 more negative experiences or interactions as they grow up than those who don't have ADHD. The power of negative experiences can be a positive thing insofar as helping us to avoid danger, allowing for problem-solving and learning from setbacks.

It can take as many as four positive experiences to outweigh one negative, so it takes willpower and determination not to give up when things don't go as planned.

Component Features of CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)

The component features of CBT include behavioral interventions, engagement, and tasks. Tasks are broken down into a sequence of steps, like a menu, as minutely as needed for you to feel they are manageable to complete. Otherwise, you risk what is often known as progressivity, which is escaping a higher priority task. For folks with ADHD, you haven't broken it down small enough if you're not starting a particular task.

For example, you should be preparing for a meeting, but instead, you start doing something else you've been procrastinating. This type of positive procrastination allows you to feel the accomplishment of getting something done, just not what you set out to do initially.
The progressivity task tends to be more manual or hands-on, even among academic tasks like reading or writing.

Front End Perfectionism

Perfectionism is the number one thinking error endorsed by adults with ADHD and is an emotional regulation strategy. We often say, "If I can get this done the first time perfectly, I can be done with it." The reality of that scenario is that it rarely happens. 
Things have to be perfect as a precondition to getting started. You tell yourself you have to be in the right mood, or you're nervous about meeting a new client because what will they think about you? We run anticipatory simulations in our heads that may never happen, causing anxiety and self-doubt.

Instead, focus on what you can control, such as being professional, helpful and drawing on positive past experiences.  

Resources:
Part 1 of this interview series
Part 2 with Dr. Russell Ramsay
Dr. Ramsay's book: Rethinking Adult ADHD: Helping Clients Turn Intentions Into Actions

Want to work with me?
Check out my ADHD Planning & Coaching service.

Help Me Out!
If you enjoyed this podcast, the best way to help me is share it with a friend. Reviews and ratings are also appreciated:
Click here to leave a review on Apple
Click here to leave a review on my website
Give me five stars on Spotify
Helping ADHD'ers unleash their financial potential through planning and coaching.

DeWittCM.com/adhd to book free discovery session

Head over to our YouTube channel for the full experience on future episodes.

Get your ADHD.MoneyMap™
Talk it through with me live: book a Clarity Call
Watch on YouTube

The second of our three-part series with Dr. J. Russell Ramsay, co-founder and co-director of the University of Pennsylvania's adult ADHD treatment and research program and associate professor of clinical psychology in the department of psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine.

Externalized Tricks to Control Spending

One of the most common concerns people with ADHD struggle with is impulsive spending. It's essential to take a clear look at where we are in our life and ask ourselves if what we're doing and if the things we think we want are providing value in our life. You can use a few externalized tricks to help control impulse spending.

1. Create a vision board of the things you want to work toward and give them timelines.
2. Do target searches while shopping online to minimize impulsive spending and keep you focused on only the needed items.
3. Shop with a partner so you can each come to a consensus on what you purchase.
4. Keep your credit cards at home in a drawer or lock-box where you need to unlock them, creating a delay and allowing you time to decide if you need to make the purchase.
5. Don't carry cash. Make yourself go to the ATM to get money before buying an item you want.

Implementation Strategies

It takes self-monitoring to manage impulse spending. Online spending was created as a convenience for shoppers but is exceptionally high risk for people with ADHD.

Peter Gollwitzer, a German professor of psychology in the Psychology Department at New York University, focused his research on cognitive rehearsal following an if X then Y coping statement.

For example, you are shopping on Amazon.com. In goal-focused behavior, the X coping statement is adding items to your shopping cart. The Y coping statement is whether to purchase or keep the cart until later.

Thoughts, Feelings, and Behaviors are like a Braided Cord

Cognitive behavioral therapy centers around the role of our thoughts and how they can be a helpful entry point, like changing behaviors can change our attitudes and ideas and recognize our feelings.

Feelings about finances and money can trigger anxiety, dealing with uncertainty. For example, someone whose parent was a gambler or overspending, and their car was repossessed from the parking lot, creating a traumatic memory. Then when they're adults, managing their finances in adulthood resurfaces that childhood trauma. They may worry about losing their job or if there will be another economic downturn.

Our sense of self needs to be stronger than the idea that we are not our income or the letters behind our name. However far we go in school shouldn't define us, but they do get in the way, especially for folks with ADHD. Following through on our design plans for an outcome we want doesn't always work out and may lead us to abandon them without knowing why because, in our minds, we think we've failed.

Resources:
Part 1 of this interview series
Dr. Ramsay's book: Rethinking Adult ADHD: Helping Clients Turn Intentions Into Actions

Want to work with me?
Check out my ADHD Planning & Coaching service.

Help Me Out!
Click here to leave a review on Apple
Click here to leave a review on my website
Give me five stars on Spotify

Helping ADHD'ers unleash their financial potential through planning and coaching.

DeWittCM.com/adhd to book free discovery session

Head over to our YouTube channel for the full experience on future episodes.

Get your ADHD.MoneyMap™
Talk it through with me live: book a Clarity Call
Watch on YouTube

ADHD is more complex than just a summarized diagnosis in a diagnostic manual. There are many accumulated small behaviors physicians don't always identify that remain untreated.

In the first of this three-part series, we speak with Dr. J. Russell Ramsay, co-founder and co-director of the University of Pennsylvania's adult ADHD treatment and research program and associate professor of clinical psychology in the department of psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine. 

Dr. Ramsay has authored numerous peer-reviewed professional and scientific articles and has written five books about adult ADHD, including his most recent book, "Rethinking Adult ADHD: Helping Clients Turn Intentions Into Actions".

The Diagnostic Assessment of ADHD

The diagnostic assessment criteria for identifying ADHD include developmentally inappropriate inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity levels. The self-regulation view of ADHD is how efficiently one follows through on what they want to do.

Time management organization also translates to financial management motivation, behavioral initiation, and emotional regulation, which is not anywhere in the official diagnostic criteria. Money is a highly charged matter; telescoping out, it also ties in with the workplace, job loss, and some other risks for ADHD.

The Self-Regulation Model of ADHD

The self-regulation model resides within our executive functions. It's the equivalent of willpower, much like spending all day not eating ten chocolate chip cookies, but at 10:59 PM, you cave and eat them all. That's what's known as inhibitory fatigue. Using the analogy of eating as it relates to spending when you log onto Amazon.com.  You spend all day not buying the item, even taking it out of your cart. Still, in the end, you click the one-click shopping and buy the item.

It's part of what the executive functions allow us to do by working toward delayed rewards. Any investment for which we have to buy in, we know we'll be better off. We want it, but it's hard because there's often some short-term cost. We would rather spend the hundred dollars today on something that we can have now than put it into the retirement fund for later.

Having a Plan

So what is your plan? What are you trying to do or not do? Be specific and make sure it's reasonable. Don't try to change everything, like training for a triathlon or deciding to go vegan.

Keystone habits are the routines and practices by which someone operates. They mark the base level of what you do without any need for willpower or persuasion. Whether positive or negative, each of these habits has a ripple effect across everything you do in life and business.

Sticking to the Plan

For people with ADHD, sticking to a plan is a challenge. They may follow it for a day or two and then start anticipating flaws. For example, you plan for your evening walk, and while putting the dishes in the sink, you start thinking, "You know what? It's a little chilly tonight. I'll start tomorrow."

Task interfering or escape behavior like that can also tie back to your financial planning by anticipating what could be some of the risk factors with a financial plan. Make informed decisions, predict and catch when we invariably start slipping up whatever the expense might be and if there’s a possibility of undoing it.

You will still slip up. We all do. What matters is catching it early and containing it, so it’s just a slip and not a total relapse.

Want to work with me?
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If you enjoyed this podcast, the best way to help me is share it with a friend. Reviews and ratings are also appreciated:

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The 'FIRE movement' is a concept that stands for ‘financial independence, retire early,’ where your investments provide all of your income to support your lifestyle. Hence, you no longer need to work. Sounds pretty good, right? The next obvious question then is how do you achieve this?

Frugal Does Not Mean Deprivation

To retire early, you have to save aggressively in the market until you reach a specific dollar amount you've defined as retirement, where you can stop working and live off your investments for the rest of your life. The idea of frugal living does not mean deprivation. It means being resourceful, optimizing, being savvy with your money, and making decisions moving you towards what you want: independence and freedom.

What if you still want to work and have the option to know you don't have to? You still want the income, so maybe the amount you need to save is less because you're still going to have some income, but you have the pure freedom to do whatever you want. If you're a high earner, you can achieve this by making a few modest lifestyle changes and being very smart and efficient about saving.

FIRE examples for ADHD Brains

If you're not a high earner, that's okay. You can still get there with a few more focused lifestyle changes and embracing the actions of being frugal.

For example, let's say you are 30 years old, earn $200,000 per year, and have determined that you can comfortably live the life you want on $100,000 a year. To be financially independent, you need to save $2.5 million in investments. You get to this number by multiplying the money you need for annual expenses by 25.

Factoring in the stock market, the average long-term return on the stock market is around 7- 8%. The rule of thumb in the FIRE movement is to take 4% of your investments yearly. 4% of $2.5 million is $100,000, which is why the standard rule is 25 times expenses.

You’ve decided you would like to do the FIRE movement. You believe you can cut your expenses, save $70,000 per year, max out your 401k, and put the remaining savings into a taxable brokerage account. Getting to the needed $2.5 million would take 17 years. So at age 47, you could live off your investments for the rest of your life.

The Power of the FIRE Movement

The power of the FIRE movement is there's a tangible result that's exciting and life-changing. It comes down to what your values are and what you want. Do you like what it can give you more than you want the next shiny object or more than you want to buy more clothes or whatever it is that gets in your way? The FIRE movement provides the freedom to live exactly how you want and realize that consumerism is unimportant.

 ADHD and FIRE

The main challenge for those of us with ADHD embracing the FIRE movement is we impulsively spend too much and struggle with the idea of being frugal. ADHDers love extremes and do crazy things like skydiving, which is liberating, just not in the right way!

Taking control of our money is a powerful thing, and that feeling of security gives us:

• Freedom
• Options
• Financial Security
• Creates More Life Experiences
• Helps You Give Your Family More
• Enables You Give

Keep the concept of FIRE in the back of your mind as you start out on a smaller scale. Begin tracking your spending and saving habits and work on increasing that gap where you're spending less and saving more.

After two years, how do you feel? Do you feel more accessible and less stressed? I already know what your answer will be.

Want to work with me?
Check out my ADHD Planning & Coaching service.

Help Me Out!
If you enjoyed this podcast, the best way to help me is share it with a friend. Reviews and ratings are also appreciated:

Head over to our YouTube channel for the full experience on future episodes.

Get your ADHD.MoneyMap™
Talk it through with me live: book a Clarity Call
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