ADHD: Executive Functioning is Your Best Financial Asset
Lynda Hoffman
ICF Professional Certified Coach | Coaching professionals who yearn for meaningful personal and organizational change | ADHD Coaching for Professionals | Speaker on executive functioning in adults
It’s hard to talk about money. It’s private. It can be uncomfortable. We all hold so many expectations about what we think it means to be ‘good with money’.
And we make assumptions about who we think we are based on our financial portfolio – or the lack thereof.
Eve, a highly-accomplished professional with ADHD, told me that her financial challenges were lifelong. And they were devastating to her sense of self.
It made no sense to her that her keen, analytical mind (for which she’d been highly praised), her natural creativity and her love of learning were not enough to prevent her from living paycheque to paycheque. She earned an excellent living, but still found herself oblivious to what she spent, what she had in the bank and what she might need in the future.
For Eve, being ‘financially illiterate’ as she put it, meant living on the edge - unable to meet her own needs - while generously supporting everyone around her. She spent freely, but had no sense of what she had or didn’t have in any given moment. She had risen to the top of her profession, winning awards and well-earned professional accolades, but she felt inept and dependent on others for their financial knowledge. She felt like an imposter.
I see this in my practice every day: highly-talented adults with ADHD struggling to feel like adults because they never seem to have money when they need it, no matter what they do.
As Eve said, “If you can’t manage $10, how do you manage $10,000?” But even the smartest person can’t manage their money when they’re struggling with their executive functions, the brain-based skills for directing behaviour toward a goal. When they can’t stop themselves from spending money on yet another delicious meal at a high-end restaurant, or using shopping to self-soothe, or showering their friends and family with money and gifts because it ‘just feels right in this moment’ -- they find themselves in deep trouble.
When the realization of their choices hits them, late at night when they’re trying to sleep, they feel lost and ashamed.
Understanding the role of executive function in ADHD is the key to becoming financially solvent – and staying that way.
Eve’s “financial illiteracy” wasn’t the cause of her money problems. It was a classic symptom of ADHD. Her money difficulties didn’t stem from her lack of knowledge so much as a lack of focus. She hadn’t focused on learning about money management because she was impulsive and distractible. She admitted to using money to regulate her emotional ups and downs. She kept forgetting (in the moment) that she had every intention to be more mindful about her spending. But she had no plan. ?She ‘felt’ she didn’t have time to make one.
Do you relate to Eve’s experience?
What stories might you be telling yourself about who you are? Who are you hiding from? Yourself? Others?
It’s so reassuring to know that financial abilities are actually skills. They can be learned. You can grow and develop once you understand how you can make your executive functioning work for you, not against you.
5 Executive Functions Directly Related to Your Financial Wellbeing
Planning/Prioritizing Planning is the process for creating a roadmap to reach a goal. To create this roadmap, you need to know your destination by prioritizing what deeply matters to you.?
Ask yourself:
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Working Memory Working memory holds information in your head for seconds or minutes to assist you in completing a task. When it comes to your money, working memory supports you in remembering your financial goals in the moment. You’re holding in mind all the options you have available to you – before you spend. Ask yourself:
Emotional Regulation Emotional regulation is the ability to control your emotions so they don’t run you. When you’re feeling strong emotions, you may feel compelled to act on them regardless of your financial goals. This can look like choosing to spend your way out of a painful feeling or toward a fantastic one.
Ask yourself:
Inhibition Inhibition is the skill for stopping yourself from acting when it’s in your best interest to do so. Inhibition puts the brake on your urges. It literally prevents you from crashing into the same spending patterns. Ask yourself:
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Self-Monitoring Self-monitoring is the ability to watch yourself in action. If you don’t see yourself from the outside, you‘ll act from the inside of an emotion. Ask yourself:
Understand your brain and you’ll be masterful at finding the strategies that work for you and your financial goals.
With love and gratitude,
Lynda