ADHD and Money: The Hidden Costs Nobody Talks About
There's a term that you may have heard called the "ADHD tax." This refers to the money that quietly (or even loudly in many cases) drains out of our lives. It’s not because of bad decisions, but of the daily friction of living in a brain that wasn't designed for the administrative demands of modern financial life.
This can be an endless list of things but a few of the top contributors in the lives of many of my financial coaching clients are:
Late fees because you meant to pay the bill but it slipped off your mental radar.
The replacement item you bought because you couldn't find the original (that you later discovered you had three of).
The subscriptions that have been charging your card for months (or years) after you were sure you cancelled them.
The express shipping you paid because you forgot to order something until it was urgent.
The overdraft charge because the timing between income and expenses caught you off guard…again.
And of course the impulse shopping or all the things we had to buy for the new hobby we were definitely going to stick to this time!
None of these feel like major financial mistakes in isolation. Together, they can add up to hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars a year. And because each incident feels like a unique, one-off failure rather than a pattern, most ADHDers never stop to add it up. And to be clear, I’m not suggesting you do, because you’re already hard enough on yourself. Instead, let’s flip the script and look at it as a money hunting expedition to plug some of the ADHD tax leaks!
So how can you stop paying the ADHD taxes on repeat? Let’s take a closer look to why they happen, and what you can do about it!
Overdraft Charges, Late Fees and Missed Payments
These both the most common, and often most costly form. The bill existed, or you ‘knew’ the payment was going to come out soon. Maybe you even had the money, but it wasn’t where you needed it to be, or you didn’t use it to pay the bill on time. Whether you didn’t have the executive function to make sure it was taken care of, you got distracted and it slipped your mind, or you slipped into full-on money avoidance mode, the costs here can really add up.
The particular cruelty of the ADHD tax is that it penalizes over and over. Every time you miss a bill, late fee. Every month (or often every time) you dip into your overdraft, fee (and sometimes these are so high it makes me sick). It’s never a one-and-done; these hits just keep coming.
How To Slash These Fees
The key here is knowing that we won’t remember because that’s not how our brains work. Use reminders, visual signals, or whatever tool works best for you to keep track of deadlines. And so you don’t start to ignore the reminders, focus on the things that have been the most challenging for you. Even better, sit down once a week to look at the coming week and pay things that need to be paid manually early, and plan for automatic payment.
Subscriptions That Keep Running
You meant to cancel, or even went through the process but forgot to click one more button so you’re still paying for the premium version of the app, the box subscription that stopped being fun, or the streaming service you signed up for during a free trial. And for months (or even longer) it has been hitting your bank account or charging your credit card. This is so common with ADHDers, and yet the when we find something we have been paying for without knowing, we beat ourselves up.
In a world of subscription services that are literally designed to do exactly what they do to us, I think we should start a club or commiserate together! I even had one client with a subscription she had tried to cancel multiple times, but it was designed to set her up for failure. Not only was it charging her card every other month, so it was more difficult to catch, the process to cancel basically required a PhD in subscription cancelling! Ultimately we ended up spending close to 30 min figuring out how to cancel it together.
How to Get Out Of The Subscription Cycle
First, we need to look at where we are right now. And let’s add a little dopamine to this task that you 100% do not want to do, shall we? You’re already paying these costs for each item you cancel; pay yourself a little reward to spend however you please! Because heck yeah, you deserve it!
Start with 30 minutes and see how far you get. Set a timer to increase the dopamine of the task. Start with the bank account or credit card you use most often for subscriptions and go through the last 2-3 months of statements. We’re only looking for recurring subscriptions. Sometimes these even indicate that they are recurring to make it easier for you. Every time you find one that you aren’t using, make a note of where you are in your review and go cancel it right away. Bonus points if you also make a note of what you cancelled and how much you saved yourself!
When the 30 min is up. Gauge how you’re feeling and how much progress you made. If you’ve still got work to do and are feeling some momentum, keep going. Otherwise, block another 30 min in a week or two to keep going.
A good place to have quick wins is to look at your subscriptions through your phone. At least for iPhones it’s easy to see and cancel your subscriptions. Go to settings, click on your name at the top, hit subscriptions, and then cancel the ones you aren’t using.
A tip here is if you sign up for a free trial (because this is how they get us), go and cancel right away. Then at the end of the trial, if you want to continue, you can, and you may even get a promotional offer because you had already cancelled.
Duplicate and Replacement Purchases
You bought the thing. You can't find the thing. The thing is definitely somewhere in this house, but you need it now, so you buy another one. Then of course the original shows up two weeks later. This is the ADHD tax in its most maddening form: not irresponsible spending, but spending money on things you already own because the executive function required to remember where it was didn’t show up today.
I wish I had a magic solution for this one, but I don’t. I try to have a home for things and regularly practise the ‘don’t put it down, put it away’ saying in my head. I also have learned to be okay with the home being right in my face for many things, so I don’t lose them or forget they exist. For things that are on the pricier side, adding an AirTag to it or another tracker can help. If you have a solution that helps you with this, I’d love to hear it. Please comment on this post to share it with me!
The Bigger Picture of Ditching the ADHD Tax
Yes, the things above can help reduce a lot of ADHD taxes you may be paying, but the larger path to telling them where to go for good is a lot bigger, and yes, a lot higher lift. So, if you don’t have the capacity for that, I understand. But I hope you save this article link somewhere and add it to a future reminder to come back
Most ADHD taxes can be avoided with a solid financial foundation. I know *insert eyeroll*, but stick with me here. I don’t mean tracking every transaction like it’s your favourite thing to do. I mean having a plan for your money that makes you happy because it is aligned with what’s important to you, and partnering that plan with systems that help you integrate that plan into your life in a way that works for your brain.
This one-two punch helps you gain confidence in how you manage your money, and start to build a little wiggle room so you can start to build a bit of a buffer in your bank account, stash some money in savings (that actually stays there), and save more of your executive functioning points for other areas of your life.
You may be saying, well that sounds fucking awesome, Sherry, but HOW? I’ve tried and failed more times than I can count. What do I need to do to actually be able to get there? It’s a combination of a few things, the first being that plan I talked about. To start to build yours, you can grab my free ADHD Money Toolkit. Then, to learn more about different systems that work well for ADHD brains, check out this podcast episode all about money systems that work to help ADHDers manage their money with ease! But you also don’t have to do it on your own. I may be a little biased, but having one-on-one support and accountability is the magic that helps me get $hit done! If you’d like to explore working together, you can learn more about the options and find the link to book a free consultation so we can give each other a vibe check!
And remember, the goal isn't to eliminate all the ADHD taxes all the time. Some of it will always be there. The goal is to reduce the biggest and most preventable forms of it. Even cutting it in half can mean hundreds of dollars back in your pocket every year!
About the Author
Sherry is a financial coach who works with adults and entrepreneurs with ADHD who are tired of watching money drain out through systems that weren't designed for their brain. She has ADHD herself and understands the ADHD tax from the inside out, including how to actually reduce it rather than just feel bad about every time it happens.
