How to manage money when dealing with autism, ADHD and other conditions

It’s an expensive business, having a different sort of brain from the majority of the population. First there’s the costs of diagnosis which can run into the thousands if you go private (and chances are you’ll have to because of the public waiting lists), then there are medications, psychologists, psychiatrists, GPs and other services like occupational therapy just to get you up and running.

Then there’s the possibility of being unable to work at all because your diagnosis makes it impossible sometimes, draining income and savings in the process.

Lastly, if that wasn’t enough, there are all the ways being neurodivergent, to use the professional term, can cost you money through the consequences of various symptoms and traits.

There’s the ADHD tax, for example, which refers to the extra financial penalties people living with the neurodevelopmental disorder incur just by going about their business.

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It has no deductibles and it’s incredibly expensive because it includes paying late fees on bills that were forgotten about, replacing lost items, paying more for booking things last minute, forgetting to return items for refund, being charged extra or fraudulently because it wasn’t picked up, buying food that goes unremembered and eventually rotten in the fridge. The list goes on.

On average, having ADHD can cost about an extra €1,600 annually per person, according to research commissioned in the UK by online bank Monzo in 2022. The same study found 31 per cent of people with ADHD were more likely to struggle with debt compared with 11 per cent of people without it.

In April 2023 consultancy firm Newtown explored the ways in which financial institutions may be letting customers with neurodiversity down through poor user experience, adding to a “silent tax”.

The report found “just 14 per cent of autistic people are debt free, compared to a third of neurotypical people”.

For people with autism living with pathological demand avoidance which can result in an extreme avoidance of everyday tasks, things like refinancing or consolidating debt or even logging into a banking app can feel overwhelming to the point of pain.

It’s important to note executive dysfunction isn’t exclusive to the neurodivergent community. It can also affect people living with depression, OCD and even head injuries. In the most primitive terms it can be described as the invisible barrier between a person knowing they have to complete an important task and actually being able to do it.

This can look like being unable to brush your teeth and clean up the house after a bout of grief or depression. Or it can be unpaid parking fines piling up, snowballing late fees on the way because remembering a login and credit card details seems too much. Or forgetting to close an old credit card so you incur yearly fees that you forget to pay.

Put simply, when people are using up most of their mental and physical energy just trying to get through the day there might not be much left over to dedicate to money issues like keeping a budget or even checking your bank balance.

But what if the traditional financial advice like “make a budget and stick to it” never worked for you? The good news is there are more neurodiverse-friendly ways than ever to manage money. The even better news is that they can be used by anyone who might be going through a rough patch and finding it hard to allot brain space to personal finance. Here are some of the basics to get you started.

Direct debits and automation can be your friend

People with ADHD and autism can find it extremely difficult to motivate themselves to do things they aren’t interested in. Ken Kilbride, ADHD Ireland chief executive, explains that people can put off simple tasks, like paying bills even when they have the money to pay them there and then.

“With ADHD there’s something called time blindness that’s around executive definition. There are only two times: now and not now. With the ADHD reward-motivated brain, unless it’s something that needs to be done now, it doesn’t get done,” he says.

“Paying a gas bill isn’t exciting for anybody, never mind someone with ADHD, so it gets put on the back burner – they have the money in the account but the bill doesn’t get paid.”

This leaves people open to late fees, overdrafts and all sorts of financial penalties.

The key is to automate where you can. But choose your timing wisely so you don’t incur a direct debit bounce back. This could mean lining up fixed expenses like the mortgage, rent, gym and childcare fees to come out on pay-day.

Everyone can forget bills and pay late fees, says Kilbride but it’s crippling for people living with neurodiversity who are “on their second, third reminders and the debt agencies are calling”.

Automating a set amount to go into a savings account on pay-day will help build up an emergency fund without having to think about it too much. “Setting and forgetting” can be extremely helpful in this case.

For those travelling or interested in foreign exchange, some fintechs let you set an automatic exchange transaction when a currency reaches a certain amount against the euro. For example, the Australian dollar has been dipping recently, so you can ask Revolut to exchange a set amount when it drops to the point of your choosing if you are eyeing up a trip and want to get more bang for your buck.

Plant a seed

Having the tendency to think only in the here and now can be costly. Much of the work around “being good with money” requires the ability to think in the future, from planning a budget to switching mortgages to avoid an incoming interest rate hike.

For Annabelle Williams, an author and personal finance specialist with ADHD, acknowledging and getting around time blindness is the first step to getting on top of things. “If it is difficult anticipating and preparing for [the] future, things get left to the last minute and then they can become crises.

“That is troubling when it comes to money because not only does it involve managing day by day and month by month, it rewards anticipating the future like getting car insurance sorted at the right time even to buying currency in advance on holiday so you don’t end up buying it at the airport at a terrible rate,” she says.

“The penalties for not being able to plan are severe, you lose that cheaper rate.”

For Williams, the current cost-of-living crisis means she’s reluctant to give advice on how to save on things you buy daily like groceries. Instead, she advises to look at future costs – health insurance, car insurance, broadband, gas and electricity and even streaming subscriptions – and note when contracts are up for renewal. Put them in a diary but keep them at the back of your mind because “you often need to plant a seed in neurodiverse brains” in advance.

From there it’s possible to gamify the process by seeing how much you can save by switching providers to find the best deal or by negotiating with your current company. Williams advises tricking your brain into co-operation by looking at the reward that you will spend your insurance savings on.

Find a reminder method that works for you

While people tend to describe ADHD and autism as a spectrum, Williams sees it more as “a matrix” of “different symptoms you may or may not have”. This means what works for someone might not work for the next person.

Ken Kilbride agrees there is no one-size-fits-all approach and takes pains to dispel the myth that all people with ADHD struggle with money. In fact, he finds some may overcompensate and use their hyperfocus to be really good at money management and other administrative tasks as a means of masking other shortcomings.

While conventional financial advice might have you switching to paperless statements so your documents don’t end up in a cluttered pile, for Williams that is counterproductive.

“When you receive a physical bank statement, you can check on the spot that you were paid for that item you returned to Amazon and see that dodgy transaction.”

Personally she recommends printing payslips with the office printer the day you receive them, then storing them out of sight and out of mind until you need them. That way when it comes to tax time or trying to track down a pension you had years ago but can’t remember what it was called, you won’t try to log in with forgotten passwords and give up on the whole process.

“It’s so much easier to sit on the floor and shuffle through a pile of papers than log in to different systems and reset passwords,” she says.

Know what to avoid

Lastly there are just some things you should avoid because realistically they’ll only cause financial pain. These are things like signing up to an app or publisher for the “free trial period” when you know you’ll end up paying the full yearly fee when it expires because you will forget to cancel. Or buying unprepared veggies instead of the more expensive prepared ones ready to go in the oven if they won’t be eaten.

This can also mean avoiding businesses which have brutal cancellation policies requiring more than 24 hours’ notice if you need to change appointment times, keeping entire deposits if you need to make an alteration.

For Kilbride, gambling apps are to be avoided where possible because of the “immediate dopamine hit” they can provide to brains constantly seeking it, increasing the risk of addiction.

Finally it’s all right if you made some money mistakes in the past. For Williams, the key for brains who struggle to prioritise tasks and get overwhelmed is just to start chipping away. “With money it’s about doing small things regularly,” she says.