Understanding and Tackling the ADHD Tax: From Chaos to Control

In this episode of the Distracted Dollar podcast, Vanessa, an ADHD money coach, explores the concept of the ADHD tax, highlighting the hidden financial costs of living with ADHD. She discusses the unavoidable expenses necessary for well-being, such as medications, therapy, and convenience tools, as well as avoidable costs like late fees, impulse buys, and subscription creep. Vanessa shares practical systems, like having one spending day a month and conducting monthly subscription audits, to help manage these costs and reduce financial stress. The episode aims to shift ADHD management from chaos to control by acknowledging real costs and implementing effective strategies.

00:00 Introduction to the ADHD Tax

01:19 Understanding the Invisible ADHD Tax

01:52 The Convenience Premium and Its Costs

02:53 The Systematic Issue of ADHD Costs

03:45 Managing Impulse Spending

04:49 Implementing Spending Systems

06:01 Tackling Subscription Creep

07:07 Conclusion and Call to Action

In this episode of the Distracted Dollar podcast, Vanessa, an ADHD money coach, explores the intersection of financial anxiety and ADHD behaviors, particularly the impulse to constantly check one's bank account. Vanessa outlines a three-step approach to breaking the anxiety-scroll cycle: recognizing physical triggers and implementing a 60-second pause, creating intentional friction by moving financial apps off your home screen and scheduling check-ins, and addressing the root of anxiety through a weekly financial snapshot and daily worry window. These strategies aim to shift from reactive habits to a more responsive, controlled relationship with finances.

00:00 Introduction to Financial Anxiety and ADHD

00:51 Understanding the Doom Scroll

01:15 Breaking the Cycle: Three Steps to Stop the Scroll

02:41 Recognizing and Managing Triggers

04:00 Building Guardrails for Autopilot Mode

05:17 Addressing the Root Cause: Moving from Avoidance to Acknowledgement

06:25 Conclusion: Taking Back Control

Rewriting Your Financial Identity: Overcoming ADHD Challenges

In this episode of the Distracted Dollar, Vanessa, your ADHD money coach, explores the concept of financial identity and how it impacts those with ADHD. She emphasizes that feeling 'bad with money' is not a fact, but rather a story you’ve inherited. Vanessa explains how ADHD brains process money differently, which can make traditional budgeting and long-term planning challenging. She offers actionable steps to help rebuild your financial identity by observing and reshaping limiting beliefs about money. The episode encourages listeners to align their new money stories with core values, making financial management a more positive and achievable goal.

00:00 Introduction to Financial Identity

00:56 Understanding ADHD and Money

01:39 Rebuilding Your Financial Identity

03:34 Identifying Limiting Beliefs

05:10 Crafting a New Money Story

06:13 Aligning Financial Identity with Core Values

06:55 Practicing the New Identity

08:03 Conclusion: From Chaos to Control

In this episode of The Distracted Dollar, Vanessa Dean discusses the unique financial challenges faced by individuals with ADHD. She highlights five key traits that contribute to financial chaos: impulsivity, time blindness, emotional dysregulation, and executive dysfunction. Vanessa offers practical strategies to manage these traits, such as the 24-hour rule for impulsive purchases, creating a 'bill birthday' to manage time blindness, and building a money container system to combat executive dysfunction. The core message is to design a financial system that works with the ADHD brain rather than against it.

Download to the Compaion IS HERE

Takeaways

This isn't a personal failure; it's a neurological mismatch.

Your brain was built for immediate rewards, not managing money.

Impulsivity is driven by the brain's dopamine system.

The 24-hour rule helps create space for conscious choices.

Time blindness leads to financial surprises and stress.

Externalizing the system can help manage time blindness.

Emotional spending is a temporary escape, not a solution.

Build an emergency feel-good kit to replace spending habits.

Traditional budgeting is often torturous for the ADHD brain.

Create a money container system to simplify financial management.

Chapters

00:00 Understanding ADHD and Financial Chaos

02:46 Impulsivity and the 24-Hour Rule

06:10 Time Blindness and Financial Awareness

08:56 Emotional Spending and Building Resilience

11:48 Executive Dysfunction and Alternative Budgeting Strategies

Managing money with ADHD is not a discipline problem. It is a systems problem.

The Distracted Dollar is a podcast for individuals with ADHD who want to stop feeling overwhelmed, ashamed, or stuck with money and start building calm, clear, ADHD-friendly financial systems.

Hosted by Vanessa Dean, a financial coach with ADHD, this podcast explores the real connection between ADHD and money. Topics include impulsive and emotional spending, time blindness, executive functioning challenges, financial identity, and why traditional budgets do not work for ADHD brains.

Each episode offers practical strategies, simple systems, and mindset shifts designed to work with your brain, not against it. No shame. No rigid rules. No financial jargon that makes you want to shut down.

This podcast is not about perfection or overnight success.
It is about realistic progress, confidence with money, and moving from chaos to control, one step at a time.

If you have ever avoided your bank app, struggled to stick to a budget, or felt like everyone else understands money except you, you are not broken. You are in the right place.

New episodes every other week.