The ADHD Tax: Its REAL cost to ADHD Entrepreneurs

Hey, new listener. Thanks so much for checking us out. And there's a good chance you have adhd, so I quickly wanted to ask you to please follow this podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whichever app you're listening to this on, don't leave it until later because you will forget. Thank you, Squirrel. Squirrel. So I apologize in advance if this topic is a little triggering for you, but I want to talk about the ADHD tax today. Welcome to this Hyper Focus highlight episode. Let's get you hyper focused on your business growth. Squirrel. Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. And welcome to the Weeniecast. Squirrel. The ADHD tax is all the ways in which we as people with adhd, spend unnecessary amounts of money, energy, and time because we just don't do things the way that neurotypical people do. So the ADHD tax attacks us in a lot of different ways. So vegetables in your refrigerator going bad are 1. Buying duplicates of things. I don't know about you all, but I tend to get super obsessive about a certain type of food. And then I'll go to the grocery store and I will forget that I already have like three jars of that nut spread at home. And it's fun until it's not fun, right? It's funny until it's not funny, because it actually does end up costing us a lot of money over the course of our lives. And one of the things that I would do with my clients if they have ADHD and if they're stressing out about money, if we're working on their money relationship, is I have them go through all of the subscriptions that they have signed up for. And this can be very triggering. I'm not saying that lightly. This can actually trigger a trauma response for some people because when you go into your credit card statement and you see that you've been spending a good $600, and that's happened before with some of my clients, a good $600 a month on random subscriptions that you don't even remember signing up for, that can send you into a major spiral of, oh my God, I'm literally sabotaging my own ability to live. I'm sabotaging my own ability to save for retirement. I'm sabotaging my ability to live longer because think your brain naturally goes to, what could I have spent that money on? That $600 that I was wasting on an Audible account that I don't use on a Stars and a Showtime account that Like, I signed up for the free trial so I could binge watch that one show, but then I completely forgot that I'd signed up for it. Still, part of the ADHD tax is the late fees that we end up paying for stuff. I moved to the east coast during the pandemic accidentally, and I've kind of settled in, and there are a lot more tolls on the freeways here than there are in California. In California, you really just have to pay for tolls on bridges. You know, they're called freeways for a reason, because they're free to travel on. On the east coast, they're not. They cost a lot of money. And at one point, I kept getting all these bills in the mail for my car, going through areas that were told, and my little box, my fast track that was supposed to be paying everything, wasn't reading for some reason, I didn't realize it. So I kept getting all these bills in the mail, and I'd see them be like, oh, that's important. I need to deal with this. And then I'd put them aside. And that's like, the biggest mistake someone with ADHD can make is put them aside to keep the clutter controlled, because I'm never going to think about it again. Until one day I finally got a notification from, like, the New Jersey Turnpike association saying that I owed them a ridiculous amount of money for tolls. It was something like $275 that I owed, and most of that was late fees for me not paying them. Just so you know, it finally became enough of a problem. And also I was going to have to renew the registration on my car. And I was worried that this would hold it up, that I would have to, like, pay more money for the registration because I hadn't paid this. So I finally called the number on the bill, and I got in touch with this very nice young man who very tentatively informed me that the bill was now up to about $320. And I said, okay, that's fine. You know, let me know when you're ready for my credit card. And his response was what? I said, that's fine. Just let me know when you're ready to take my credit card number. And he's like, I'm sorry, I don't understand. And I was like, no, no, no. Like, just let me know. I'm happy to pay it. I know I owe this money. Just tell me when you're ready for my credit card number. This poor guy was like, no, I'm sorry. I just. I was expecting you to yell at me for it because he was so used to people calling up and yelling at him for these late fees. Now that tells me he hasn't had a lot of ADHD people calling. Because we're so used to having to pay the late fe, we just don't even want to create any fuss about it. We're actually we've internalized that embarrassment and that shame so much that we want to be the most pleasant and easy to deal with when we have to go and pay for it. Because it's already evidence that there's something massively wrong with us. It's already evidence that we can't handle our life if we then go and create problems around it. That just makes us a whole different level of person, and we don't like that. So the ADHD tax happens in a lot of financial ways for people with adhd. And I want to challenge you to do something. If you have adhd, and I'd love for you to reach out to me and let me know if you did this or even if you, like, went to do this and failed at it, that's okay, too. That'll tell you a lot about what your relationship with money is. But I challenge you to go and look at all of your subscriptions. And if there are any subscriptions in there that you no longer actively use, I challenge you to cancel them. And know that you can cancel them now and reenact them later. If you're ready to stop being a weenie and actually run a business that makes money, then go ahead and book a generate income strategy call with me by going to weeniecast.com strategy call. On this call, we will talk about your goals, your dreams, and your frustrations in getting there. And if it's a fit for both of us, then we can talk about different ways to work together. Join the weeniecast Hyper Focus community and unlock a whole world of support. Get direct access to me in exclusive calls. Turbocharge your network with unlimited referrals, and boost your productivity with Sprint calls and accountability sessions. But that's not all. We're talking expert talks, masterclasses, and more. Register now to get in front of the line for this at the introductory price of just $77 per month, it's time to elevate your entrepreneurial game. Let's do this together. Go to weeniecast.com hyperfocus all one word. That's weeniecast.com hyperFocus. Join the Weeniecast hyperfocus community and unlock a whole world of support, get direct access to me in exclusive calls, turbocharge your network with unlimited referrals, and boost your productivity with sports, Sprint calls and accountability sessions. But that's not all. We're talking expert talks, masterclasses, and more. Register now to get in front of the line for this at the introductory price of just $77 per month, it's time to elevate your entrepreneurial game. Let's do this together. Go to weeniecast.com hyperfocus all one word. That's weeniecast.com hyperFocus.