I thought this guest post was great, but I wanted to add something that I realized after my ADD diagnosis at age 60 and 39 years of marriage.
After learning about the ADD time warp (which Melissa incredibly accurately refers to as now-not now), I realized that a huge proportion of my clashes with my wife over spending were at least partly the result of the now-not now time reality that I inhabit.
Non-ADD partners may have a hard time believing this, especially from a high-earning professional with post-graduate degrees, but I simply cannot connect what I spent this week to what I spent last week or what will need to be spent next week. The time horizon may be a little longer than a week, but it isn't much longer.
My realization of that hasn't magically fixed the issue, but awareness has been a significant help. If you feel like you ADD/ADHD partner doesn't "get it" about money issues, perhaps you should talk about how your partner experiences time.
Thanks John....
Submitted by c ur self on
That is such a great awareness moment...And a great tip!
Thank you!
PS...I help myself by budgeting with Accounts...I have two CU's I use, I have two checking Accounts, I have two savings....They each have different purposes...My groceries, gas, eating out, daily spending money goes in the checking w/ a debt card...The bill money goes in the other checking account...It has no bank cards attached to it, it can never be used for anything other than Monthly bills....The savings have different functions also...One I use for things like car repair, or hunting club dues, paying the government at years end if owed....The main savings ONLY gets used for car purchases or major family purchases...Everything is directed deposited....It works...If I start overspending that debt account, I know it......So I pull it up on line and decide what to do about it...but it has no effect on the other account for bills....