Adult ADD: Battle Of The Bucks

Do you have the frantic mindset that people get around money when they don’t have enough? Many times you will hear, “Listen, before you focus on making more money, you need to focus on really organizing your money properly.”

People just can't adopt that mindset when they were really, really, really hurting for cash. Maybe there are some ADD people out there who’ve done it, and if you can do it, more power to you, that’s awesome! But most of the time when ADD people, or even people without ADD, really start looking for money advice in the biggest way, they’re not doing so hot.

One of the biggest things here is to never listen to anyone about money who’s not more financially successful than you are. No doubt, if you're reading this, you already know that both of us have been very successful through our work with ADD and other ventures, not involving ADD.

Our philosophy is to say, “Look, you’ve got to get stable," and this is very important for people with ADD. You cannot get to a place that you want to be successfully, if you’re constantly worried about money.

The first thing to do is to take an evaluation, a true evaluation. Where are you right now? What’s going on in your business, in your life, in your job? What’s actually happening, and is there stability there? For some of you there might be, and for some of you, there might not be.

Step one is making more money and many, many people are trying to make money online.

Especially in this entrepreneurial society that we’re moving into, and that we’ve been moving into for a while, we counsel people to go get a job while they’re building a business because business online or offline requires entrepreneurial skills that probably don’t have in order to jump on the ground and start running with a business. Entrepreneurial business takes some time to learn, and so financial stability is extremely important so that you can actually use your creative ADD mind and be strategic.

But just saying, “I need to make more money,” is not okay. You’ve got to be a lot more specific than that. You’ve got to take a look at: Where are you now in your finances? How much goes out on a monthly basis? How much comes in on a monthly basis?

What you’re looking at there is something called “the gap.” If you have $2,500 in bills that go out, and you have $2,000 coming in, you have a $500 gap.

Here's a rule of thumb: Whatever you’re earning right now per hour, even if you’re in your own business, break it down, figure it out, do a rough estimate.

ADD people are often less organized around money than some people are. If you want to use your ADD tendencies and traits to your advantage, here’s what you can do:

Take whatever you’re earning right now, per year, per month, per week, per hour, per day, whatever it is—double it. Now, figure out what that comes down to per hour. Then, tell yourself, “Okay, I need to go out and get a job that pays this new figure per hour.” That’s it.

There are people, right now, around the globe that are making that much and more per hour. It’s your job to go figure out how to get a job that pays that much. Your job, your task, as a problem-solving, ADD-brilliant mind, is to say, “Okay, how can I solve this problem? This is the situation, I’m going to double my income this year by doing one thing, and I’m not going to work any more hours. This is perfect for your ADD brain to solve because that's what we are. ADD people are problem solvers.

So, say to yourself, "I’m going to get a job that pays me twice as much.” The coolest part about this is that right now you are in a great position—the world has never been this wide open before. There are more virtual jobs than there have ever been. When I say virtual jobs, what I mean are jobs that you can do from a distance, from your home, from your computer, from your phone, if you stay focused on it.

I’m not saying that working at home is necessarily the right choice for everyone, and it may not be for someone with ADD, unless you can use your ADD hyperfocus. For many people, especially ADD people, it’s very difficult to motivate yourself to work from home if you’re in a situation where there’s nobody that’s going to be breathing down your neck or looking over your shoulder.

But here's the key: The first thing is to start thinking of yourself as worth twice as much. Then, use your ADD brain to solve the problem of how to get that much.

We'll talk more about that and give you some ADD-helpful hints in coming articles.