ADHD and money: what research says about bills and spending

A late fee on a bill you had the money to pay. A parcel you do not remember ordering. People sometimes call the running total the “ADHD tax”. This guide covers what studies of money and ADHD measured.

What the evidence says

Missed payments. One study linked mental health records for the whole Swedish population with credit data for a random sample of 189,267 people ¹. Adults with ADHD had higher rates of missed payments than others in every category of unpaid claims ¹. In the five categories with the largest gaps, such as bank overdrafts, they were over four times more likely to incur arrears ¹. They started adulthood with normal credit demand and default rates, but in middle age their default rates grew steeply ². By age 40, their default risk peaked at over six times that of the general population ¹. Many of the unpaid claims were for relatively small items, such as parking tickets ¹.

Income. A Swedish register study covered about 1.2 million people who left compulsory school from 1998 to 2008. Those with an ADHD diagnosis had on average 17% lower annual income and about 12 more days of unemployment a year than controls ³. Income was lower and unemployment higher even compared with controls who had the same level of education ⁴.

The Pittsburgh ADHD Longitudinal Study followed 309 people diagnosed with ADHD in childhood and 208 comparison participants through age 25. Most were male. As young adults, the ADHD group depended more on family members and on the welfare system, and earned less ⁵.

Impulse buying. In a study of 45 adults with ADHD and 51 controls, the adults with ADHD more often reported buying on impulse, and an avoidant or spontaneous way of making decisions ⁶. A second study compared 225 adults with ADHD with 121 university students. The ADHD group reported more frequent impulsive buying and less ability to defer gratification, that is, to wait for a reward. In the authors’ model, that ability mediated the link between ADHD symptoms and impulsive buying, but they state that the design does not allow causal conclusions ⁷.

What we don’t know

We found no verifiable study that puts a figure on everyday costs such as a late fee or a forgotten subscription.

These are group averages. They describe associations, not causes, and are not a forecast for any one person. The register studies cover only people with a recorded diagnosis. The impulse-buying studies rely on self-report. In one, the diagnoses could not be checked clinically and the comparison group was university students ⁷.

We found no trial of whether a planner, a reminder or a budgeting method reduces missed payments in adults with ADHD. The ideas below are untested and not financial advice.

Things to try

• Give one payment a time, not only a date. Put a bill on the day it is due, at an hour you are usually free, with the amount in a note.
• Let a purchase wait. Impulse buying was associated with less ability to defer gratification ⁷. You could write the item down with a date a few days ahead and look again then.