Where’s My Money? Season 6, Episode 10
ADHD and money isn’t a niche conversation
Reagan begins with a simple but important point. This is not a small issue affecting only a handful of people.
He points to estimates suggesting that between 200,000 and 280,000 New Zealand adults may be affected by ADHD, while a much smaller number receive treatment. Early in the episode, he makes it clear that this is not really a conversation about medication. It’s about “how ADHD actually shows up in your bank account.”
This grounds the discussion in everyday life instead of stereotypes and explores the unique sense of “why” behind the behaviour – missed payments and the resulting financial stress, the systems that never quite stick and why habits that look simple from the outside feel strangely difficult to maintain.
The problem isn’t just ‘knowing’, but knowing when to act
Nathan encapsulates his experiences early in the episode, when he says people with ADHD are often “wired for interest, not importance.”
The idea of internalised pressure between knowing and doing will resonate with many listeners. We all know the power bill matters as much as we all know sorting our finances is important. But if the task feels boring, repetitive or mentally draining, it can remain untouched until that pressure becomes impossible to ignore.
Nathan describes this as “negative interest,” where something is ignored until the anxiety around it becomes strong enough to force action. Not excitement, exactly, but enough urgency to finally get the brain moving.
There’s a relatable aspect of this that ties back to the foundations of financial progress. There’s structure in having a financial plan that can help you identify opportunity and act on it, while also limiting the potential distractions. It’s also why we encourage planning early in life, and not to wait to engage until the consequences become both immediate and unavoidable.
Reagan connects this to one of the clearest financial truths to come through in the episode, which he ties back to his time speaking with enable.me coaches: “inaction is one of the worst things you can do,” financially.
Impulse spending doesn’t happen in a vacuum
The conversation then shifts to another side of ADHD and money: impulse spending.
Nathan is clear that impulse buying is not exclusive to neurodivergent people. Plenty of people are vulnerable to low-friction spending, clever marketing, and emotionally driven decisions. But he also explains why ADHD can heighten that vulnerability, especially when novelty, urgency, emotional reward, and tiredness all collide.
Reagan illustrates this with his confession of buying “a bright green electric toothbrush because it was $10 and it wasn’t going to be $10 for much longer.” It adds levity to the chat, but it’s also exactly the kind of real-world relatability the episode is trying to frame the discussion within.
It’s a small example, but an effective one. It captures how a purchase can feel justified in the moment simply because it is new, time-sensitive, and offers the allure of instant gratification. Nathan links this to the brain’s reduced ability to apply the brakes in real time, the internal voice that says, “no, that’s too expensive, stop that,” is not always arriving strongly enough when needed.
The evening version of you might need different rules
Nathan also talks about how tiredness, stress, and end-of-day fatigue can wear down cognitive clarity, especially for neurodivergent brains. After a day of working, commuting, masking, processing, and holding everything together, he says the ability to say “don’t buy that,” can be “shot” by the evening.
This is a useful observation for anyone examining their spending – if you know you’re more prone to impulsive spending at night, you might have to get a little creative in ways to prevent it. Nathan is also realistic about what change looks like and there are “no ‘five hacks’ for this.”
This raises a crucial point – there’s no “quick” fix to behaviour, and the individual solutions are unique to each of us. However, the foundational aspects of this change are common: awareness, repetition, and a willingness to notice – and counter – the patterns that keep showing up and holding you back.
Improvement starts with awareness, not self-judgment
That idea runs through much of the episode.
For many people, shame has already become part of their financial story. Beating yourself up after every mistake rarely creates better behaviour – it often just makes the cycle harder to interrupt.
Nathan’s approach is more constructive. If you do make an impulse purchase, ask what was happening around it. Were you tired? Stressed? Drinking? Scrolling? Looking for a reward after a hard day? Avoiding something else? He calls that insight “gold to be mined.”
We often say that making a mistake isn’t failure, but a lesson we can choose to accept or ignore. But in this context, it can also provide you with very useful information. Nathan talks about being diagnosed later in life and the grief that can come with realising how useful that knowledge would have been earlier.
But he also describes something more hopeful: that understanding his brain properly, have a language for it, and “recognise things and design life in a way that suits,” him was the first time he experienced “genuine self-trust.”
Diagnosis can help, but it isn’t the only starting point
Towards the end of the episode, Reagan asks a practical question: how important is diagnosis?
Nathan says knowledge matters, and if diagnosis can help someone access that knowledge and support then “do it.” What’s useful here is that he doesn’t present diagnosis as the only path forward. There’s still a lot to gain from observing your behaviour, building awareness, and finding support that helps you understand what is going on – in whichever safe, psychological environment allows you to discover those things.
That makes the episode feel grounded rather than idealistic. Positive change is rarely about one universal fix and instead often looks like a combination of small, positive changes that compound in habits over time. Often, this begins with a better understanding of our thinking and behaviour, honest reflection, and support that makes it easier to take those next steps.
A conversation that feels practical, human, and overdue
What makes this episode so strong is that it treats ADHD and money as a real financial issue for many and not just a quirky, novelty conversation to gain podcast views.
It shows how ADHD can affect spending, saving, admin, stress, relationships, and self-worth. It also stays practical without pretending there is a quick fix. Instead, the episode keeps coming back to that much more useful question: what actually happens for you, and what can you learn from it?
If this episode hits close to home, Nathan recommends ADHD New Zealand as a good starting point for information, testing, community, and support, and if the money side of things is what feels hardest, understanding your financial behaviour more clearly – and with self-compassion – can be a valuable place to start.
Reagan encapsulates this best at the end of the episode with some insightful wisdom of his own: “It doesn’t need to be all about pills, it can be all about some new skills.”
Disclaimer: The Where’s My Money? podcast and the information shared by host Reagan White and his guests does not constitute individual financial advice. If you’re interested in receiving financial advice, you can book a consultation with an enable.me coach. Costs apply.
