Why ADHD Might Be the Best Reason to Hire a Financial Planner
Having ADHD doesn't feel like an admission anymore (late diagnosis gang). If you're anything like me, your Instagram feed is packed with ADHD management tips, supplements, strategies, and explanations of why you are the way you are. On a personal level, it has had a profound effect on my life, but it has also brought a great deal of clarity.
One of the ADHD traits I'm most prone to is periods of hyperfocus, which often manifest as new hobbies. I have the cabinet full of Japanese plastic robot models to prove it. Remember when I got into racing cars? My ever-patient wife sees the racing simulator in our bedroom as a daily reminder. And anyone who has Zoomed with me has seen the wall of guitars, which has actually proven to be my one consistent interest with any staying power.
Despite being acutely aware of my own experience with ADHD, I found myself having a recent revelation about fellow sufferers. During a discussion with another advisor, the conversation turned to what is sometimes a challenging concept in our profession: the DIYers. It is generally accepted that many DIYers are highly successful at managing their own personal finances. A DIYer is also not a permanent designation; at various points in life, some people transition away from managing their own finances, while others transition back.
Despite all my experience with this, it shockingly took me this long to realize that personal finance could be a hyperfocus topic for others like me. Financial planning has always been my career and a central part of my daily life for nearly 20 years, which, admittedly, created a blind spot around where it might hold genuine interest for others.
That insight shed some light on a portion of the DIY phenomenon, but it was also interesting to apply this lens to my current and future client base. My ADHD, it turns out, is actually part of the service I provide. Speaking with some of my clients, I believe that managing their ADHD would be among the core values they derive from having a financial planner.
Returning to my ever-growing list of hyperfixations, the guitar is something I picked up more than 15 years ago. Despite that, and many hours devoted to it, I have never risen above what I would consider beginner-intermediate level. Most of my dedicated practice time has been consumed by YouTube rabbit holes and tabs of whatever riff has most recently stuck in my head.
The harsh reality is that had I hired and stuck with a guitar instructor, I would be playing at a significantly higher level today. Not for lack of interest or ability, but for lack of structure and professional guidance.
When you stretch the analogy to personal finance, a topic every adult must contend with, it describes one of the central roles of a financial planner. Meetings between advisor and client are structured, scheduled, and time-bound. They go a long way toward fighting the kind of mental meandering I know my own brain is capable of.
One of the key lessons I have learned in approaching my affliction has been creating systems that allow tasks to leave my head while still trusting they will not be lost. This saves me an enormous amount of time otherwise spent on tasks that keep re-entering my thoughts, and dragging their companion, anxiety, along with them. I say all this from behind a computer monitor thoroughly covered in Post-it notes.
Having another person, an accountability partner, to offload financial concerns onto provides genuine relief to many people. There is no shame in being a sounding board for others. It is, in fact, one of the most enjoyable parts of my job.
Human brains work in a vast number of different ways, which also explains how a DIYer might have none of these needs, how many of them have achieved outstanding outcomes, and why it took me so long to fully comprehend that. Knowing which category you fall into, and being honest about it, is its own form of financial self-awareness.
I have always leaned on that well-worn advisor line: to manage your own finances, you need all three of the following things: the desire, the ability, and the time. I used to joke that my clients had the first two and none of the third. But I have come to realise that many of them also possessed something else: a clear understanding of which systems work best for them, and the self-awareness to apply that understanding to something as critically important as managing their finances.
For my fellow ADHDers who made it this far, tl;dr: the value of a financial planner is not purely technical. For many people, the structure, accountability, and cognitive offloading it provides is the value.
Dann Ryan is a New York City-based CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Practitioner & Managing Partner at Sincerus Advisory. Click here to schedule a time to speak with us.