ADHD & Money

Elianna Friedman (00:07) Hi, I'm Elianna and welcome to ADHDFM, a podcast about discovering what it really means to be diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. I was diagnosed in my late 30s and a few years later, I'm still learning, reflecting and laughing my way through it. One thing I realized is that I didn't just want answers. I wanted connection with others who share my experience. I was searching for my people, for a community that understood how my brain really works. I'm still on that journey now. We'll explore it together. is a place to talk honestly about life with ADHD. What's hard? What's easy? What helps? What doesn't? And what we're still figuring out. I am so glad you're here. I chose money and ADHD as the theme of this episode because budgeting and personal finances have been a struggle for me my entire life. What's especially frustrating is I'm really good at business budgeting and planning. I can handle spreadsheets and forecasts and big pictures strategy just fine, but when it comes to my own money, my personal finances, everything feels overwhelming. Like I'm constantly getting it wrong. One place this really shows up for me with credit cards. Credit card debt and credit card overspending. Before I was diagnosed with ADHD, I had a terrible experience with a credit card. I ran it up way too high. And instead of dealing with it, I avoided it and really just pushed the whole issue down and tried to hide it away. I was embarrassed, so I kept pushing it deeper and deeper, and it was the one card that my husband didn't have access and couldn't see Even though I could have been paying it off every month, I didn't. I would forget or I would ignore it, and as the debt grew higher, the more I avoided it. When my husband asked me about it, like, yeah, have you paid it off this month? He was just assuming I had, because I hadn't said anything. And then I started lying, and I said that I had, which made it even worse. I still get like this tightness and kind of oof, lump in my throat thinking about sharing this story, because it was bad, and it just kept getting worse until I confronted the issue. Another piece for me that comes up around money is fairness. I often wonder, do I deserve money if I don't know how to manage it right? I also think about the ADHD tax a lot. It feels really unfair and embarrassing like the credit card situation, if I don't pay it, or if I forget to pay it, the interest fee is higher. Also, I think that subscriptions come in that ADHD tax area, like I'll sign up for something because I'm really excited about it and think I wanna do it, but It's only subscription-based and there's no other option, so I sign up for it. not worrying about the future. And I mean, know at this point, I know I'll probably never remember cancel it Another tax, another ADHD tax is returning things are very, very hard for me. One solution to returning things that I found is have somebody else do it like having my mom return something for me Like I'll package it up for her and everything, but like physically going to the Amazon drop-off return area, having her do it really helps mitigate that struggle. also I feel like money is very challenging because I constantly think of the fairness piece and do I deserve it or why do I have money and other people have less privilege and have less money and that doesn't feel fair or right to me. If any of this sounds familiar, the secrecy or the guilt or the constant feeling that you should be doing better, this episode might be for you. That's why I'm so excited about today's guest. She's a financial planning expert who truly understands these struggles. And and I are digging on how to cope, how to untangle some of the shame, and how to build systems for ADHD. That actually work with our brain and not against it. So stick with us, this conversation might change the way you think about money and about yourself. Elianna Friedman (04:26) Jodi Stauffer is a business owner, a wife and a mom who understands firsthand how challenging it can be to juggle life, career and money, especially through big transitions like divorce, career changes and blended families. She specializes in working with business owners, executives, professionals and helping them navigate all areas of their financial lives with clarity and confidence. Jodi was diagnosed with ADHD later in life and it has shaped the way she worked with clients, giving her practical and creative approach to complex and often messy financial situations, With over 25 years of experience across multiple financial leadership roles, she brings real world insight into everyday conversations. Elianna Friedman (05:11) So welcome Jodi, thank you so much for being here and being our expert to talk with us all about money. I shared your bio, but I'd also love for us to just start out with you telling us a little bit about yourself. In your own words and why the work you do is so necessary and important. Jodie Stauffer (05:30) Yeah, thanks for that bio. That's a wonderful I've been in business and finance for many years. It's changed a lot over the years, but. I'm very passionate about working with clients, not just with ADHD, but people who are just, like, they're just, they don't think the same way. Their brains are operating differently, and their stress level maybe is operating differently as well. So, you know, the reason why I do this is because, believe it or not, finances have gotten very complicated. 50 years ago, you had cash in hand, you dealt with one bank, there was, limited investment options and most people didn't even have credit cards but they didn't have five of them and everything wasn't financed. So it's gotten really messy and even who aren't struggling on the spectrum or don't have the stress around it, it's still messy and confusing and I think it's only getting worse. So I think it's really important us smart, people and kind of break down the barriers because so many ADHDers or people who even don't have ADHD out there are struggling thinking the rest of the world has it together and that's just not reality. Elianna Friedman (06:44) I would agree with that. I think it's gotten so much more complicated. Also with age, right? Like there's compounding things and planning for retirement and you know, like I feel like many years ago money was easier, but as I get older it gets more stressful. Jodie Stauffer (06:54) Yeah, and you're it gets more complicated, but also, there's so many of the old rules as you age that apply, like when you should retire and when you should have your crap together, when you should have kids. And that's not our reality. Those are like those are rules that were put in place in my parents or before that generation that don't apply today. But people are still throwing them at all the young people coming up. So. Elianna Friedman (07:23) Exactly, so many shoulds, right? Jodie Stauffer (07:25) Yes, exactly. Elianna Friedman (07:27) So you were diagnosed with ADHD later in life as well as myself. ⁓ What suddenly made your relationship with money work and make more sense when you were diagnosed? Jodie Stauffer (07:39) I had already been in the industry for 10 years ⁓ in the financial industry, and I would probably say that like money from the time I was a little kid has been something that just resonates with me. Like we all have those gifts where it's like this is easy for me and this is really hard. always been really easy for me. prior to being diagnosed, being able to control the impulsivity or see it as impulsivity I had I think five brand new vehicles in an 18 month period of time now I keep my vehicles ten years but like that kind of stuff and so that was one of the you know big ahas before being diagnosed once I got something in my head I would ruminate on it till I till it came to fruition right after being diagnosed I could start to slowly be like okay well maybe this isn't me like my brain saying this is so important maybe this is something else right ⁓ so yeah so yeah Elianna Friedman (08:32) Right, maybe it's the dopamine that feels so good when you have that new car smell or something like that. Jodie Stauffer (08:39) Yeah and it's almost been 20 years since I've been And it was a shameful like diagnosis at the time right like it was something I didn't tell anybody except for my husband. It was actually my daughter who was getting diagnosed and they kind of looked across the room and went whoa to me because I was just like ⁓ so yeah there was a lot of shame around it So it took like I've been researching and trying to figure out my own stuff many many years before I started really delving into all these are my people and I have to help them. Elianna Friedman (09:10) When did that happen? Jodie Stauffer (09:12) when I finally decided to hang my own shingle and start doing financial planning on my own and I left the corporate world, because in the corporate world, like I'd seen it happen to colleagues where somebody would disclose and next thing you know, their career would just plummet and nothing changed about them, right? And so in the corporate world, never told anybody, So then it was in 2019 just before the pandemic, I started kind of talking to people and That was what changed is that I was like starting to talk about it And when I started doing that, ⁓ people just started resonating with it and being like, my me to Elianna Friedman (09:49) What are some of the most common money challenges you see in adults with ADHD? there's a lot of us with ADHD that end up going our own way, starting our own businesses. ⁓ So what challenges do you see come up in those situations? Jodie Stauffer (10:04) Yeah, so some of the biggest challenges I see, because a lot of my clients come to me and you know, they're thriving in their career. But one of the biggest mistakes, I think, is because we're smart, and most of us have had to figure out how to hack the system or whatever, we believe that we should be able to do it all, And so one of the biggest mistakes I see is getting help where you don't understand it or it's not your forte Most people wait till it's a mess till there's taxes due and it's chaotic and they're behind and they can't their cash flow is crossed into their personal and and then they're like, okay, I need and there's deadlines. Jodie Stauffer (10:44) on taxes, like that kind of stuff. And then it's like, my gosh, like, I gotta, I gotta get help. then the shame rolls in of like, I'm smart. Like I have, you know, doctors and lawyers who are like, I'm super smart. Why can't I run QuickBooks? And I'm like, because you can't, that's not what you do. You are really great at that. I'm really great at this, right? But, and I often say to my clients, I can't walk in and do your job. Why would you think you could do mine? Or why would, why do think you can do the accountant's job, but we do. First of all, we feel that imposter syndrome like we're gonna fail or we may not make it. if we involve a lot of people and ask a lot of people, that's just another level of shame if we fail, right? so that's probably the biggest one is just thinking because we're intelligent that we could hack the running your business and that takes a lot of time and energy away from making money. And then the second one is trying to set systems in a way that your brain sees it or understands but using neurotypical ways to do it that'll never work because you're intermeshing it with a whole bunch of our ADHD stuff and so all it all it comes out being is complete chaos. Elianna Friedman (11:53) So you're saying even the rules can be different, like the software you use and all that can be different? Jodie Stauffer (11:58) Yeah,not every tool fits every client that I work with. And that goes the same for, some people can manage AI and they can work with some of the software programs. Other people are like, can't even do a spreadsheet, but I can use an app. So it's the fact that we go, well, everybody needs spreadsheets and everybody needs this and everybody needs that. And so people try to set that up, but there's other ways so they start then trying to layer in because that's not working okay well now I have a spreadsheet and now I have an app so that's just like it's just layer after layer of really trying hard to make this work for our brains in a system that's not built for that and also in a specialty that maybe isn't yours, right? Elianna Friedman (12:40) So you see the most often is not asking for help soon enough. So the solution would be encouraging people to ask for help and acknowledging that they don't need to do everything. Because I definitely have done that too in my career. I overcompensate. I'm thinking about a time before I was diagnosed, but I definitely felt like, I needed to overcompensate somehow and do all the budgeting and all the financial planning in addition to running the organization. Jodie Stauffer (13:05) Yeah, and I think part of that is the fact that like our intention is to save money by doing that, but it never saves money, right? So we're always like, well, I'm a startup and I'm trying to be lean and I don't want to spend money on that. Again, I'm trying to do, I'm trying to do all the shoulds. And part of it is because it's money. And in the past we've made money mistakes and we feel shame for it. So we're trying to do the right thing. I find that when I see people, they've actually wasted more money trying to hack or figure out the system for them, that if they had actually just paid somebody right out of the gates, it would cost less money significantly. Elianna Friedman (13:43) makes a lot of sense. I have a lot of shame around money and mistakes like overspending and credit cards that I've run up and then hidden. Also, the ADHD tax, if I get a parking ticket and then I've...feel so frustrated about the fact that I got a parking ticket instead of just paying it, I'll hide it away and then lose it and then there's even more payments, So how do you help clients untangle the shame Especially when ADHD has been part of their being for so many years. Jodie Stauffer (14:14) Almost every one of my clients come on board and they apologize because it's going to be so messy and everybody says it's probably the worst you've ever seen and I laugh because 95 % of the people that come in are never the worst I've ever seen probably the... no exactly and they're probably the average but everyone thinks their situation is so bad. Elianna Friedman (14:29) They can't all be the worst. Jodie Stauffer (14:36) We're very hard on ourselves. We say things to ourselves in our heads that we would never say to somebody else who came to us, right? And so I know that about myself. Like I know that you could never say anything as mean as the things I'm saying to myself at times in my head. So again hearing me say it's not that bad like that's a different chatter than what's in their head. Elianna Friedman (14:58) Yeah. I think being able to have a safe space to say it out loud to somebody who has been through the same experience. And like you said, can confirm to us that many other people have a similar experience and it's okay to feel like struggling with financial information and not fully understand it or have shame around it that I'm sure that helps your clients so, so much. Jodie Stauffer (15:09) Yeah, I think clients feel lot more hopelessness around their money than others do when you have ADHD because one of the things is like time blindness or future blindness, right? So if I'm feeling like I'm doing a really bad job and I'm really far behind, I can't see that there's an end to this. I can't see there's hope and so I'm able to say I think we can unwind this this fast. I can get you here this fast. I can give them the hope to see that like I'm their future eyes I guess. Elianna Friedman (15:53) I definitely connect with that as well, because people will be like, we've saved so much in our retirement fund. I'm like, what? I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow. How are you able to even think about a retirement fund or a plan? Jodie Stauffer (16:06) Yeah, exactly. part of the reason it's daunting is because it feels confusing and because for most people with ADHD, retirement doesn't isn't traditional. It doesn't look the same. It's not you work at the same job for your whole life, collect a pension or some savings or whatever for us, that's not what most of us look like. And so how do we envision retirement when we don't fit in that box that everyone's talking about? That's retirement, right? Elianna Friedman (16:33) Right, and I also don't think that far ahead. Like my husband wants to plan for certain things and I'm like, I feel like my brain tells me not to think about that, not to worry about that, so. Jodie Stauffer (16:37) Yeah. Yeah, and that's future self and lots of people struggle with like thinking about what their future self would want, right? Which is really hard, but for us it's even harder So we've got to figure out how we can for the future in a way that excites you so you get dopamine about that version as well as today's version. Elianna Friedman (16:59) Right, like make the planning fun instead of boring so we actually can do it. Jodie Stauffer (17:02) Or make it something that like if like I have clients that come to me and they say I want to move to another country and but I don't think it's ever going to happen and I go okay well let's talk about that we map it out and I go if you do these things you can get there in five years if you do these things it'll be ten years whichever way you go and then they're just like you mean I can do that and I go yeah this these are the things they're willing to make a lot of those sacrifices or changes because now they have a tangible thing that's really exciting to them it's not a big fat bank account to retire on. That's not what excites them. Elianna Friedman (17:35) I'm going to use that. Think about where I want to live when I'm older. Jodie Stauffer (17:37) Yeah, it's wonderful. Yeah, where you want to live and what you want that to look like and often that does it for us that there's not a hard deadline of I'm going to stop working. it's less about the stopping work piece of retirement ⁓ and more about, let's talk about what would you like that ideally to look like, doesn't matter whether you're working or not or how much money you have or not. What is that looking like and that's easier for us to envision. Elianna Friedman (18:04) Yeah, in that scenario too, you're adding something instead of taking away. You're not like taking away the work, you're adding the visual of the new place or the nice place that they can look forward to being. Jodie Stauffer (18:07) Exactly. Elianna Friedman (18:17) What money behaviors get mislabeled as irresponsibility or avoidance but are actually work? Jodie Stauffer (18:25) can take this question two Number one is, ADHD at work in a positive way is, people like actually pursuing their dreams, quitting their salary job to start a company? But often Elianna Friedman (18:27) Let's do both. Jodie Stauffer (18:39) That is what makes ADHD people thrive is going for the thing you We're the worst employees if we're stuck in a job that we hate. That's ADHD at work in a positive way as long as you're going for something you really want and you're going to stick it out. that positive as well as, you know, spending money on hobbies That's also really important because often those do turn into sources to make money, right? And yes, we go overboard and we, buy 30 balls of yarn if we're knitting instead of two, right? yeah, impulsivity is a huge one. that is negative, that's ADHD at work, it's not always a choice. And then really understanding this dopamine piece of like...where you're actually getting joy and know online shopping is often a coping mechanism and like I'll ask people I want you to record how you feel every time you're online shopping what are you doing when it starts where are you like all those things are relevant and when we figure them out then we see people are no longer irresponsible about it right they're like well I hate my job I'm sitting at my desk and I just go to Amazon because I'm trying to occupy myself and I go well we've got Elianna Friedman (19:42) Yeah, I'm avoiding my doom that makes things sadder. And then I find something really cute know, save some. Jodie Stauffer (19:48) Yeah, I'm doom-scrolling. I'm laying in bed at night. Yeah, exactly. and then just strategies on again how we actually not make you feel like you're punished but how we change that behavior in a positive way so you can continue to shop but maybe you just can't check out like there's lots of strategies I have Elianna Friedman (20:07) one thing that worked for me for a time period, it doesn't always work like many of these things, ⁓ was I wrote out a list of all the free things that I like doing that I thought gave me dopamine and then made a strategy for myself to try one of those like if it was gardening, I would go out and garden and then get distracted and then not chop. but like there was still flexibility. Like if I tried it first and it didn't work, I could still go shop. So it wasn't like super, super black and white. And I felt like that really, really helped. Jodie Stauffer (20:37) Yeah, that's a good one. And yeah, so just understanding like is there an alternative and a lot of times it's just catching because when we are doing some of the impulsivities, we don't realize they're impulsive until after the fact. So if we can find ways for you to catch yourself and go wait, this is impulsive. I went on Amazon to buy shampoo and now I have seven things in my cart. Well, the shampoo is probably not impulsive, but the rest of it is. Right. And so once you start to understand that ⁓ again it's easier to manage and then also sometimes you just need to have a little bit of a budget so you can impulse shop. That sometimes is just and that's part of like the work I do is like I don't tell anybody you can never online shop but we set parameters on how to control that so you're still able to get that controlled dopamine and what actually happens is clients end up only shopping for things that are really high value. for them because they know this is how much money I have and I'm allowed to online shop or I'm allowed to be impulsive but only with this portion I always say most people with ADHD live in black and white. I'm great or I suck or I'm overspending or I'm not. Like there's very little gray. I live and put my clients in gray. Just because you online shopped and you went $20 over budget doesn't mean everything else you did all month sucked. And so We really have to be understanding people try to set up a budget for themselves and they make the budget like an extreme diet and Then they go well, I couldn't stick to it for more than three months a thousand calorie and once I give up I go well, doesn't matter I suck and that actually escalates the spending Elianna Friedman (22:11) So I gave up completely. Jodie Stauffer (22:17) So it's like this I did one thing wrong well I blew up the month I'll start again 29 days from now that's not reality right just because you have a blip it's okay you can't continue to blow yourself up Elianna Friedman (22:29) That makes a lot of sense. is kind of a more general question, but what is ADHD-friendly financial planning look like? How is it different, if it is different, from traditional advice? Jodie Stauffer (22:42) So I think a lot of the traditional, financial planning that we do, so taxes, cash flow, insurance investments, it ends up being the same. It's just how we get there and how we structure it that's different, So friendly means there's no one way, there's actually a million ways Traditionally financial planning is driven by the planner in ADHD friendly, most of the time we're driven by the client. so I would say a lot more collaboration it's not me telling you you can't spend on there's a different layer of understanding the client that I need to have before I try to implement Elianna Friedman (23:21) Yeah, so traditional financial planning won't really work because it's not an individualized plan if somebody was working with a traditional financial planner, would you say, tell them you have ADHD going into it Jodie Stauffer (23:29) Mm-hmm. if you're already working with somebody, you know, it's your choice disclose. if you have a traditional advisor, right? Disclosing may not help them because if they don't understand it, Or if they have stigma around, this means that you're lazy and you're gonna ghost me and you're gonna, you whatever. That might actually hurt. I don't really depends. People are getting more open about this. But I think finding a way to communicate to that person that this is how I need to receive the information, right? This is what I need to see. Elianna Friedman (23:51) Can you show me a you give me some terms that I should go away and research, Jodie Stauffer (24:00)So be proactive. Often when we feel we don't know enough about something, we'll back down almost and become really small, but that's not who you are in the rest of your life. So don't be small when it comes to your finances. Elianna Friedman (24:19) Definitely. What is one quick action item or like first step somebody can take to get a hold of their finances? Jodie Stauffer (24:28) I think the biggest thing is you've got to look at it and that's really painful, right? Often because that's when like the shame is going to be triggered So I would say look at it as if it's somebody else's information. Can you just review it and take your emotion out of it because the money is so emotional. yeah just start by trying to look at it Elianna Friedman (24:47) I love that because I've always felt like it's easier to help somebody else with budgeting than to look at my own finances. So make up a name, put somebody else's name on the budget and then go about it. Jodie Stauffer (24:56) Yep, I mean, that's a perfect, like, you know, if you're logging into a new app, like even when it asks you for your name, put a name that's not yours. Like they don't need to know your exact name, but your initial, like sometimes I just put JS, right? Because that's not yelling Jody at me, right? ⁓ So yeah, so that's a really good example. Elianna Friedman (25:13) Yeah Jodie Stauffer (25:17) because body doubling is so valuable to us and that's in the money world as well. But maybe if there is anybody in your life that you trust that won't judge you ⁓ or maybe even someone who thinks they've got it as bad as you, swap information, look at each other's that lens and then have a Elianna Friedman (25:38) Okay, now we have a listener submitted question that I'll read to you. So this is from Cass, and she asks, this question is personal, but what systems work best when budgeting apps and spreadsheets feel overwhelming? I get really overwhelmed by tracking money and spending. My partner loves the apps, but I hate inputting everything into the apps. Jodie Stauffer (25:59) this is a tough one because this is where the customization comes into, right? she's saying doesn't like spreadsheet, doesn't like the apps, and then her husband loves them. That's very common because their brains are gonna calculate this differently, right? And so, it's hard because everybody who has ADHD, we have some crossover traits that are pretty common across the board but then there's lots of others there's so many like you're gonna have some that I'm not gonna have So understanding what would be easy for her is the best way to figure this my thought around this is can he just manage the money? Every household needs a lead financial manager in their house or they need hire someone two people who don't think the same cannot both be the lead. never going to work because there's going to be conflict and it's really hard on a marriage or a relationship So my best piece of advice for that is if he loves the apps then let him manage everything in the apps but this is where it's going to be hard is you have to actually let that go then. you have to be accountable so you're going to have to you know show him everything and then let him run the apps and then tell them that you want to sit down once a week or every two weeks and just go through like show me you know what you have the alternative to that is do it however she wants to do it let him do the apps and then meet together and and try to like say okay this is what I have what do you have it's just better just to release it and be like, hey, you love the apps, that's the way you want to do it, Elianna Friedman (27:31) Yeah, I think what I've done is my partner is the lead and then given him access to everything like, does she have to do the tracking if it's overwhelming for her? Probably not if there's somebody else that can do it and then it's just about giving access Jodie Stauffer (27:43) And doesn't like that feels like control for a lot of people. It doesn't have to look like that. Like I'm a financial planner. I do this every day yet. I don't ever open my mail because that's scary for me. Like the only bad things come in the mail. Back in the day, there was some good checks and stuff like that, like bills, whatever. ⁓ But nothing good comes in the mail my husband checks the mail. And if there's a parking ticket there or something that needs to get paid, he just puts it on his desk and takes care of it. And even though I'm the would be the lead in my house, Elianna Friedman (27:55) Yeah, tickets. Jodie Stauffer (28:11) That way, he'll say to me, hey, I'm going to pay the speeding ticket. I didn't have to manually do it. I don't care that he's doing it. And that just makes life easier for us, right? So sometimes just setting up a relationship like that, as long as the other person doesn't see it as like them babysitting you or whatever, Elianna Friedman (28:28) We're gonna go into rapid fire questions. Okay, what is your favorite thing about having ADHD? Jodie Stauffer (28:35) Probably my think outside the box creativity. just somebody's telling me something and they're saying I tried this I tried this my brains going okay, but what about this or let's be creative Let's try this, and then probably well hyper focus is great but resilience, know, we fall down a lot we get beat up a lot by ourselves and Elianna Friedman (28:50) Mm-hmm. Jodie Stauffer (28:53) other people, not physically hopefully, but mentally. ⁓ And somehow we all just keep powering through. Life is not built for us. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't resilient. Elianna Friedman (29:03) Yeah, I love those, those are both great. What is one small thing that makes your ADHD brain light up with joy? Jodie Stauffer (29:10) Pepsi like the Pepsi Cola that's a so there's a sensory thing there's the sugar the caffeine but also it's a childhood thing that's what we drank when I was little in our household even just this is crazy but popping the can I'm like like instantly my brain's like ⁓ okay we're good and then loud music and crazy dancing if you saw me doing that you'd be like she has no clue like not even to the beat not even to the words but that lights me up it brings me so much joy Elianna Friedman (29:35) What's one of the most random thoughts you've had recently? Jodie Stauffer (29:43) This is so hard because my whole life is random thoughts. Like I'm having random thoughts about my random thoughts. The world in politics and I have this, which a lot of us do this higher level of justice. Some of the things just make me so crazy. So that's my random thoughts is like, why? Why is this happening? Elianna Friedman (30:01) IWhat's one helpful understanding about how your brain works that you're excited to share? Jodie Stauffer (30:11) Yeah, so my working memory is visualization. So I can see everything that I remember in my head and that's the way I remember it. But so as an example, I maybe wouldn't remember your name. but I would remember what kind of shoes you're wearing, what your hair looked like, how many kids you have, if you have a dog, maybe even what you smelled like. So it's all sensory for me. So I can visualize places I was 20 years ago in detail what it looks like but I can't remember like what I ate for breakfast. So it's this visualization is very powerful for me and I'm lucky I have Elianna Friedman (30:45) And then, What's your most useful ADHD hack? Jodie Stauffer (30:50) My most useful ADHD hack. I can hack my brain into hyperfocus. I know exactly what I can do to do that. And I can do that through food. And so studying for my exams. So Pepsi's and Cheesy's together, particularly Hawkins. Cheesy's, if I eat them together. Elianna Friedman (30:57) What? The Pepsi? 'm not, I'm American, what's a Hawken?I don't know what this is. Jodie Stauffer (31:13) so it's like the crunchy cheeses, not the puffy ones, like the hard ones. You may maybe don't even have them down there, but So I've used this hack over the years, especially when I've needed to cram And it instantly works like within 10 minutes. ⁓ And the reason being is Elianna Friedman (31:18) Okay.Wow. Jodie Stauffer (31:29) because the combination of sugar in the pop, and it doesn't have to be a lot either, like one can, but the combination together immediately with the sugar, the caffeine, the saltiness, and the sensory crunch, ⁓ that all together lights up my brain. my brain's like sugar and the salt, those are both energy factors for our brains. so if I just ate a chocolate bar or if I just drank a Pepsi, I don't get the same thing, it's the combo. Elianna Friedman (31:59) The combo. I love that because I love Cheez-Its. It's what we have in America. I love crunchy food and caffeine. I definitely think an iced coffee has a bigger impact on me being able to focus than a hot coffee. I think it is because of the temperature. I'm sure there's something to that. Jodie Stauffer (32:20) The coldness would also kind of light you up. It's a sensory thing. Elianna Friedman (32:26) The coffee with, like an iced coffee with crunchy cheeses and see what it does for me. Jodie Stauffer (32:29) Yeah, yeah. And just kind of wait 15, 20 minutes and then try to do something that seems hard. for me, it's like almost instant hyper focus. Elianna Friedman (32:39) Amazing. Well, thank you so much. I learned so, so, so much. Jodie Stauffer (32:45) the biggest thing that I really want people to take away is for those who are struggling with this or aren't looking at it, look at it through the lens that this is somebody else's money. That'll help a lot. Elianna Friedman (32:53) Yeah. And I would even want to help them. Like it would be exciting to help them. So if I can, right? Like, and if I could put that in my own, if I could want to like, if I could want to help them as much as I could help myself, then that would be really good by just changing the name. Jodie Stauffer (32:57) Yeah, because we do like to, yeah, like if you could figure it out. Yeah, exactly. Elianna Friedman (33:14) Well, thank you so much I think that's it. Yeah. Jodie Stauffer (33:15) Yeah, you're welcome. It was great chatting with you and hopefully we chat again soon. Elianna Friedman (33:23) I hope you enjoyed this episode all about money and my conversation with Jodi. I'm definitely gonna try a few of her tips and suggestions, looking at a budget from a different perspective and trying to rename it and pretend that it's somebody else's budget is a tip that she shared that I'm most excited to try. let me know. If you're going to try any of her suggestions or tips anything else you'd like to share about money and ADHD. Elianna Friedman (33:54) Thank you for listening to ADHDFM. Huge thank you to my producer and editor, Marion Cunningham. If something from today's episode resonated with you, I invite you to share with a friend or leave a quick review. Also love to hear from you. Drop me a voice note or a DM with your questions and tell me about your experiences You can reach me on Instagram or TikTok at ADHDFM.