Your ADHD-Friendly Budgeting Bestie: Cash Flow Planning
If you’ve ever tried budgeting and found it completely useless in real life, you’re not alone. Traditional budgets are hypothetical—they tell you what should happen with your money. They don’t actually help you see how money flows in and out of your bank account. These static documents tend to sit and collect dust, literally or metaphorically, and often make you feel like a failure at managing your money. But worry not friend, because if this feels so much like what you’ve been experiencing, that you worry I’ve been spying on you, I’ve got your back! Let me introduce you to cash flow planning!
For my ADHD brain (and many of my clients), cash flow planning is a game-changer. It shifts your budget from a static document to something you can easily implement in your life. When you partner cash flow planning with simple strategies for managing your money, it also means that recording every single transaction is NOT REQUIRED!
If you want to see and understand your money clearly, being able to answer the following questions is essential:
What money is coming in?
What money is going out?
And when is it all happening?
If you want to answer the question, ‘Can I afford it?’ (or better yet, when can I afford it 😉) confidently, cash flow planning is for you! It also helps you avoid those awful moments when you check your account and realize you forgot a bill was due, which often adds extra fees and interest, and I don’t want that for you!. 😬
Why Cash Flow Planning Works (When Budgets Don’t)
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good budget, but to implement it in your life, cash flow planning is where it’s at. A budget is like an old school map, while cash flow planning is like a GPS for your money. I know some people can use a map to get where they are going, but they are few and far between these days. The odds of getting to where you want to go significantly increase with a step-by-step guide to help get you there.
Here’s why it works better for ADHD brains:
It’s visual. You can see what your money is doing and when.
It helps with time blindness. Many of us struggle to track, or even think about what’s happening in the future—cash flow planning keeps it clear.
It prevents money stress. No more surprises when bills hit your account. For real! After a month or two, you’ll catch anything you missed in your plan and be is a solid position to plan even further out into the future! Many of my clients have the next year mapped out in the last month or two of the current year!
It’s flexible. You don’t have to feel guilty for not following a strict budget; instead, you adjust as needed.
How to Set Up a Simple ADHD-Friendly Cash Flow Plan
Know Your Income Sources
List all the money: paychecks, bonuses, government benefits, etc. If your income is irregular, base this on your lowest earning month to avoid overestimating. If you’re self-employed, I recommend you check out this blog and episodes 14 and 15 of the Mind + Money Podcast.List Your Essential Bills
Rent/mortgage, utilities, insurance, debt payments—anything that must be paid to keep your life running smoothly. For each item list, when you need to pay it each month, or when it will come out of your account.Separate Your ‘Day-to-Day Spending’
Trying to manage all of your expenses and spending in one account with the same system is making your life harder than it needs to be. Check out point 9 in this blog post, or better yet, read it all!Plan for Future You
Look ahead at upcoming expenses—big annual bills, birthdays, travel plans—and start setting aside money now. I touch on this in point 9 of the previously linked blog post, but episode 5 of the Mind + Money Podcast goes into both items in more depth.Use Automation to Reduce Mental Load
Set up autopay for fixed bills and schedule reminders for anything you need to manually handle. This helps cut down decision fatigue. Planning out your cash flow for weeks or months in advance can give you confidence in using more automation to help you stay on top of things!Check In Weekly, Not Daily
Instead of tracking every transaction, set a time once a week to glance at your cash flow and make adjustments as needed. ADHD brains do better with fewer but more intentional check-ins.
Feeling overwhelmed with making this happen?
You don’t have to do it alone! I work with ADHD entrepreneurs and individuals to build overall plans for their money, set up their cash flow, and figure out what systems will fit their lives. It means that my clients aren’t tediously tracking every transaction, they don’t feel shame about spending, and they no longer feel like money is just happening to them. When you’re ready for a system that works for you, and a safe space to talk about money, and learn what will work for you, I’m the coach for you!
Let's chat if you're ready to stop stressing over money and actually feel in control of your cash flow! Book a free consultation, and we’ll figure out the best way to get you set up with a system that sticks.
