Parents
Welcome to the journey side of my website. Here you will find short stories of my life intertwined with lessons from my experiences being late diagnosed neurodivergent, working as a financial counsellor and how the financial world interacts with our experiences from the perspective of someone who works in a hardship space - not a wealth creation space. I hope you enjoy the ride.
During the initial stages of my life, I was lucky enough to have two parents in the mix to guide me through this complex journey. They both had a lot of internal motivation which I observed and learnt from. There was never a time where nothing much was happening. Always a garden being updated, a new project being planned, a trip somewhere, or more education.
I was fortunate to be fed, clothed, educated and corralled into areas of interest that kept me busy and created a sense of belonging which protected me from the savages of bully's and other not so nice parts of growing up.
As the years went on, the security of the home support allowed me to forge my own path and start setting my own goals, just like they did (and still do today).
However, even under parental guidance, life was not always sunshine and rainbows. There were dark moments and many times where I locked myself away, unable to cope. I would later find out that autism and ADHD factored hugely in those moments, but it would be years before that became a revelation.
In the meantime, I kept my head down and so long as the home supports remained in place I stayed the course and got through.
What happened when the supports were removed is another story entirely...
Did you get the software update?
If our brains are the hardware, and our executive functioning is the brain's operating system - then financial literacy is the software update everyone needs, but who gets it and did you get the Window's 95 update, or did yours come with the latest Mac OS Ventura download?
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Did you have good financial role models as a child, showing you step by step how to navigate a world full of never ending enticements? Maybe it all started with a few dollars of pocket money or 20 cents from your Nana (like it did for me). You learnt to do jobs and home and save those few bucks to spend at the school canteen. The small lessons, not quite enough in my opinion, to get you ready for the big world of finance and the large corporations charged with he task of separating us from our hard earned cash in the fastest way possible.
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Who's job is it to teach us these things if not for our parents and what do you do if your parents never had this kind of education? Maybe you learnt your financial literacy skills at school, or maybe you were one of the (un)lucky ones to learn though your local bank, teaching you how to obtain a credit card and live pay cheque to pay cheque. How's that working out for you?
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For many neurodivergent people who exist within these systems its a complex game of unemployment or underemployment and the battle of the ADHD tax fending off never ending enticements via advertising new "innovative" credit products that make it even easier to part with our money.
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There are no easy answers or solutions to manage impulsivity unless you plan on living in a bubble, but with a dose of self awareness and knowing how and why we do the things we do and what external forces are at play, it can make those challenging moments slightly more manageable.