You got problems that you ought to be concerned with, blah, you don't know how you're supposed to earn it or what to do with it or how to keep it.

You're a freak with a dark shame, full secret, but you're not the only one.

Feature in financial fears with a blast of sun. Now your healing has begun. It's bad with money with Gabby.

Done.

Hi, my name's Gabby Dunn and this is my show, Bad with Money.

This podcast has always been geared towards people who are underserved by traditional money media.

I've thought a lot about who I'm booking or asking my producer to book.

I want black women, I want queer people, I want people from working class backgrounds, I want disabled people, I want intersections of all of it, etc, etc.

But one group that in eight seasons I've never specifically dedicated an entire episode to is the neurodivergent community.

It's a broad stroke, right?

neurodivergence can mean anything from autism to ADHD, to Tourette's, to bipolar disorder, anything that isn't neuro-typical.

It's a less common way of thinking, although maybe not as uncommon as we tend to assume.

In my book, Bad with Money, I devoted an entire chapter to the ways in which my own bipolar two diagnosis created impulse spending, depressive holes where I couldn't look at my bills or open my mail, which is great for your credit score, by the way.

And an often scattered approach to traditional job placement.

IE, I quit and was fired. A lot.

I spoke one other time on this podcast to a bipolar activist named Julie Fast in an episode about a few other topics which we cheekily titled, What If You're F***ed?

But generally, neurodivergence hasn't taken center stage on Bad with Money.

That changes today.

Based on my own research, mental health is the biggest factor in personal finance. And that can show up in many ways. Poverty leads to, or at least heightened existing depression and anxiety. Systemic racism can do the same.

Bank forms and loan forms and credit card mailers and LaBrinthy and Telephone and website messes are all purposefully confusing, especially if you get overwhelmed quickly.

But financially and economically, neurodivergence is also not an inherent loss. And it's a mistake to think of it this way.

There's a long documentation of what can go wrong when everyone at the office or in the boardroom or in the lab thinks the same way.

...