Do you have ADHD and spend money you don't have? This week on LATE BLOOMERS, Rich and Rox run through ten ways to get the dopamine hit without the overdraft, half from Rox's own life and half from the best of Reddit.

There's the shopping casket (fill a £1,000 basket, then never press buy), the two-week graveyard, and the hobby commitment bar Rox invented after one hot Pilates class and a couple of hundred quid of kit she never used again. She's opened her first ever savings account, accidentally saved £100 by being too lazy to find her bank card, and picked a £50 Crocs backpack over a posh handbag to celebrate her album charting. She still hasn't bought the limited edition golf bag, and Rich would like everyone to know what it costs.

Ex-bank manager Rich adds his own rule to finish: it doesn't have to be the best one on the market, and second hand is fine.

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Usually on LATE BLOOMERS, Rich and Rox talk about what's hard about having an ADHD or autistic brain. This week they flip it: ten things each of them genuinely envies about the other's.

Rox would give anything for Rich's ability to follow IKEA instructions, find the car in a Tesco car park and keep a perfect credit score. Rich envies Rox's endless ideas, her 400% excitement over a Crocs bag, and a delusion so strong it becomes reality, which is how they ended up with a body doubling app, bestselling books and a house five minutes from his daughter.

It gets real too, as Rox admits that at almost 42 she's never felt like a functioning adult. Funny, sweet, and a reminder that the other brain in the house isn't just the problem. Sometimes it's the answer.

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Are you working a job you love—or staying in one that’s slowly making you miserable? This week, Rich and Rox dig through their entire career histories: first jobs, bad bosses, promotions, burnout, quitting, career pivots, failed dreams and the strange ways neurodivergence shaped what work did and didn’t suit them. Rox talks about going from thriving in fast-paced service jobs to feeling completely out of her depth in a graduate accountancy role, before eventually leaving banking for music; Rich reflects on spending 20 years at Barclays, the managers who shaped him and what finally made him change direction.

It’s really about career shame, starting again and the idea that job-hopping, quitting or getting it wrong doesn’t mean you’ve failed—you might just be collecting the pieces that eventually lead you somewhere that fits.

Get our book THE CHERRY TREE THEORY
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Listen to the audiobook
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CHAPTERS
00:00 The Career Graveyard
01:24 Rich’s first job at Sainsbury’s
03:52 Rox starts “Helping Hands”
06:06 Rox’s first proper job
09:27 Rich becomes a manager at 19
13:27 Why ADHD can make interviews easier than the actual job
14:49 “Something was missing in me”
16:06 “You need to go home”
18:59 Rox moves into banking
21:28 Mixing up BUY and SELL on a trading floor
22:32 Loop Earplugs
23:22 Rich’s life at Barclays during the credit crisis
25:22 The bosses you never forget
27:55 Rox starts writing songs
29:21 Leaving the bank for music
30:33 The record label collapses
33:30 Starting again in Amsterdam
34:31 The beginning of ADHD Love
35:13 What old jobs still teach you
37:47 “Every wrong turn was actually a right turn”
38:55 Why messy career paths are completely normal
39:45 Rich’s forgotten childhood dream
42:10 Final thoughts