---
title: Dyscalculia and managing money
description: "Learn how dyscalculia can make managing money challenging. Get tips and strategies to help people with math learning disabilities with money management and working with money. \n"
slug: dyscalculia-money-management
author: Gretchen Vierstra, MA
reviewer: Jim Rein, MA
published: '2021-11-18T17:21:35.014Z'
thumbnail: https://cdn-images.understood.org/p0qf7j048i0q/3jBxleeJZE5R92emZPBnu4/7552e92b654ccaa1d829932d9303421e/G532030829.png
source_url: https://www.understood.org/en/articles/dyscalculia-money-management
lang: en
---

# Dyscalculia and managing money

Being able to manage money is an important life skill. But managing money isn’t easy, and many people have a hard time with it for different reasons. [Dyscalculia](https://www.understood.org/en/articles/what-is-dyscalculia) is a learning difference that can make managing money more challenging — and stressful. 

Dyscalculia makes it hard to do math and everyday tasks that involve math. People with dyscalculia may have trouble with money management tasks like: 

- Figuring out what something costs 
- Estimating the total cost of a group of items 
- Paying for items with cash
- Making exact change
- Keeping track of spending

That’s because dyscalculia causes challenges with a set of basic math skills called [number sense](https://www.understood.org/en/articles/number-sense-what-you-need-to-know). Kids and adults with dyscalculia may have trouble understanding concepts like *more and less* or *smaller and larger*. They may also not understand quantities. 

And people with dyscalculia may have other challenges that make doing mental math difficult, like trouble with working memory.  All of this can make working with — and managing — money more difficult.

---

<!-- structured-data -->
```json
[{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://www.understood.org/en/articles/dyscalculia-money-management#webpage","url":"https://www.understood.org/en/articles/dyscalculia-money-management","description":"Learn how dyscalculia can make managing money challenging. Get tips and strategies to help people with math learning disabilities with money management and working with money. \n"},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://www.understood.org/en/articles/dyscalculia-money-management","name":"Dyscalculia and managing money"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","datePublished":"2021-11-18T17:21:35.014Z","description":"Learn how dyscalculia can make managing money challenging. Get tips and strategies to help people with math learning disabilities with money management and working with money. \n","headline":"Dyscalculia and managing money","url":"https://www.understood.org/en/articles/dyscalculia-money-management","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.understood.org/#organization","name":"Understood for All Inc","logo":"https://cdn-images.understood.org/p0qf7j048i0q/307jFAYQevghG8nQMCjh89/ccdbbec895765824db43f6d30b496e83/logo_lockup_navy.jpg"}}]
```