Does this sound familiar?

A bright young adult with ADHD in their 20s is struggling to get by.

They’ve been told to follow their strengths and interests, and that leads many straight into the arts.

The novelty and creativity are there, which ADHD brains tend to love.

They may be teaching, sharing their special interests, making YouTube videos, or creating things people genuinely appreciate.

But are they making a predictable income? Do they have health insurance?

Often not.

This is a conundrum, and it’s shifting the advice I’ve been giving for years.

For a long time, my go-to questions were:

What do you enjoy doing?

What are you good at?

What would you happily do for free forever if you could?

What would you try if you weren’t afraid to fail?

I still love those questions. They get right to the heart of strengths and interests.

But now we need to add another layer.

What is the world willing to pay for in 2026?

When we add that layer, something important shows up:

Many neurodivergent young adults don’t just need “the perfect passion career.” They need a Plan A and a Plan B.

Plan A: the passion work.

Plan B: the “making a living” work.

Together, they form what’s being called a portfolio career.

It’s not about giving up on the dream. It’s about not having to wonder where the next paycheck, prescription, or rent payment is coming from.

Is it simply a collection of part-time jobs?

Sort of, but with a crucial twist: it’s a collection of roles in service of the dream.

What I Mean by “Portfolio Career”

Think of a portfolio career the way you think of an investment portfolio.

You don’t put everything in one stock and hope for the best.

You hold a mix of things:

• Some steady and boring (on purpose)
• Some more volatile and exciting
• Some that are long shots, but deeply meaningful to you

A portfolio career works the same way.

For an ADHD young adult, that might look like:

A structured, part-time or full-time job that pays the bills and offers health insurance

Plus teaching, creative work, music, design, or coaching on the side

Plus some experimental projects (like the YouTube channel) that might grow over time

It’s not “selling out” and it’s not “just picking up random gigs.”

It’s deliberately designing a life where the passion can stay alive and the body and nervous system are financially supported.

When I got my masters at Antioch University in Seattle, I loved how many of the professors also had thriving private therapy practices. They had one foot in academia and one foot in serving therapy clients – a fabulous boots-on-the-ground portfolio career.

Why ADHD Brains Tend to Like The Portfolio Career

Many ADHD adults describe a familiar pattern:

• Boredom in repetitive work
• Feeling most alive in bursts of creativity or urgency
• Struggling with long stretches of unstructured time or endless admin
• Doing best when there’s variety and something to look forward to

A portfolio career makes room for that reality.

A well-chosen stable role can provide structure, routine, and income.

The passion work provides meaning, novelty, and identity.

The experimental projects allow for play and possibility.

Instead of needing one job to be your everything — your stability, your passion, your identity, your creative outlet — the portfolio approach lets different roles carry different parts of the load.

For ADHD and autistic nervous systems that are already working harder to process life, that can lower the pressure on any single choice:

“This doesn’t have to be my forever job. It’s one piece of a larger picture.”

How My Advice Has Changed

If you’ve been around my work for a while, you’ve probably heard me talk about strengths, and special interests as starting points.

I still stand by that. Blow on the embers of your strengths and interests, always.

What’s changed is that I now include economics in the conversation earlier and more explicitly.

So instead of stopping at:

“What lights you up?”

“What could you do for hours without noticing time?”

I add:

“Where does that show up in work the world is currently paying for?”

“What kind of roles tend to come with health insurance?”

“Where is there a path to predictable income and retirement saving, even if you start small?”

Because unstable income is stressful, and chronic financial stress can be debilitating.

Passion alone doesn’t pay for ER visits or therapy bills.

We need both: work that feels like “you” and work that keeps “you” resourced.

Plan A and Plan B: A Different Story

Here’s the way I’m talking about it with neurodivergent young adults:

Plan A is the work that carries your identity: the band, the fashion line, the coaching practice, the content channel, the game design, the writing.

Plan B is the work that carries your life: rent, groceries, meds, health insurance, retirement contributions, savings.

The old story says:

“If you take a ‘real job,’ you’re giving up on your dream.”

The story I’m increasingly telling is:

“If you choose a good Plan B, you’re building infrastructure for your dream.”

For example:

Plan A: be in a band, play shows, record, contribute to the scene.

Plan B: become an audio technician for a company that pays a steady wage and offers benefits.

The technical job keeps you close to audio and gear.

The band keeps you close to your heart.

Plan B isn’t the enemy. It’s the scaffolding that makes Plan A sustainable.

Make It Real (and ADHD-Friendly)

One more crucial layer for ADHD:

We don’t just want any job that pays.

We want jobs that fit the ADHD profile, roles with some novelty, movement or hands-on work, clear tasks, and not eight hours of sitting at a desk staring at spreadsheets.

So when you think about Plan B, it’s worth asking:

Does this role give me some variety?

Does it align with my nervous system and energy level?

Does it offer predictable income, health insurance, and the ability to save for retirement?

A Practical Tool: Use AI to Find ADHD-Friendly Plan B Jobs

To make this more concrete, here’s an AI prompt you can use.

I like using Perplexity for this, it’s good at combining your input with live job postings.

You can copy-and-paste the prompt below into your AI of choice, then fill in the blanks with your info.

How to Use It:

1. Open Perplexity.
2. Paste the prompt.
3. Fill in the bracketed parts with your info.
4. Hit enter.
5. Skim the list of job titles and openings. Notice which ones feel doable and which feel like “nope.”
6. Pick 2–3 openings to click into and read more closely, then apply.

You can run it more than once as your thinking evolves.

Simple AI Prompt: Find Real Jobs for Your Portfolio Career

Use this with your favorite AI, like Perplexity:

I want to find current, real job openings that could be my “Plan B” in a portfolio career.

Here is my information:

Location (city/region): [insert]

How far I’m willing to commute / or remote: [insert]

My strengths and skills: [list 5–10 in plain language]

My main interests / special interests: [list]

My major and/or training and work experience: [list]

Environments I don’t do well in (e.g., sales, constant interruptions, sitting at a desk all day): [list]

I’m ADHD, so please favor jobs with some variety, clear tasks, and not 8 hours of desk work.

I need roles that are likely to offer: predictable income + health insurance + a path to retirement saving.

Based on this, please:

Suggest 5–10 specific job titles that could work as my “Plan B” anchor job in a portfolio career.

For my location, list 10–15 current job openings that match those titles. For each, give:

Job title

Employer

One-line description

A link to the posting

Your quick note on why it might be ADHD-friendly (or not).

Focus on giving me actual links I can click and review.

Quick note: Instead of filling in all the blanks, you can also upload a recent resume.

Have fun dreaming about your portfolio career!