I forgot to pay my rent last month. That was a first. I do not forget to pay bills. Sometimes I choose to ignore them, but I do not forget them.
This would not normally concern me. People forget things. And the thing about forgetting things is that it’s sort of guilt free because we don’t remember what we’ve forgotten. Hooray.
But then I read about a study from Johns Hopkins University in the United States that has made me rethink all this.
Researchers tracked over 81,000 older adults and found that people who go on to develop dementia start missing bill payments up to six years before they receive a diagnosis. Six years. That means, in theory, the companies with all your financial data might know where you’re headed before you do.
The researchers linked health insurance claims data to credit reports and studied the patterns for 20 years. They found missed payments, declining credit scores, and erratic financial decisions weren’t just consequences of dementia, they were early symptoms.
The first skill to deteriorate, according to University of Michigan economist Joanne Hsu, is money management. Not not recognising your kids. Or forgetting words when you’re speaking, but money. Paying your bills, calculating a tip, understanding a bank statement. These tasks force your entire brain to cooperate on a deeper level.
A separate study, this one covering nearly 2.5 million people over 17 years, confirmed the pattern. Declining credit scores and rising payment delinquencies showed up years before a clinical diagnosis.
How we handle or mishandle our finances definitely foreshadows our mental wellbeing, which is maybe why older people, with or without dementia, are being targeted for scams.
One in five adults over 65 experience financial exploitation at some point, with estimated annual losses somewhere between US$28bil and US$48bil (RM131.6bil and RM225.6bil). Netflix makes US$34bil (RM159.8bil) in revenue a year. That’s all of Netflix revenue up in smoke due to scams. Bonkers.
A 2024 study estimated that over the next decade, 600,000 missed payments will occur due to undiagnosed dementia. That’s 600,000 moments when a bill goes unpaid, and everyone involved – the bank, the utility company, the credit bureau – just shrugs and adds a late fee, which I suppose is great for them.
But it’s not just missed bills. It’s making riskier investments. It’s uncharacteristically donating to charities (which could be objectively good). It’s basically being more careless with your money. Which is kind of hard to spot in yourself or a loved one.
But the data does not lie. Missing bill payments, increased financial flippancy, could be an indicator of dementia.
Now, I think missing the rent was just a one-off and I’m not uber worried that it’s a sign of dementia. I hope. I do have a thing where I constantly buy toilet paper online because I always assume we need more toilet paper, only to discover a toilet paper wall in the storage unit. I do this on repeat. But that’s not dementia right? Right?
But this study is sticking with me because it makes me rethink how we look at financial competence. It requires memory, attention, planning, impulse control, and the ability to hold multiple numbers in your head simultaneously. It is actually one of the most demanding things we do regularly. And when it starts to slip, we don’t think “something might be wrong”. We think “I’m being lazy” or “I need to get more organised” or “I should set up auto-pay”. (Which, to be fair, I probably should.)
So now I know what to look for in my financial life to indicate if I’m heading for a dementia diagnosis. But then I think of my wife. She is younger than me. There is no reason to believe she is heading for dementia anytime soon, but last week she left her headphones at the massage place. And that’s not a one off. For years, she has forgotten things on planes, missed payments, and is just not great at remembering these kinds of details.
So this new study means nothing for her. This research only works if there is a decline to detect. If your financial life has always been chaos, you’re immune! If dementia ever does come for her, no study on Earth will be able to tell the difference.
