Autism and Budgeting
How to help young adults with autism better understand money. Video with Dr. Temple Grandin at the end!
My son Jack is in his second year at his college program. Money and budgeting continue to be a challenge for him.
After a few months of him relentlessly asking me to Venmo him money, I slid the budget piece over to Joe. He’s better at saying no than I am, if I’m being honest. He and Jack came up with a weekly amount of spending money, and Joe adds it into Jack’s account every Monday. It is more than enough to cover the small things he wants to do or buy, and most outings are paid for by the program itself.
Part of the problem is Jack’s overall naivete about money in general. He has a hard time understanding the concept of a lease, or a mortgage, or a bank loan. It’s difficult for him to imagine that when you take cash from the ATM, it’s also being subtracted from your checking or savings account.
It’s further complicated by the fact that we live in a mostly cashless society. The tangible nature of currency is missing, especially for someone as literal as Jack.
At the same time, he has tremendous anxiety surrounding it. He feels like he will run out of money at any moment. The result of this is him asking us over and over again to “reimburse” him.
And he loves to shop! Amazon, Target, Walmart. His tastes aren’t expensive necessarily, but he is an organizer by nature, so he likes to stockpile things like soap and shampoo. He is also easily persuaded, so if he sees a commercial announcing that cold and flu season is upon us, his immediate reaction is to buy a lot of cough drops and Vicks Vaporub.
It’s important to note that this was one of the reasons we obtained guardianship once Jack turned eighteen. As guardians, we have the ability to protect him financially if someone convinced him to transfer money or buy something on their behalf.
Unfortunately, Joe and I don’t always see eye-to-eye on the topic of Jack’s spending.
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