Do people with autism understand money?

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My husband manages our household finances, but I could do it, if I he left it to me. I used to work in a finance team and understanding budgets comes very easily to me.

My daughter has just started learning about money at school and I think it's helping with her maths (coins aren't abstact like numbers are).

Actually, my ex gf had some kind of schizophrenia/autism/bipolar besides paranoia and narcissism (sorry ), and she was extremely obsessed with money. She would make money from everything and save it on her account. Friendships, acquaintances included. It was this strange. Not surprising I couldn't tolerate it for long...


Not exactly. Money != exhibited material status. Some people put money in the bank (i.e. they prefer having money), other people spend all their money to show off a wealthy status and get trapped in dept easily (they prefer status and alluring girls with it).

I can relate to it. IDK, sometimes I give out large amounts of money impulsively without much thinking, other times I'm the most sparing person around. Just as you, I'm getting better at it, or at least I like to think I am...

If no women are interested in "you", you don't really have a choice.

"Power" includes the power to exhibit material status, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're exercising that power.

The responses seem to focus on two different interpretations of the OP's original question. Did the OP mean "understand money" as in "understand how to spend money wisely" or as in "understand how physical currency relates to the abstract concept of value."

As for myself, I get the latter, but have some problems with the former. I have tried spreadsheets, budgeting programs, the envelope system -- nothing works for me. When I had a bank account, I would just schedule everything for automatic payments, which worked for the utilities, but not for things like credit cards. One of the companies I had cards through would randomly change my payment due date or minimum payment amount, and by the time I knew about it, the bill had run up higher than the original amount I had owed because of the fees. I've cut back to the point that I have nothing but a savings account and a pre-paid debit card, and I'm considering jettisoning the savings account and just depositing everything onto the debit card.

Don't be ridiculous. Women will be interested in you - even if it's not that many of them. They are out there. You just need to find them. Settling for gold-diggers will be more damaging for both your self and financial esteem than remaining alone.

Also, if you just want to get laid, hiring a prozzie is an option.

I consider myself to be pretty poor when it comes to managing my money. I hope that as I mature and responsibilities increase then my ability to manage my finances tidily should become more evident.

I have just now thought of a recent example of my pecuniary ineptitude. I have just left work and started to study again (economics, ironically) and at a time where I should be displaying frugality I go and purchase a giant rubber crab for £10.00. This now just leads a lonely existence on the parcel-shelf of my car. £10.00 may not seem like a lot of money but when considered along with the true need for such an item I can't help but feel that this purchase was a mistake. Buyers 'excitement' often prevails over the recognition that buyer's remorse will soon follow.

Questions coming on Wrong Planet this fall - stay tuned for:

-"Do Aspies breathe air?"
-"Do Aspies eat food?"
-"Do Aspies blink their eyes?"

*sigh*

In my case, I definitely had to learn the discipline required to handle money properly. I did a lousy job of it when I was younger, and wound up losing all of mine. But as I got into my 30s, I did a much better job, and I'm good with it now. My wife and I operate a business (farming), and we do fine with her bookkeeping, and my cooperation. In other words, I trust her much more than myself for the financial planning, etc.

The things I have "learned" to look at, in making better decisions, would be things like planning carefully to buy things, which I didn't used to do so well. Like maybe I'd go to the store and buy a 1-lb box of oats, for $4. But oats last for a year or two, so it makes much more sense to buy 10 lbs at Costco for $7, and when you think deeper as far as trips driving to stores, it all adds up big time, when you plan well. That's just one small, and very elementary example, but it is the core of the mindset to handle money responsibly. Think in the long term, and not of today only.

Charles

I actually hope to eventually just survive on the sun's energy.

I think I understand money as well as most people. I don't know much about stocks and shares so I keep out of that, though I've heard that it's possible to get fairly safe returns above the current inflation rate that way......as usual I'm over-cautious and stick to savings accounts, so my savings are slowly leaking away with inflation. It wouldn't matter so much but it's quite a large pot of money, designed to suppoert my early retirement until I get my proper pension, I'll be keeping it locked away for several years yet, and when I do need it, the amount left will govern my standard of living. But that's not so much a failure to understand money, as being risk-averse. I've traded off a few quid for better security.

In these times of high inflation and poor interest rates, it makes less sense to save, and I probably should have waited a year or two more before beginning to save, but emotionally I craved to be in a situation where I didn't need to work for wages any more, so I got saving.

As for salary, paying bills, operating accounts, and awareness of how much things are costing me, I'm pretty fluent and confident. I tned to get a little fixated on playing around with the numbers, analysing every little thing, but I do snap out of it eventually, and some of the computations I end up with are quite useful.

I don't know how I'd fare if I hadn't turned out so frugal. Thing is, I've nearly always been waged, and can survive happily enough on less than half of what I get paid, I've never been in debt apart from house mortgages, so I haven't needed to budget carefully or sort out any of the problems that would normally plague the lives of those who spend more and get paid less. It's all fallen into place and the only thing I've really done is to subjectively use a bit of wisdom when buying stuff.

I wish I'd studied economics at school. I've always wanted to know exactly why the free market goes through boom and bust, and I'd like to better understand the truth behind the arguments about the effects of austerity measures on the economy. Politicians never seem to show the quantitative calculations behind their assertions that cuts will bring us back from the brink or push us over the edge. Economics is fascinating - money can be calculated very precisely, but economics uses a lot of approximations and assumptions without the rigour we take for granted in science. I know a tax inspector who says that tax can't be reliably calculated to the nearest penny.

I think most politicians are idiots. I'd love to see a truly objective treatise on the subject of economics, but it seems most economic claims are based on ideology rather than pure science.

My personal theory is that the uneven growth of new technology and technological infrastructure is the underlying mechanism behind the biggest booms and busts. If it was just technology fueling the cycle then you would have booms associated with big advances in technology which leads to increased entrepreneurial activity, followed by stagnation as the biggest companies are able to produce more and more while spending less and less on labor. The most extreme theoretical case would be the development of robotics replacing the need for human workers almost completely. The reason we often have sharp downturns rather than just stagnation after a major boom is due to the unrealistic growth expectations which drive financial speculation and turn booms into a bubbles that burst suddenly.

I understand money. I luckily live with my parents so I don't have to worry about it and I also get SSI payments. I want to end up with about $5-600 in the bank by the end of the month so I don't spend all that much. I really don't have bills outside of $200 rent. I like taking my family out to lunch or dinner on some days and that is the main thing I spend it on along with art supplies when I am doing my art. I sometimes buy a game for myself. The art and games a lot of time is like therapy and is a distraction technique when I am having problems. That is when I am able to concentrate long enough or have interest in it. I don't know how long I have been able to understand the concept of money. All I know is I want lots of it! I hope as a starving artist I will make more than now. Oh yeah I also get massages 2 times a month for my fibromyalgia and other aches and pains. From the anxiety problems the massage therapist always says my muscles feel very tight.

I understand the concept of money, but I hate it. I hate the fact that people life and destiny can depend on a few digits stored in the data base of a bank.

Yes, even Marx has an axe to grind, though his work was a welcome counterbalance to the presumptuous crap about economics that was written before that (and still is written). I guess it's rather like religion....it's hard to find anybody who doesn't have strong views. Also the economy is such a complex thing that it's hard to say anything about it that's simple enough to understand and to use, without introducing distortions.


It's often been suggested that if a government controlled the commanding heights of the economy, there would be no recessions, because they could simply move the workforce on to doing something more useful as soon as whatever they'd been making was enough to satisfy the public need. I believe this is what China does - when export demand is low, they channel the surplus labour into infrastructure projects. What always strikes me about recessions is that they are so irrational, i.e. nobody is any less willing or capable of a productive day's work than they were during the boom years, but entrepeneurs, shareholders and banks get scared and withdraw their faith and support, because they are free to do so.