How do you do when it comes to money management?

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Modern 'phone plans and similar schemes make money management very difficult. I get the impression that the company pays bonuses according to how much service is bought but not used. It took me months and a lot of wasted money before I found a tolerable plan. My VOIP service slowly deteriorated, and nothing would bring it back. I've also had to quit using mail order, because they started shipping junk and making returns more trouble than it was worth.

I've owned a house by myself for thirty years.
I pay all the bills (mortgage, land taxes, utilities, repairs).
I have a hefty mortgage but it gets paid.
I've also raised my kids as a single parent since the 1990s, and paid for their needs / food / bills.
I co-own another house with a friend as an investment but I don't pay any bills there.
Then I have a student flat as an investment but I'm not keeping it.
I own my car but it's getting old.


I have an international stock portfolio that is managed by a financial guy.
I know nothing about business or the economy.
Day to day budgeting is pretty much impossible when I have so many responsibilities and no help.
A lot of my money goes toward insurance (pet, car, house, life, health / dental).
My life insurance premiums are waived because of my critical disability status, so that's nice.
The kids will be rich(ish) when I die because of life insurance.
In the meantime, I have to be very frugal.
I manage to keep very low interest credit cards and I have a high credit score.
That doesn't mean it's easy or that I'm above water.
Every month (every day?) there seems to be a new disaster, like $20,000 floods or $2,000 vet bills.

At least I have successful children, amazing animals, and a home of my own to show for it.
I am on LTD and I can retire next month, but I think I'll wait a few more years.

Speaking of managing money, I need to manage to get the rent paid today.
And it wouldn't hurt to pay the internet too.

With the ME/CFS, and fibromyalgia, and neurological autoimmune disease, all having brain fog as part of their disease process my days of balancing checkbooks are done and over with.
So I don't even get/have checks any more.

What needs to be paid via check gets a money order.
Most everthing eles is paid via debit card.
And there is a notebook where arunning tab of spending for the month is kept.

Because of that brain fog I round up cents to the next dollar in that record.
Reduces potential for error and is close enough.

It's been said that autistic people often struggle with money management, but I think this is a stereotype (among HFA). If you google "autism accountant" all sorts of stuff will come up about how accounting and related fields could be ideal for autistics. This includes tax preparer, payroll clerk and other jobs involving number crunching. There are autistic CPA's out there. Your tax preparer could be on the spectrum for all you know. I'd think that autism could be an asset when it comes to household money management, while many NTs are careless and impulsive with their money and get easily flustered with figuring out finances, controlling spending habits, keeping track of things, records, etc.

I practice "delayed gratification," which is a LOGICAL approach that I'd think an autistic would be more likely to realize than an impulsive NT. My NT brother and his NT wife kept spending needlessly, and as a result, struggled to buy the type of house they wanted. I, on the other hand, put off spending for several years, which allowed me to save for a downpayment.

---

Hehe, i Don't Have Just 6 or 7 Figures;
i Have 'Crazy 8' Now That Means i Am
Rich Enough to Never Need Anymore

Money And Satisfied With What i Have,

WHere i Am Not Going to Trade-in my Paid-off
Home, Paid-Off Car, And First Wife, Any Day Soon

And the House

Likely Never
And Wife
Proven
True
As Long
As i'm Alive

As It ALL Exists
NoW As A Real Garden
of Eden Deep in A Peaceful
Harmonious Forest so Tranquil
So Quiet Just Really Heaven on Earth

With Board-on-Board Fencing Totally
Private For Just About Any Human Activity

Imaginable

With Broad Smiles
And at my Ease i Squeeze
All 240 Pounds Plus of me
Through This Fiber Optic cable
As Avatar For Real and Circle the
Globe at the Speed oF LiGHT or Love, Whatever Comes First

Where Ever i May Land Now To Continue A "Nether Land Bible 8 MiLLioN WordS Old," Now
in 71 Months, Personal of Course; Yet just A Sub-Chapter of my "SonG oF mY SoUL" Long Form
Poem at 10.4 MiLLioN Words in 8 Years And 8 Months of Effort, Along With 16,544 Miles of
Public Dance As Yes i Became An actual General Public Assessed Living Legend And Never
Earned A Lincoln Penny Doing it Although some of the Rewards Were/Are Practically
Out of "This World" as No, i Don't Do Formal or Strictly Group Think With Tradition;

It's All Just

"Crazy 8's;"

Here's A Key to Eventually Never Needing to Earn
Another Penny in this 'Money Made World'

DON'T SPEND
DON'T SPEND
DON'T SPEND

IF AT ALL NECESSARY;

My Wife Spends, i Do Not;
It Works Out Okay to Never
Need to Make Another Penny Now;

True Though, i Didn't become Financially
Independent until i Quit Actually Working and
Continued to Get Paid at Age 47, As True, i Will
Receive 100 Percent of my Government Federal Civil
Service Retirement in June of my 62nd Year as of the 6th,

Only Drawing in 40 Percent Since the Early Retirement of Work
Almost Killing me Back at Age 47, Waiting to Get That Approved on
Sick and Annual Leave for A Year-And-A-Half then Finally Coming

Through at Age 49, As A Double Dipper in that Other Government Provided
Benefit For the Canaries in the Coal Mine Who Fall Out in the 'Coal Mind' First...

Hey, i Understood
What those Golden
Hand-cuffs of that

Government Job Meant
For Lifelong Benefits When
i Signed on At Age 24, in 1984 Even At
Only $3.69 An Hour After Earning 3 Degrees

in College; Yes, Ya Get Your Foot in the Door, Just in the
Nick of Years, to Earn High Pay for Your Last Three Years
And Then You Are Set With Lifelong Benefits for You and Your Family Whole...

Anyway, i Saw A Rainy (Cat-6 Hurricane Strength) Day Coming on the Autism Spectrum Even
though i Didn't Get Diagnosed, Until So-Called "Autism-Burnout," Took me Down in a Life Synergy
Threat of 19 Medical Disorders at 47; So i Saved, And Saved, And Saved Some More; And my Wife Surely

Didn't Like the Tight
Budget the Financial
Manager of me Always
Great With Numbers Provided
As i Ended UP Doing Information
Technology And Financial Management at Work
As The Always Super Systemizer i Still Am too
When i Let Go of the Poetic SParK And BRing

NumBeRS
BacK iN PLaY...

Anyway, i Saved Enough
Money, With or Without the
Retirement Incomes, to Last
Many Years As That is What You
Do When Deep Down You Intuit

You Are A Canary in A Coal Mine
And 25 Years in A Federal Job is all Ya Might
Last Before

Ya Fall
Down
Like A Wind
Up Toy-Soldier Indeed...

Or in My Case, Just Plain 'Vanilla Nerd'

All that i am Then Yet Now i Am Naked,
Enough, Whole, Complete With New Colors
to Add to my Tree of Life Each And Everyday Practically Free...

My Wife Still Does the Spending Without Much Input From me

And that's
the way

i Like it;
i Do the Flow
Now And She takes
Care of All the NumBeRS

As She Loves the Control She Finally Has With SMiLes...

The Way my Life Worked Out After not Being Able to Speak
Until 4, And All the Other Difficulties From Young; It's Practically

A Miracle i
Exist and
at Least in this
Case Real Fairy Tales
of Happily Ever After
Really Do Happen after
HeLL ON EartH For Real too...

At Least for 8 Years And 9 Months, So Far Now;

Is it Worth it; of course it is Now; Before, Difficult to Imagine at Least;

Yep, i Spent 66 Months as A Shut-in my Home With All That Hell; Perspective,

Heaven And
HeLL and
Rich and
Poor, It's
All About
Perspective Now For Real..

---

I waste about twenty bucks a day on grub

And only earn 18 bucks an hour

That is way too much for groceries, but I am a picky eater and I don't know how to cook

I feel like I have been working way too hard and I deserve to waste cash on cheap grub

Not enough cash saved for if and when I get made redundant

No car

No dependents, spouse, pets, nothing expensive

Did I say "7"?
Typo.
I meant "17".

It must be a very large "grub".

ADHD is a common comorbid with ASD.
There are special accountants and financial advisors for people with ADHD, because of their impulsive spending.
ADHD is taken seriously as a disability in the field of money management.
I've heard that financial managers can even be paid for as part of a person's medical insurance.

Just throwing that out there.

*Has yet to file my taxes*

As someone with severe ADHD, my level of money management is a disaster.
My crow-like brain doesn't constantly remind me how much living expenses I have left.
I had tried many times to start recording my consumption, but those attempt will not last more than three days in a row.

Luckily I'm still a student as of now, so it's not a major disaster.
But I'm not too far from the days when I'm no longer a student.

...and will be getting a job...

Thinking about it more I could be a lot worse re money management. Although I can be impulsive I'm not drowning in debt. I like to have at least £3k in savings. Is there any reason why £3k specifically? Not at all.

The older you get, the less money means to you.

Savings are a form of security, and it's all relative.

In an ideal world, advisors in the investment field suggest having about 6 months of living expenses saved to cover things like unemployment, and / or needing to replace expensive items such as cars or central heating boilers. Of course this isn't going to be possible for everyone due to their individual circumstances.

Like many things in life saving seems to come easily for some, impossible for others, and many more people somewhere in the middle. I suppose as in many aspects of life people could benefit a great deal by working on their weaknesses and seeing what improvements they can make.

Last edited by Shadweller on 07 May 2022, 7:33 am, edited 2 times in total.

That is probably only the case if you have enough.