Financial Autonomy

Can I Pay My Own Way?

Considering the difference between independence and autonomy has opened some cognitive doors for me. For instance, I have often become bogged down in working with clients on achieving financial independence. Among other reasons, financial independence is hard to define since most people find themselves in a nebulous financial state for much of their young adult lives despite living outside of their parents' house. For instance, I remember turning 30 and feeling bad that my parents were still paying my cell phone bill. I didn't need them to pay it, but their payment still factored into my monthly budget.

Can I Spend Money How I Choose?

It also occurred to me that a person can have a financial goal that exists outside of or independent of financial independence. That goal includes one's ability to set and meet a financial goal. Financial autonomy is the freedom to choose how to spend money. Anyone who is or will always be financially dependent can begin increasing their financial autonomy. Many parents I have worked with have tried to lure their teenagers into getting a job, or doing chores around the house for money. Almost every parent I have worked with has asked, "Don't you want some spending money?" Almost all of my autistic clients have answered, "No." It now occurs to me that building a desire to get a job to have spending money requires an initial step: highlighting just how little influence my client has over his or her finances. Indeed, I have seen this attitude (Why would I want more spending money?) persist even into young adulthood, and it can hobble a person's drive to apply for jobs, seek higher education, or otherwise persist in boring, vocational tasks.

Rational Demand Compliance (see previous post)

There may be something in the mind of the average neurotypical that has a natural, increasing understanding of the practical significance of not being free to choose how to spend money-even if they choose not to spend money. (Currently, I am focusing on one's ability to fulfill the drive drive to belong to a group as a source of this "something.") The way a person with Rational Demand Compliance achieves a desire to get a job as a teen so they can have "walking around money" is truly complex, but it seems to be a latent drive with many neurodiverse clients I work with. I am still sorting out what needs to happen in sessions that will result in my clients feeling such a drive, expressing a desire, creating a plan, and pursuing that plan (with a sense of urgency) to achieve greater levels of financial autonomy; and do this in a way that has only a limited association with financial independence. For instance, how many teens are driven to work part time jobs even though they are years away from financial independence? That's the kind of desire and drive I want to harness for my clients who say, "I don't have anything I want to buy," when parents can see that having a part time job would benefit them in so many ways.