One of the key goals of adulthood is to seek financial independence from our parents. It's all very well to be living off "the bank of mom and dad", but parents will not be there forever and financial independence is a major stepping stone to being able to do your own thing without the controlling influence of others. In this two-part series, I want to look at eight steps towards financial independence and the way in which our autistic traits can make this difficult. I want to suggest some ways that autistic individuals can mitigate some of these problems. The chart below covers the eight steps. Step 1 Developing the right mindset There are three critical parts to developing a good "financial literacy" mindset. Educate Yourself on personal finance terms; budgeting, saving, investing, debt and credit. Avoid the biggest money pitfalls - Bad investments, bad debt and scams. Develop a healthy money mindset - Financial Independence is a journey n...