ChatGpt Finance: Turn it on!

My relationship with money has always been one of just going with the flow, almost hand to mouth. I was raised in a hand-to-mouth environment. Sometimes there was not even enough in the hand to make it to the mouth.

I learned to be frugal out of necessity. And I learned not to think about money out of self-love.

That was the first part of my life.

In the second part of my life, I lived much the same way, frugally and with avoidance, with one major difference: my income and expenses were handled through direct deposits and automatic payments, thanks to the internet and cloud computing.

Now, in my third and final act, I must face the money. And what better way than with AI and chatbots?

I decided to use ChatGPTA generative AI assistant created by OpenAI that can answer questions, write, brainstorm, explain ideas, and help with everyday tasks. More.

I started thinking about this last year. I downloaded a year’s worth of PDFs for my bank statements and credit cards, along with information about my income and savings. I made sure not to include account numbers or other personally identifiable information, and I sent it all to ChatGPT.

I asked ChatGPT to analyze everything and, based on my actual spending, create a budget. I also asked it to find all my subscriptions and flag anything that stood out.

It was amazing.

Within seconds, I had my spending broken down into categories, my donations, my subscriptions, some duplicate charges, and a budget I could follow. I investigated and canceled unnecessary subscriptions. I explored where I was spending money unnecessarily.

Best of all, I now had a neat 8-by-11-inch financial landscape of my life.

I felt as if I had struck gold.

In a way, I had.

ChatGPT told me that, based on the financial information I had provided, I appeared to be financially secure for my third and final act.

And then?

I went right back to “Turn It Off, Turn It Off”!

Right back to letting the automatic deposits and automatic payments take care of themselves.

In the meantime, ChatGPT introduced Finance.

A year later, I am not just thinking about survival. I have got that. I am thinking about expanding my life: traveling, remodeling, maybe a new car.

I must turn it on, turn it on!

Enter ChatGPT Finance.

What could it offer me that my earlier question-and-answer session, built on a year’s worth of downloads, had not?

As it turns out, quite a lot.

For one thing, I do not have to download anything, so that saves me a lot of time. The most impressive thing is that I can look at my total financial picture as it changes. I can see how I am using my credit cards. I can see how my IRA has changed. I can see what bills are coming.

It gives me the full spectrum.

Anytime I go to ChatGPT Finance, I can find everything from what I spent recently, to what I am going to pay out tomorrow, to my long-range plans for paying off my mortgage.

To get these real-time benefits, I first had to overcome my own questions and fears about security and privacy.

Should I give ChatGPT all my financial login information?

Turns out, I do not have to.

The connection to my financial institutions is handled through a third-party service called Plaid. I do not give ChatGPT my bank username and password. Plaid connects to my financial institutions and provides ChatGPT with the financial information I authorize it to use.

If you have ever used services such as Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, Robinhood or Rocket Money, you may already have encountered Plaid.

What you might not know is that you can also manage financial connections and permissions through Plaid, including disconnecting accounts.

Plaid is widely used across financial apps and services. Yahoo Finance explains how Plaid works and why so many financial apps use it.

Plaid also uses security measures that include encryptionEncryption converts readable information into coded data so that unauthorized people cannot easily understand it. More, multi-factor authentication, security reviews and continuous monitoring. No internet-connected financial service is risk-free, of course, but after learning how Plaid worked and considering my own comfort level, I chose to go ahead.

ChatGPT Finance took all my financial dataInformation used by computers and AI systems to learn, compare, predict, or respond. The raw material for AI, More and turned it into a readable, understandable, dynamic financial picture.

It showed me where I might cut back, and we estimated a donation percentage. But best of all, it started helping me look for places where I could save money.

It found subscriptions I did not need and duplicate billings that I canceled. It helped me analyze my credit cards and consider whether I really needed all of them. It also pointed out that some of my insurance costs might be worth another look.

ChatGPT Finance did two important things for me.

One, I now have a clear picture of what I earn and what I spend.

Two, it is all in one location.

Having everything in one location makes analyzing and controlling my finances feel like a simple algebra problem.

I can see where my money is going. I can track spending by category across different credit cards and checking accounts. I can find subscriptions and recurring bills, review upcoming payments and compare this month with last month or even with the same month last year.

I can also look at my net worth over time and understand changes in my stock and ETF holdings. I can create a budget, set savings goals, work on debt payoff and plan for major purchases.

I can also connect my Experian credit information so I can better understand my credit score, the factors affecting it and important changes to my credit report.

But there is an important distinction.

ChatGPT can help me understand and plan. It cannot take control of my financial life.

It cannot move my money for me, pay my bills, change my bank-account settings, make trades, open or close accounts or file my taxes. And it does not replace a financial, legal, tax or investment professional when I need one.

So what changed?

Not my income. Not my pension. Not my bank accounts. Not even my spending habits, at least not yet.

What changed was that I could finally see all of it.

For most of my life, money was something happening in the background. Money came in. Money went out. Bills got paid. I avoided looking too closely as long as everything seemed to be working.

ChatGPT Finance turned the background into something I could actually see, question and understand.

And that may be the most useful thing AI can do with money. It does not have to make the decisions for me. In fact, I do not want it to.

I want it to show me the information clearly enough that I can make better decisions for myself.

I spent the first part of my life surviving money and the second part avoiding it.

In my third act, I want to use it.

Travel. Remodel. Buy the car. Give money away. Save some. Spend some. Enjoy some.

But first I have to know where it is going.

So this time, instead of “Turn It Off, Turn It Off,” I am going to try something different.

Turn it on.