How ChatGPT can be used to help you with your personal finances - including how to budget

AI is rapidly growing in popularity, despite concerns from tech giants and politicians that more development needs to be put in place before it is rolled out into the public further. According to Moneyzine, “How to use ChatGPT” was searched over 812,000 times worldwide in March 2023.

ChatGPT was released in November 2022 and is an artificial intelligence chatbot that was developed by OpenAI. People are now learning how best to use AI to benefit themselves and the public as a whole.

Moneyzine CEO Jonathan Merry believes that we’ve barely scratched the surface of how many people are familiar with sites like ChatGPT and how they are used. Merry said: “Anecdotally, ChatGPT is the talk of the town. Especially on LinkedIn where you cannot move for advice on how to use it, whether it’s ethical or cheery commentary on just how many jobs it could destroy...

“With many people offering help with prompts, you might be forgiven for thinking we already know all there is to know about the platform. But our research shows that there is an extraordinary amount of people who are looking for help with the AI tool.

“I’m as guilty as anyone for assuming that everybody knows about it, but conversions about it with family members to a wall of blank faces probably means we have a long way to go before it’s had its tipping point.”

The financial planning website, Moneyzine has revealed the key tips for using ChatGPT as a financial tool.

How to use ChatGPT to help with your personal finances

Combating financial jargon

ChatGPT can be used when getting caught up with financial jargon, which can quickly make information inaccessible to the average person. Instead of searching online for a specific answer, the AI website can be used to quickly source an answer.

Instead of going through multiple websites to understand the financial jargon, people can have a conversation with ChatGPT about the topic to help you fully understand the terminology and find out specific answers.

Help with budgeting

Giving ChatGPT specific information about your financial situation, for example your income and expenses, can then give the artificial intelligence chatbot enough information to offer actionable advice. This can range from information on how to bulk up your savings to how best to pay off debts sustainably each month.

Even though everyone’s financial situations are unique, the AI service can guide users to the best advice. If you tell ChatGPT that something doesn’t work and you’d like to try a different solution, the chatbot will give the user alternative solutions.

ChatGPT can also recommend things to help users save money on their expenses by using cashback apps or even what the best supermarket loyalty schemes are.

Planning your retirement

ChatGPT can be used to help people plan for their retirement by providing personalised recommendations on how much money to save and even when to start saving. The chatbot also gives users advice on where best to put your money and where people can get the best value for saving, including information on various tax benefits specific to each country.

By telling ChatGPT your financial situation, as well as your age and when you’d like to retire, the artificial intelligence can draft a savings plan to follow that can help with your retirement. Although the information is fairly accurate, it’s always important to double-check the numbers to ensure there are no mathematical mistakes

The AI service can also suggest additional resources for further information, including resources for how to retire specifically on your location, as well as retirement calculators that can do the maths for you.

Realise it can make mistakes

AI technology is so new that sites such as ChatGPT are far from being perfect in their current form. At the current moment asking the platform to do specific equations can result in a wrong answer, as well as the site having some inherent biases.

The information on the site is currently dated with ChatGPT not having gathered data since 2021. This means users will not receive any up-to-date advice on things like fresh Government policies.

Take anything ChatGPT gives you with a pinch of salt and find a second opinion on a trusted source for anything that is more important.