AI can help you better manage your money and invest smarter - but it's not a magic potion. Learn how to make the best use of AI to improve your personal finances and investing.
AI – artificial intelligence – can definitely help you with managing your personal finances and investing. In this article, I’m going to run down for you the things that I think AI can best be used for in money management…as well as the things that I don’t believe it’s best suited for doing.
What is an AI money management tool?
First, let’s understand the basics of AI money management aids. They’re simply software programs (although some are, admittedly, very sophisticated programs) that can go through mountains of data and provide various analyses of it within seconds. They can help with budgeting, expense tracking, saving and investing, as well as financial education. For example, an AI budgeting app can quickly tell you what percentage of your monthly expenditures are going to food, transportation, entertainment, clothing, etc. A major benefit of AI programs is how rapidly they can review a massive amount of information and produce the requested analysis.
Where AI can help you
Here are some major areas where I believe that AI tools can be a valuable resource to use:
1. Budgeting/Spending trackers – AI programs designed to help you track your spending or craft and manage a budget are some of the most practical and helpful financial tools you can have. A couple of popular ones are Monarch Money and Rocket Money. Clearly seeing where your money is going can make it much easier to identify unnecessary spending and manage your budget.
2. Automated savings/Investing – Automating regular deposits to savings, investments, and other funds can be one of the simplest ways to build consistent financial habits and make steady progress toward your goals. Don’t have much money to save or invest? Fine – just send $5 or $10 at a time to designated accounts and you’ll be surprised at how quickly your savings and investment capital grows. Automated transfers make this easier, while AI-powered tools can analyze your finances and suggest how much you may be able to set aside based on your spending and available funds.
3. Financial education and investing analysis – There are lots of AI assistants and educational tools that can help teach you about personal finance and investing. AI-powered courses can introduce investing concepts and strategies, while a growing number of chatbots are designed specifically for financial matters. They can help investors analyze individual financial assets, market data, and the latest financial news.
What AI is not best suited for
AI apps can help with investing analysis, but they’re not fortune tellers. In the end, you still have to make your own investment decisions and choices. AI Is meant be a tool that can help you – not replace you.
AI tools can help you organize and analyze information, compare various options, and help you more quickly learn about and better understand the world of finance. But here’s the thing…no AI program knows you personally or knows what the best choices for your individual life are. It doesn’t know your personal values, fears, risk tolerance, desires, or feelings. When an AI tool is objectively analyzing your spending, it doesn’t know, for example, how important to your sanity it is to enjoy a nice dinner out once a week.
You may also want to get help from financial professionals, such as financial or tax planners, who can take your individual circumstances into account. But again, ultimately, you need to be the one who makes the important choices about what you do with your money.