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AI financial advice is surprisingly good, especially if you ask right questions

mitsloan.mit.edu

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Re: AI financial advice is surprisingly good, especially if you ask right questions

#151

Post by zrail »

dgrin91 wrote: post #51
burner420042 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Tiller. They take the transaction history from your linked bank accounts and store it in a google spreadsheet for you. That's it. $99 a year. From there I unleashed claude on my spending habits. I'm only a few months in so I'm more focused on financial hygiene.

I would suggest also simplefin. Only $15/year. Its a bit more simple/restrictive (e.g. they only allow like 25 api calls per day), but if you are just doing simple personal budget tracking they are more than enough.

I spun up a simplefin sync tool recently and they made some surprising errors with some of my accounts (incorrect sign, completely missing some transactions). Also they don't do investments, which is problematic when our primary "checking" is actually a brokerage account.

I found SnapTrade[1] which gives away a free personal account with up to 20 brokerage connections (i.e. logins, not accounts).

I'm using simplefin for credit cards and loans and SnapTrade for investment accounts. Seems to be working well so far.

[1]: https://snaptrade.com

Re: AI financial advice is surprisingly good, especially if you ask right questions

#152

Post by scrapcode »

Eji1700 wrote: post #109
AussieWog93 wrote: post #98

People in this thread are massively underestimating the level of financial illiteracy in the general population. We've had multiple people try to convince us to set up bank accounts for our kids, so that they could accumulate interest over 18 years. More that tried to convince me to gamble on random pump and dump shitcoins. More still that talked about "investing" in random collectables like Funko Pops or Pokemon car…

“Pay your bills on time and fully” “Do what you can to eliminate addictive vices or never get them” “Max your Roth and 401k contributions before even thinking about anything else” “Try to budget” “Don’t live beyond your means. Monthly payment need to be considered carefully” If you can even TRY to do these things it puts you SO far ahead of the average person. It sucks because I get it, if you’re behind waiting years…

I never personally liked the blanket advice to "Max your 401k." For most, if achievable at all, that would be the most they can invest at all. Even though it is often recommended alongside a proper "emergency fund," that advice leaves little liquidity without major penalties.

Re: AI financial advice is surprisingly good, especially if you ask right questions

#153

Post by ghaff »

Danox wrote: post #144
MBCook wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3% is amazingly good. It’s not hard to beat that, but a savings account at a common bank can easily be below 0.05%. I looked up BoA. 0.04%.

I’ve been thinking about moving some money over by selling some shares and opening up a savings account with enough money to make a difference.

I'm definitely at the point where, if not sticking money in my mattress, I'm keeping a lot in pretty safe investments. Did sort of an equity housecleaning a couple years back and consolidated some investments, in part to make them easier to track and manage.

Re: AI financial advice is surprisingly good, especially if you ask right questions

#154

Post by sheepolog »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #94
sheepolog wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't downvote them, but I am genuinely curious to hear from people who "can't save money", and try to understand why that's the case. My assumption is that a large percent of them are spending way more than they need to, but that could easily be an incorrect stereotype.

Are you excluding all the people with disabilities or chronic illnesses or supporting children or parents or other dependents with disabilities?

Not at all! I would guess that a sizable minority of "can't save money" people are in that position due to chronic illness or supporting others.

I have no idea what it costs to support a family member with a disability; probably varies wildly but I would guess it's about the same annual cost as raising a child? Except that annual cost never goes away.

Re: AI financial advice is surprisingly good, especially if you ask right questions

#156

Post by jeffreyrogers »

scrapcode wrote: post #152
Eji1700 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Pay your bills on time and fully” “Do what you can to eliminate addictive vices or never get them” “Max your Roth and 401k contributions before even thinking about anything else” “Try to budget” “Don’t live beyond your means. Monthly payment need to be considered carefully” If you can even TRY to do these things it puts you SO far ahead of the average person. It sucks because I get it, if you’re behind waiting years…

I never personally liked the blanket advice to "Max your 401k." For most, if achievable at all, that would be the most they can invest at all. Even though it is often recommended alongside a proper "emergency fund," that advice leaves little liquidity without major penalties.

Roth contributions are withdrawable without penalty. Also most employers offer a match of some amount, which is essentially free money.

Re: AI financial advice is surprisingly good, especially if you ask right questions

#157

Post by Danox »

dagenix wrote: post #107
bradfa wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s wrong with bank accounts for your kids? Sorry, this one doesn’t seem to fit with your other examples.

Bank account interest is pretty much always less than inflation. So, money sitting in a bank account for 18 years is just losing value.

The object of the game is to live within your means, save and invest. More than half the population does not do that. When you’re 18 the treadmill starts turning if you don’t use your time wisely, you’re going to be in trouble at the end of life. When you are young, simple compounding is your friend because you have time.

https://www.thewealthminded.com/finance-basics/how-compound-...

People have won the lottery and blown it all, some people who have extremely high paying professions in their youth, have over the course of time have also blown it all.

Re: AI financial advice is surprisingly good, especially if you ask right questions

#158

Post by foxtrot8672 »

etchalon wrote: post #149

I don't understand why this is shocking. LLMs are a weighted average of collective "wisdom", and decent financial advice isn't hard to come by.

I don't think it's quite that simple. Sol and Fable are effectively executing rational decision making and reasoning. They're really a cut above from the previous generation.

Re: AI financial advice is surprisingly good, especially if you ask right questions

#159

Post by sumeno »

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #156
scrapcode wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never personally liked the blanket advice to "Max your 401k." For most, if achievable at all, that would be the most they can invest at all. Even though it is often recommended alongside a proper "emergency fund," that advice leaves little liquidity without major penalties.

Roth contributions are withdrawable without penalty. Also most employers offer a match of some amount, which is essentially free money.

Not Roth 401ks, only IRAs

Re: AI financial advice is surprisingly good, especially if you ask right questions

#160

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #98

People in this thread are massively underestimating the level of financial illiteracy in the general population. We've had multiple people try to convince us to set up bank accounts for our kids, so that they could accumulate interest over 18 years. More that tried to convince me to gamble on random pump and dump shitcoins. More still that talked about "investing" in random collectables like Funko Pops or Pokemon car…

While I agree with you about the level of financial illiteracy in the general population, I don't really see what AI has to add for the vast majority of the population is simple. Basic financial advice is not hard (save regularly, invest in low cost index funds, don't take on CC debt, etc.), but a lot of it goes against most human nature, especially around delayed gratification. People have known for decades that "diet and exercise" are very important for good health, yet we still have an obesity epidemic.

It reminds me of that Saturday Night Live skit from decades ago, "Don't Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford": https://youtu.be/R3ZJKN_5M44

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