Setting up my budget using AI

 I'm not the right person to give advice on using generative AI in daily life. I started using these tools much later than everyone else, and to this day, I remain pretty skeptical about the hype.

I have never been a "high-tech" person. I wasn't the one researching new tools the moment they launched. In fact, my resistance to AI was once a point of contention; I used to get into heated arguments with my family back in Seoul because I just didn't trust the direction things were heading.

My skepticism started around late 2020. At the time, I heard a lot about "AI assessment" in the recruitment processes in South Korea. Video presentations were already common, but the idea of an AI observing an interviewee to analyze their facial expressions and judge their personality felt invasive. I hated the idea of it. Luckily, I never had to go through it myself and came back to the EU. 

                                

Later, while I was working as a freelance translator, my older brother started pestering me about ChatGPT. This was late 2022 or early 2023. He told me that everyone in Seoul was using it and that it could translate any document in seconds. It irritated me. He even teased me, asking, "Are you trying to compete with AI? Like Lee Sedol versus AlphaGo?"

Comparing my translation work to the legendary Go match felt like a low blow.

Fast forward to today, and I have to admit—I am using generative AI. I find myself asking it how to clean specific stains or looking for quick recipes. I’ve realized that AI can be surprisingly "smart" and "kind," mostly because it works for free and doesn't lose its patience.

                                               

Where it really shines for me is in the areas where I struggle—specifically tasks that involve Excel. I’ve never been good at making tables, summarizing messy information, or doing complex calculations.

Recently, I decided to put my skepticism aside and asked an AI model to help me set my budget. I fed it my raw expenses and income, and the result was surprisingly quick and actually quite good. For someone who avoided this technology for years, seeing my finances organized into a clean, logical table in seconds was a bit of a revelation.

I may still be a skeptic at heart, but when it comes to the "Excel work" of life, I’m learning to let the machine take the lead.

Quick Tips for AI Budgeting:

1. Don't overthink the prompt: Just paste your list of expenses (even if they are messy) and ask: "Can you organize this into a monthly budget table for me?"

2. Ask for summaries: I like to ask, "Which category am I spending the most on?" to see things I might have missed.

3. Use it for the math: If you aren't an Excel wizard, just tell the AI to "Calculate the remaining balance after savings," and let it handle the numbers.                                  

                                 

I even asked something like "How can I save money? or How can I get more money?" etc.

Well, regarding how to save money, the answer was not that interesting. Use the 50/30/20 Rule, etc.

But when I asked how to get more money, I got some interesting information. Platforms like Medium pay based on reading time. You can also include "Affiliate Links" to tools you actually use (like a specific budgeting app or a cleaning product you found via an AI recipe).

Medium? I have never heard about it. But that was something new.

https://medium.com/