AI is not for Personal Finances

Recently I had lunch with my friend whom I hadn’t seen in 3 years. We discussed what happened in that time, our current jobs and whatnot. We got to the Personal Finances topic a little later. Turned out he was big on Financial Independence. He completed expensive courses, got a lot of money invested, filled his emergency fund to the brim. The whole package.

I got inspired.

I do all of these things too, but on a smaller scale. I got married, bought a house, renovated it in recent years, making my finances chaotic. That conversation was a wake-up call.

He advised me to start by tracking our expenses. I had used budgeting apps (YNAB, ActualBudget) previously, but the habit didn’t stick. Nevertheless, I learned what the Envelope method was and how budgeting apps worked, which is allowing me to start easily now.

I discussed this with my wife, and she agreed. I am glad that our views on finances are alike.

We started simply. We just write our expenses in a Telegram chat, minimal friction. Then I import them to Actual.

Actual Budget is a super fast and privacy-focused app for managing your finances. At its heart is the well proven and much loved Envelope Budgeting methodology.

So the current state: Telegram chat + Actual running on local machine + manual backups

Being a tech person that I am, I thought: What if AI?

What if OpenClaw + Telegram + ActualBudget with MCP + Gamification Engine?

I started by defining the goals:

• Save up an Emergency Fund
• Invest consistently
• Buy cool things
• Major vacations
• Regional travel
• Something cool in the city (SPA, some kind of restaurant or anything)

So, how can AI help us reach those goals? The following ideas came to mind:

• Data entry help. Write in plain language, it enters expenses in the format the Actual app requires.
• AI sends a random chart every day. I won’t know what it can come up with today.
• AI tells how much is left in the envelope. That way your decisions will change while you’re making them.
• AI Gamification, it tracks streaks, gives badges etc.

The potential AI use cases do not directly help achieve the goals. They might reduce resistance when entering expenses or add some fun element to the process. However, the goals themselves are fun enough and so far we haven’t had troubles with expense entries.

I didn’t make my previous mistake where I wanted to use the Tech first, then look for applications. I need to have a problem first, then look for a solution.