I Used AI To Budget My Monthly Salary: Here’s The Breakdown

Budgeting. Some love it, most hate it. It’s just one of those really stressful things in life that every adult has to go through to avoid getting stressed over finances. Figuring out how to stretch your salary across rent, bills, food, and maybe (just maybe) a little fun without running dry mid month. Stressing to avoid stress? The math isn’t math-ing.

Maybe this is why the idea of being able to outsource this task to an AI assistant is just that appealing. That said, would AI actually be able to help you budget and spend better? Or will it just confirm that you’re doomed to survive solely on instant noodles?

Can I let AI manage my salary?

Armed with curiosity (and a slightly concerning tendency to overspend on impulse buys), I decided to put AI to the test. Could AI tools actually help manage my salary, better than I do myself? Here’s how it went.

Step 1: Choosing the right platform

If you go on the app store and put in “budgeting tool”, you will be hit with a tsunami of financial apps, all promising to transform your money habits. Some are free, many require a paid subscription and others entice you with a free trial only to lock any real feature behind a paywall.

With so many options, I wanted to pick something that was straightforward, accessible and most importantly, free! That’s when I realised, there is an AI tool that we all already have at the tips of our fingers: ChatGPT! It is a platform we are all familiar with and there is no need for downloads, subscriptions or sneaky in-app purchases.

So, instead of committing to yet another app I would undoubtedly forget in a week, I decided to let ChatGPT take the wheel on my finances. The question was, could it come up with a budget that actually makes sense?

Step 2: Generating the perfect prompt

Like any AI tool, ChatGPT is only as good as the instructions you give it. A vague prompt like “help me budget my salary” will only get you a generic breakdown that may not reflect your actual needs or lifestyle. To get an accurate and useful plan, you need to be specific —give your AI tool all the right numbers and figures. And most importantly, be honest! If your prompt is based on lies then the result generated will not be of any help.

Here’s the prompt I used:

“I earn RM3,800 per month, which is the median salary in Kuala Lumpur. I need a realistic budget breakdown based on best practices. My fixed expenses are: rent & utilities (RM850), e-hailing rides (RM450). My variable expenses include: groceries, eating out, entertainment & shopping (RM2200) How much should ideally be allocated for all my expenses?” 

Step 3: Analyse ChatGPT’s budgeting skills (or lack thereof?)

Here’s what AI suggested:

Does an AI-generated budget meet my expectations?

What really grinds my gears is the passive aggressive emoji at the end. That is totally uncalled for. But let’s get into the actual math.

1. Right off the bat, I noticed that ChatGPT had only allocated RM650 for groceries. That’s…ambitious to say the least. I was already spending much more on bare necessities.
2. RM1140 sounds like a decent amount for entertainment, eating out and shopping. That is, until I realised it was making a RM 1060 cut. I guess ChatGPT doesn’t understand how much I rely on my daily Matcha lattes to cope and not spiral into existential dread by 3PM. Look, some people join gyms, some people go to therapy, I just need my caffeine fix. If you ask me, I’m saving But touche ChatGPT. Touche.
3. RM760 for savings? In an ideal world, sure.  But in reality, miscellaneous spending happens all the time.  A burned out light that needs to be replaced or pipes that get clogged all require money.

At first glance, ChatGPT’s budget followed standard financial principles, but it didn’t consider my actual lifestyle. The AI assumed I could just magically cut back on expenses without factoring in the difficulty of doing so. Would I love to save RM760 a month? Absolutely. Can I realistically do that without sacrificing my social life and sanity? Doubtful.

Is AI reliable for budgeting?

At the end of the experiment, my conclusion is that AI isn’t all that bad at budgeting. In fact, it might be a great tool to analyse your spending habits to see potential areas of improvement. It did try to give me clear cost reduction strategies (though they might not have been entirely practical) and it did call me out on my large spending on my wants which truly was a wake up call. AI, or specifically ChatGPT in this case, was a good starting point to structure my budget, but you will still need to do some work to tweak it into what will actually work.

So, if you ever find yourself staring at your bank balance wondering where it all went (wrong), AI tools, even non-financial tools like ChatGPT can be quite helpful. Let AI crunch the numbers for you and then decide how you can make it work. Just don’t take its word as gospel (and be prepared for some slightly judgemental emojis).

Got any AI  financial apps you swear by? Let us know and we’ll test it out for you in our next article!