About this episode
And in case you missed it, check out last week's episode of Your Money Guide on the Side where we answered the question How Much Does a Financial Advisor Actually Cost? What if your smartest financial sidekick never sleeps, never judges, and doesn’t charge 1% AUM? In this episode of Your Money Guide on the Side , Tyler Gardner explores how to use ChatGPT—not as your stock-picking guru, but as your emotionally-stable, algorithmic thought partner. One that can help you think better about money, values, timelines, and fees—without selling you a whole life policy disguised as “peace of mind.” We break it down into five key ways AI can help you think more clearly, not just calculate faster: 🧭 Clarify Your Values Ask ChatGPT: “What do I actually want money to do for me?” Spoiler: “Retire early and drink wine in Italy” is not a core value—it’s a Pinterest board. Let AI help you write a personal money mission statement and filter out everyone else’s goals. 🧠 Understand Your Risk Profile Forget the nonsense quizzes (“If the market drops 20%, do you: A) Buy more, B) Cry in the tub...”). ChatGPT can simulate scenarios, unpack your financial behavior, and help you discover if you’re actually more golden retriever than honey badger when volatility hits. 📆 Map Your Timeline Your life isn’t one big finish line. It’s a winding trail with sabbaticals, pivots, slow travel years, and expensive hobbies you haven’t picked yet. Use AI to draft your financial timeline and test your plan against reality—before your knees give out. 💸 Analyze Your Fees The 1% “small” fee isn’t small when you compound it for 30 years. ChatGPT can help you unpack your advisor agreement or prospectus, run cost projections, and tell you whether you’re paying for advice—or just someone else’s lake house. 📊 Review Your Portfolio Paste in your holdings and let AI review your diversification, concentration, expense ratios, and risk alignment. You may find out your “balanced” portfolio is just three tech stocks in a trench coat. 🔍 Bonus: Ask it to roleplay your 65-year-old self reviewing your current plan. You might learn what your future self wishes you’d done while you still have time to do it. Bottom Line: This isn’t about replacing all humans with robots. It’s about using sharper tools to ask better questions: – What do I value? – What’s my actual risk tolerance? – When do I want money to matter? – What am I really paying? – Is my current strategy aligned with who I want to become? If AI can help you do that without judgment, jargon, or sales tactics—why not use it? So go ahead. Paste your plan. Ask the “dumb” question. And remember: the smartest people in the room aren’t the ones with all the answers—they’re the ones still curious enough to keep asking. If this episode made you laugh, think, or recheck your advisor’s fee schedule—leave a review on Apple Podcasts or send it to a friend still paying 1.75% and calling it “normal.”