How to use AI for your personal finances

M1 Team
M1 Team October 5, 2026

To use AI for your personal finances, one practical approach is to start with questions that don’t involve your account numbers, then decide whether to connect anything. AI tends to be most useful explaining how money works, and least reliable filling in details you haven’t given it — so one workable sequence is learn first, connect second, put it on the jobs it does well, and keep the decisions that turn on what it can’t see. 

Step 1: Ask the questions that don’t need your data 

A common starting point is explanation, and explanation needs nothing personal. How a Roth conversion works. What an expense ratio does over thirty years. Why anyone holds bonds. Whether to prioritize a match or a debt. 

This is where a general AI assistant — ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot — can be useful, and each of these typically offers a no-cost tier, though pricing and terms are set by each provider and change. Two habits can make the output more reliable: 

  • Ask it to show the mechanism, not just the answer. “Walk me through how that’s calculated” can surface a wrong assumption that a yes-or-no answer would hide. 
  • Check anything with a year attached. Contribution limits, bracket thresholds and a product’s current terms can change from year to year — some are adjusted annually, some hold flat — and these tools are generally trained on text up to a cutoff date, so a figure that is out of date can look no different from a current one. Verify any dollar figure against the issuing authority before you act; for contribution limits and bracket thresholds that is the IRS. 

What it can’t do at this stage is tell you whether any of it applies to you, because it has no access to your accounts unless you give it that access. 

Step 2: Get your own numbers in front of AI 

The next step is giving AI something real to work with — and there are two ways to do it, with a meaningful difference between them. 

Typing or pasting figures in. Fast, works with most tools, and you choose what it sees. The limits are that you have to know which numbers matter, you may leave things out, and whatever you paste is shared with that provider — retention and training policies differ by provider and by plan, so check the ones that apply to you. 

Connecting accounts to a service built for it. The tool reads the balances itself, so less depends on your memory. In exchange you’re granting ongoing access, which is worth doing deliberately rather than by default, and services built for this generally charge for it where a general assistant’s no-cost tier does not. Connecting also doesn’t make the output correct — a linked balance can be stale, miscategorized, or read in a way you didn’t intend. 

A middle path some people use: keep account numbers, institution names and full statements out of a general assistant, and retype only the figures a question actually needs. “Is $40,000 in cash too much if I’m 34 and investing monthly?” needs no account number to be useful. Sharing less reduces what you expose, but it doesn’t make the exchange private — figures you type are still sent to the provider and handled under its policies. 

Note: “Connected” also covers a range. A service may read the accounts it holds in full while seeing only balances for accounts held elsewhere — which may tell it your totals without showing it where holdings overlap. Ask what a tool reads, not whether it links. 

Step 3: Use AI for the jobs it’s actually good at 

Four jobs come up commonly in how these tools are used, and they are a reasonable place for some people to start: 

  • Seeing everything at once. Money is often spread across accounts at different institutions, and questions like whether a portfolio is concentrated, whether too much is sitting in cash, or whether to pay down debt or invest are difficult to answer well without the whole picture. 
  • Explaining a tradeoff in your terms. Not “what is asset location” but “given these accounts, which one should this money go in, and why.” 
  • Surfacing something you may have missed. Idle cash, a position that has drifted from its target, a rate you are no longer getting. 
  • Getting you to a better question. Sometimes the most useful output is a sharper version of what you asked, which can be worth having before a conversation with a professional rather than instead of one. 

None of this is self-verifying. These tools can state something incorrect in the same confident register as something correct, they can misread a figure you gave them, and they work only from what they can actually see — so treat any output as a starting point to check rather than a conclusion to act on. 

Budgeting sits slightly apart. A general assistant can categorize spending and build a plan from a statement you paste in, and it can be used that way — but it’s a different job from the four above, and tools built for investing generally don’t include it. 

Step 4: Determine which decisions you keep for yourself and give to AI 

Two tests that cover a lot of ground: 

  1. Does the answer depend on facts no account holds? A job change, a business sale, a divorce, a parent’s health, how much loss you could actually sit through. If yes, you are likely past what AI or software can reason about from your accounts alone — and a person can’t either, unless you tell them. 
  1. Would you act on it? Learning something carries less immediate consequence if it turns out to be wrong. Moving money on it carries more. The closer a question sits to a decision, the more it matters that whatever answers it can see your accounts and is accountable for what it says. 

One difference worth knowing before you weigh any of this: a general AI assistant is not a registered investment adviser and owes you no fiduciary duty, while a registered advisory service does owe one to its advisory clients. 

For whether AI can be relied on at all, and how these platforms are regulated and protected, see can AI manage your money. For how a purpose-built service differs from a general chatbot, see AI financial advisor vs general AI assistants. (will link when published) 

The M1 bottom line 

M1 Advisor is an AI financial advisor that gives personalized advice held to a fiduciary standard. It is offered by M1 Advisory Services LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser, which you can verify on adviserinfo.sec.gov. 

It answers personal finance questions, summarizes what is in your M1 accounts — performance, past transactions and dividends — and explains how the platform works. Three limits are worth knowing: 

  • It recommends; you act. M1 Advisor is non-discretionary, so it cannot place trades or move money on your behalf. 
  • You decide what it sees. It has no access to your data until you opt in. 
  • It does not predict markets. It cannot forecast performance or guarantee returns, and it does not carry real-time market data. 

M1 Advisor can read your investing, cash and borrowing accounts together rather than a portfolio alone. You keep the decisions — you set your own target allocation, and M1 never rebalances without your instruction. Borrowing against a portfolio carries its own risks, including that a fall in portfolio value can trigger a maintenance call and the sale of securities in the account. 

M1 Advisor reads all your M1 accounts in detail, and it can see balances from accounts you hold elsewhere once you link them through the M1 Balance Sheet. Accounts are not reviewed by human advisory personnel, and M1 does not offer access to human advisors. 

M1 Advisor is included at no additional cost through December 31, 2027. Using the M1 platform costs $3 a month, waived in any billing cycle where total M1 assets reach $10,000 on at least one day; other fees may apply, and the details are in the M1 Fee Schedule. 

Frequently asked questions 

Can I use ChatGPT for my personal finances?

For explanation, yes, and it’s a reasonable place to start — how a tax rule works, what a fee costs over time, how two account types differ. It has no access to your accounts unless you give it that access, so anything specific to your situation depends on what you type in.

Keep account numbers, institution names and statements out of it, and check any figure with a year attached against a primary source.

Can AI help me budget?

A general AI assistant can categorize spending and draft a plan from figures you give it. Tools built for investing generally don’t include budgeting, so if that’s the main thing you want, look for something built for it.

Whatever you use, the same rule applies: it only knows the spending you show it.

What shouldn’t I use AI for with money?

Anything that turns on facts your accounts don’t contain — a job change, a business sale, a divorce, a family health situation, or how much loss you could genuinely tolerate. Software can’t reason about what it hasn’t been told, and some of those decisions are worth an hour of a professional’s time even if software handles the rest.

Also worth avoiding: acting on any specific dollar figure without checking it against a primary source, particularly one that can change from year to year.

Advisory products and services are offered by M1 Advisory Services, LLC, an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Advisory services are distinct from the brokerage products and services offered by M1 Finance LLC. Clients receiving advisory services must also maintain brokerage accounts with M1 Finance LLC, which is a separate legal entity and a Member FINRA/SIPC. For important information about M1 Advisory Services, LLC, including fees, services, and conflicts of interest, please review our Form ADV Part 2A and Form CRS. 

Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results. This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice, and it is not a recommendation of any particular service, tool, or strategy. Descriptions of third-party software features, pricing tiers, and data policies are general and current as of publication; terms are set by each provider and change — consult each provider’s own disclosures. Registered investment advisers owe fiduciary duties to their advisory clients; broker-dealers are subject to Regulation Best Interest with respect to recommendations. These standards differ in scope and application. M1 does not provide tax or legal advice; consult a qualified professional about your situation.

Brokerage products and services are offered by M1 Finance LLC, member FINRA/SIPC; a self-directed brokerage account is not by itself an advisory relationship. Investment advisory services are offered by M1 Advisory Services LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Registration with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or training, nor does it constitute an endorsement by the SEC.

Use of the M1 platform is subject to a $3 monthly platform fee, waived in any billing cycle in which total M1 assets reach $10,000 on at least one day, and charged whether or not M1 Advisor is used; other fees may apply. See the M1 Fee Schedule and the Platform Fee Disclosure. 

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