I Gave ChatGPT My Financial Goals: Here's the Habit It Told Me To Build

By your early 50s, financial goals may start looking different. Many Americans are no longer trying to build their first emergency fund or save for their child's college tuition—they may already have those pieces in place.

That's where I found myself. My husband and I are saving about 15% for retirement across our 401(k) plans, our emergency fund is good enough to get us through a real emergency, our son's college is at least partially funded, and we're on track to pay off our mortgage within the next decade.

Curious what an artificial intelligence (AI) would prioritize next, I gave ChatGPT my financial goals and asked for one habit to focus on.

Rather than treating retirement, college savings and homeownership as unrelated goals, ChatGPT viewed them as one financial system.

My current financial snapshot is that I'm in my early 50s and my husband is nearly 60. He hopes to retire in 10 years, while I will likely go the distance to 70. We are saving roughly 15% toward retirement in our respective retirement accounts . Barring the unforeseen, we should be able to pay off the home we bought in 2009 within the next ten years. Our son has a 529 college plan that, while not quite enough to pay for all four years, will at least pay for some and we can figure out where to go from there.

ChatGPT said that with our goals focused mostly on retirement we should optimize what's already working.

Instead of recommending another account or a different investment strategy, ChatGPT recommended one key habit: Deciding today where future "extra" money will go before we ever receive it.

When our son's college expenses end, it advised us to redirect any monthly cash flow into retirement savings. Then, when the mortgage is paid off, we should invest what used to be our monthly payment. We should continue to increase retirement contributions with raises or higher freelance income, and also put bonuses or unexpected windfalls toward long-term goals rather than lifestyle upgrades.

Ultimately, every financial milestone should automatically become the next retirement contribution.

Because we already have a diversified retirement portfolio, even if it's not as big as we'd like, ChatGPT reminded me that consistently investing more often has a greater long-term impact than constantly searching for higher returns.

In fact, it pointed out that savings rate is one of the few variables people can control, and that broad market investing already captures long-term market growth. If we can avoid the temptation to tinker with our investments when markets fluctuate, our investments can grow steadily.