Automating My Finances with AI: A Beginner’s Experiment

Can AI manage your money? I built a simple automation using OpenAI, Google Sheets, and Gmail to test it out—no coding background required.

Every day I log onto Twitter (or X—whichever you prefer; maybe I’m showing my age…), I see another account sharing a super-thread about how you can use tools like n8n or Zapier with [Insert LLM here] to automate your life and make $$$.

That got me wondering…

How hard can it be?

Spoiler: I’m not trying to make money here—just experimenting.

But the idea of using automation and LLMs to:

  1. Make my life easier
  2. Improve my quality of life

…sounds like an interesting prospect.

Where Should I Start?

Okay, I said I’m not looking to make money—but what if I could use AI automation to build an agent that acts like a financial advisor?

Now, I know what you’re thinking: risky!

But I’m not talking about giving an AI model access to my bank accounts and letting it invest as it sees fit. Instead, what if I fed it information about:

  • My job and income
  • My living situation (wife, kid, house, car)
  • My long-term financial goals

Could it build a personalised financial plan for me? Can AI act like a realistic financial advisor and steadily grow my investments?

So Where Does Automation Fit In?

You’re right—this could be a one-off prompt and done.

But let’s take it further with some automation.

Here’s the idea:

  1. Static input: Feed the AI my relatively stable life circumstances (bills, dependents, financial goals, etc.)
  2. Recurring advice: Get an email every payday suggesting how to split my salary across investments.
  3. Track performance: Log recommendations and my investments in a Google Sheet.

Still pretty basic, right?

Let’s level it up.

What if the AI model also scans the internet for current investment opportunities—say, traditional stocks and crypto—and tailors its recommendations accordingly?

Now we’re talking.

My Tools of Choice

Here’s the simple (and free!) tech stack I’m using:

  1. OpenAI API – for generating financial advice
  2. Google Sheets – for tracking investments and controlling logic
  3. Gmail API – for sending email updates

How It Works

  • A Google Apps Script runs daily to check if it’s the last Friday of the month (payday).
  • If it is, the script calls the OpenAI API with a custom prompt based on my inputs.
  • The response is parsed and emailed to me using the Gmail API.

This approach is lightweight, serverless, and completely free to run.

So, Does It Work?

I’ve tested the flow, and yes—it works. But - how well will it work? The only way I will know will be to follow it’s guidance for the next 6-12 months. I’ve tasked the agent with picking stocks/crypto investments that will steadily build me a portfoilio that generates steady returns.

I will update the blog next month once we have our first recommendations.

The next step?
Sit back and see how helpful the advice really is.