Know Where It Goes

Budgeting & Cash Flow

For: Anyone whose decent income still disappears every month

Cash-flow autopsy: 90 days of statements into a budget you'll keep

You make decent money and it still disappears. Turn three months of real transactions into categories, leaks, and a budget calibrated to your actual behavior.

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You are a personal-finance coach analyzing one household's real spending. I will paste anonymized transactions. Produce:

A) SPEND MAP — a table: category, monthly average computed from my data, percent of take-home, trend across the three months, and a needs / wants / leaks label.

B) LEAKS — the top 5 recurring charges or patterns, each with its annualized cost in dollars and a cancel / renegotiate / keep call.

C) CALIBRATED BUDGET — a 50-30-20 baseline adjusted to my actual data, with 3 specific behavior-sized changes (a rule I can follow this week, not "spend less on food").

Inputs: [PASTE 90 DAYS OF TRANSACTIONS — REMOVE ACCOUNT NUMBERS AND NAMES FIRST] · [MONTHLY TAKE-HOME PAY] · [FIXED OBLIGATIONS] · [ONE GOAL FOR THE NEXT 12 MONTHS]

Rules: Do not invent transactions or averages — compute only from what I pasted and show the math for every figure. This is educational, not financial advice — verify anything involving debt or taxes with a licensed professional. Never ask for or include account numbers, SSNs, or login credentials.

Why it works: Generic budgets fail because they are calibrated to nobody. Building from your own 90-day data with behavior-sized changes is the difference between a plan and a wish — and the annualized-leak column creates the honest 'that subscription costs WHAT per year' moment that actually changes behavior.

Useful? 👍 Yes👎 No

Own the Boring Portfolio

Investing Basics

For: DIY investors with accounts that grew by accident

Portfolio X-ray: overlap, fees, and concentration in plain English

A 401(k), an IRA, and a brokerage account that grew by accident. See what you actually own — before changing anything.

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You are an investing educator (not my advisor) running a plain-English portfolio X-ray. I will paste my holdings. Produce:

A) X-RAY TABLE — each holding: what it actually is in one plain sentence, its expense ratio (from my paste, or "look up on the fund page"), asset class, and overlap flags where two holdings own substantially the same market.

B) CONCENTRATION READ — rough percentage by asset class and region computed from my balances, single-stock exposure, and — for educational comparison only — what a common three-fund baseline looks like next to mine.

C) FEE BILL — my total annual fund cost in dollars at my current balances, and the 20-year compounding cost of that fee level. Show the math.

D) ADVISOR QUESTIONS — the 5 questions this X-ray suggests I bring to a licensed advisor.

Inputs: [PASTE HOLDINGS: TICKER, BALANCE, ACCOUNT TYPE] · [AGE + ROUGH TIMELINE] · [RISK COMFORT IN ONE SENTENCE]

Rules: Do not invent prices, returns, or expense ratios — mark anything not in my paste "verify on the fund page". Do not tell me to buy or sell anything — this is an educational comparison; decisions belong with me and a licensed professional. Never include account numbers or personal identifiers.

Why it works: Most DIY portfolios hold the same market three times and pay three fees for it. Overlap flags plus the fee bill in dollars — not percentages — convert abstractions into decisions, and the advisor question list keeps the guardrail honest: educate, never advise.

Useful? 👍 Yes👎 No

The Six-Figure Calls

Big Decisions

For: Households deciding on a house, a car, or a move

Rent-vs-buy stress test: the full-cost model for YOUR numbers

Everyone has an opinion on buying a house. Run your actual numbers — full ownership cost, opportunity cost, break-even horizon — before the emotion decides.

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You are a financial-decision analyst modeling rent-vs-buy for one household. I will give you my real numbers. Produce:

A) FULL-COST TABLE — buying: principal and interest at [MY RATE QUOTE], property taxes, insurance, maintenance (state the assumption you use and label it), HOA, and closing/selling costs amortized over my stay. Renting: rent with a growth assumption (labeled), plus the invested down-payment difference at a return assumption (labeled).

B) BREAK-EVEN — the number of years until buying beats renting under base, optimistic, and pessimistic assumption sets — each set stated in its own table row.

C) STRESS TESTS — rate up 2 points, price down 15 percent, forced move at year 3, one income lost for 6 months: which of these flips the answer.

D) SENSITIVITY — the 5 assumptions the answer depends on most, ranked.

Inputs: [HOME PRICE + DOWN PAYMENT] · [RATE QUOTE] · [RENT FOR A COMPARABLE PLACE] · [PROPERTY TAX RATE FOR THE AREA] · [HOW LONG I EXPECT TO STAY]

Rules: Do not invent rates, prices, or tax figures — use only my inputs, label every assumption, and show the math for each calculation. This is an educational model, not financial advice — verify with a lender, tax professional, or licensed advisor before acting. No addresses or personal identifiers.

Why it works: Online rent-vs-buy calculators hide their assumptions; this forces every one into the open with a ranked sensitivity list. 'Which stress flips the answer' is the actual decision information — most buyers discover it after closing, when it is no longer useful.

Useful? 👍 Yes👎 No

Keep More, Legally

Taxes & Optimization

For: Filers who suspect they leave deductions on the table

Tax-season prep: the document checklist and CPA questions from YOUR year

Filing season. Turn your year's actual events into a document checklist, deductions to research, and sharp questions for your preparer.

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You are a tax-preparation organizer (not a tax advisor). I will describe my year. Produce:

A) DOCUMENT CHECKLIST — a table: document, why it matters for MY situation specifically, where it comes from (employer, broker, lender, marketplace), and when it typically arrives.

B) RESEARCH LIST — the deductions and credits my life events plausibly trigger, each with: what it is in one sentence, a rough eligibility test, and the note "verify with your CPA or IRS.gov — rules and limits change".

C) CPA QUESTIONS — 8 specific questions from my situation, ranked by likely dollar impact, so a 30-minute preparer meeting earns its fee.

D) NEXT-YEAR SETUP — 3 moves to make before December (labeled "general practice — confirm for your situation").

Inputs: [FILING STATUS + STATE(S) LIVED/WORKED IN] · [INCOME TYPES: W-2 / 1099 / RSU / RENTAL / SIDE INCOME] · [LIFE EVENTS THIS YEAR: MOVED, MARRIED, SOLD STOCK, HOME OFFICE, NEW CHILD] · [LAST YEAR'S SURPRISES]

Rules: Do not invent tax rules, brackets, or dollar limits — wherever a current-year figure matters, write "verify current-year figure on IRS.gov". This is educational organization, not tax advice — a licensed professional makes the calls. Never include SSNs or account numbers.

Why it works: The expensive part of tax season is the deduction you did not know to ask about. Mapping YOUR events to research items and dollar-ranked CPA questions makes the preparer meeting worth its fee — while the verify-on-IRS.gov rule keeps stale training data from filing your return.

Useful? 👍 Yes👎 No

The 20-Year View

Financial Planning

For: Anyone for whom retirement is still an abstraction

Financial independence snapshot: your number, your gap, your levers

Retirement feels abstract. Compute your FI number from actual spending, the gap at your savings rate, and which lever moves the date most.

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You are a financial-planning educator building a first financial-independence snapshot. I will give you my real figures. Produce:

A) THE NUMBER — my annual spending multiplied through the commonly used 25x-33x range (show both ends), with the withdrawal-rate assumption behind each stated and labeled as contested.

B) GAP MODEL — a table: current invested assets, monthly contribution, and years-to-the-number under conservative / base / optimistic growth scenarios, each growth rate stated and labeled as an assumption. Show the math.

C) LEVER RANKING — savings rate up 5 points, spending down 10 percent, retirement age plus 2 years, returns plus 1 point: which moves MY date most, computed from my numbers.

D) FRAGILITY LIST — the 3 assumptions most likely to break (healthcare costs, sequence-of-returns, inflation), each with a one-line explanation and "discuss with a licensed planner".

Inputs: [ANNUAL SPENDING] · [INVESTED ASSETS + MONTHLY SAVINGS] · [AGE + TARGET AGE] · [PENSION / SOCIAL SECURITY EXPECTATIONS, IF ANY]

Rules: Do not invent returns or figures — every projection carries its stated assumption, and my inputs are the only data. This is an educational model, not a financial plan — verify with a licensed professional before making life decisions on it. No account numbers or identifiers.

Why it works: FI math is simple, but almost nobody runs it on their own numbers. The lever ranking reframes 'save more' into which specific dial matters for YOUR date, and labeling the withdrawal rate as contested teaches the single biggest fragility in the model instead of hiding it.

Useful? 👍 Yes👎 No

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Prompt of the Week (Pro)

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