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AI chatbots give wrong answers to financial queries 'most of the time'

157 points · 89 comments · 1vuio0pswjnm7

  1. lukeify · · focus · HN ↗
    Given most financial advisors tend to vend out suboptimal advice and steer customers in favour of products they receive a kickback for, I'm happy to be accepting of an unbiased LLM that's trained on bogleheads.org.
    1. in_absentia · · focus · HN ↗
      If that's what you want, I'll save you some tokens:

      #!/bin/sh

      while read question; do echo "Put it into VFIAX"; done

      1. ehe78qhe · · focus · HN ↗
        This is missing a lot of steps like:

        - Building an emergency fund

        - Budgeting and tracking where your money goes

        - Planning and saving for large purchases like cars, homes and life goals

        - Optimizing use of tax-advantaged accounts like 401Ks, HSAs, and IRAs

        - What to do with ESPPs, RSUs, and options

        - How taxes work and how to optimize around them

        - Estate planning

        1. red-iron-pine · · focus · HN ↗
          yeah but most of that is 1) covered by bogleheads, and 2) doesn't require serious education or advisors.

          take emergency funds -- how likely is it you can lean on friends or fam for money? do your budgeting and then plan for 6-12 months of budget. if you can get a load from the bank of mom and dad then maybe 3 months.

          1. ehe78qhe · · focus · HN ↗
            You are vastly overestimating the financial literacy of the average american

            I regularly explain to friends:

            - how interest works on their credit card

            - that buying a used car is usually far cheaper than leasing or financing a new one

            - what inflation is

            - what an RSU is (to people who indiscriminately call all equity "options")

            - what capital gains tax is

            - how to buy index funds (as in, the steps to sign up for vanguard or whereever and buy funds)

            - what settlement is

            infamously, a lot of americans don't understand progressive tax brackets and assume that if they get a raise they'll lose it all to taxes

            I have heard friends claim that paying 50% tax on income is normal

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