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Build on it · Class 06

AI for Financial Empowerment

Redact a bank export, sort a month of spending with AI, check the totals yourself, and find every charge that repeats and what it costs a year.

One 2-hour session Up to 10 people Live · online or in person
Level
Beginner → Intermediate
Length
2 hours, one session
Price
$99
Format
Live, up to 10 people, online or in person
Before class
About 15 min of prep
Tracks
Families, Personal
Ask for this class Not sure? Take the assessment

Scheduled once 10 people ask for it. The date and format are confirmed before anyone pays.

Course overview

Most people don't have a math problem with money. They have a clarity problem. In two hours we take one fictional month of transactions and turn it into a picture you can reason about: where the money went, which charges repeat and what they cost over a year, and three findings written down with the numbers behind them. You learn to strip account numbers and names out before anything goes near an AI tool, to let the spreadsheet do the adding, and to ask AI to describe rather than recommend. You leave with a method you can run on your own month at home, safely.

Important: This class is financial education, not financial advice. AI tools can help you organize information, understand terminology, analyze your own numbers, and prepare better questions. They can't give you personalized professional financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. For decisions that affect your financial future, work with a qualified professional.

Before you start: Class 01 or 02, or comfortable asking ChatGPT or Claude a question and able to open a spreadsheet and type a formula.

How the two hours run

  1. 8min

    Welcome, the notice, and the two rules

  2. 12min

    What AI can and can't do with money (including arithmetic)

  3. 18min

    Redaction drill

  4. 30min

    Categorize Alex's month and check the totals

  5. 8min

    Break

  6. 18min

    Recurring charges and what they cost a year

  7. 16min

    Three findings, and your money rules for AI

  8. 10min

    A monthly review rhythm and close

Good to know

  • Nobody shares their real numbers in this room, out loud, on screen, or in chat, and no real account numbers or logins ever go into an AI tool. Every exercise uses a fictional person's month.
  • AI chat tools can get simple addition wrong, confidently. In this class the AI sorts and explains, the spreadsheet adds, and you check three totals before believing any of them.
  • This class doesn't connect any AI tool to a bank account, even where a tool offers it. You'll learn two safer ways: redact first, or have AI write spreadsheet formulas so your data never leaves your computer.

Who this is for

  • Someone who knows roughly what they earn but not where it goes each month
  • A couple or household trying to see their spending on one page before they argue about it
  • Someone with a pile of subscriptions they've lost track of
  • A person who has never exported a bank statement and isn't sure what's safe to paste anywhere
  • Anyone who wants to arrive at a credit counselor or planner with facts instead of a shoebox

What you’ll learn

  • Redact account numbers, names, addresses, and reference codes from a transaction export before it goes near an AI tool, or use formula-only mode so your data never leaves the spreadsheet
  • Categorize a month of transactions with AI and check the totals yourself in Google Sheets or Excel
  • Catch the three traps that wreck a spending total: the card payment, the savings transfer, and the refund
  • Find every recurring charge, including a price increase, a free trial that became a payment, and an annual renewal, and work out the yearly cost
  • Write a finding: a sentence with a dollar amount and the transactions behind it, not an opinion
  • Ask AI to describe what the numbers show, not what to do about them, and notice when it slips

What you’ll do in class

  • Redact a fictional bank export full of account numbers, a routing number, an employer name, and reference codes until only date, merchant, amount, and account type remain.
  • Categorize a fictional month of 32 transactions with AI, check three totals in a spreadsheet, and catch whether it counted the card payment or the savings transfer as spending.
  • Compare the same month with August's charges to find the price increase, the converted free trial, and the annual renewal, then write three findings with the dollar amounts and transactions behind them.

Try it now · free

Sort 15 transactions and catch the traps

This uses a fictional person's transactions, so there's nothing of yours to share. Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Copilot. This is education, not financial advice.

These are 15 fictional transactions from one month. Negative numbers are money out.

09/01 PINE CANOPY APARTMENTS RENT -1250.00
09/03 GREENWAY MARKET -86.43
09/03 MARQUEE STREAM -15.49
09/04 PAYROLL DEPOSIT EMPLOYER 1684.22
09/05 TRANSFER TO SAVINGS -100.00
09/07 BINGEBOX -10.99
09/09 DASHBITE DELIVERY -27.35
09/10 GREENWAY MARKET -72.18
09/16 DASHBITE DELIVERY -31.90
09/18 PAYROLL DEPOSIT EMPLOYER 1684.22
09/20 HARBORLIGHT CARD PAYMENT -650.00
09/23 DASHBITE DELIVERY -29.48
09/25 SHOPSPHERE ONLINE REFUND 24.99
09/26 HOMEPLATE MEAL KITS -69.99
09/30 MONTHLY MAINTENANCE FEE -12.00

Please:
1. Put each transaction in one category: Income, Housing, Groceries, Food delivery, Subscriptions, Bank fees, Savings, Transfers and card payments, Refunds.
2. Give a total for each category, and show which transactions you added.
3. Tell me which items should not count as spending, and why.
4. List anything you're unsure about.

Before you trust the answer, check:

  • Add up Groceries and Food delivery yourself, on paper or in a spreadsheet. AI tools sometimes get simple sums wrong.
  • The card payment and savings transfer move money around; they aren't new spending. Did it say so?
  • Did it guess what HOMEPLATE MEAL KITS is, or flag that it can't know whether this is a subscription you meant to keep?

Before class · about 15 minutes

  • Create a free account on at least one of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Microsoft Copilot (two is better) and sign in once on the laptop you'll bring.
  • Make sure you can open a spreadsheet: Google Sheets (free with a Google account), Excel, or Numbers. Create a blank sheet and type =2+2 in a cell to confirm it works.
  • Open the shared 'Class 06 sample data' link from the pre-class email and make your own copy of the Alex Pruitt spreadsheet, so you're not doing it in class.
  • Write down one money question you've been putting off. You won't have to share it.
  • Do not bring bank statements, account numbers, or tax documents. Everything in class is fictional.

What you leave with

  • A spending analysis of a fictional month with three written findings, each with a dollar amount and the transactions behind it
  • A recurring-charges list with monthly and yearly costs, showing a price increase, a converted trial, and an annual renewal
  • A redaction checklist and a card of copy-paste prompts, so you can run your own month at home safely
  • Five personal money rules for AI and a date for your first 20-minute monthly review

Paired labs

Beginner Follow-on lab · 2 hours · $99

Analyze Your Monthly Spending

Turn one month of anonymized transactions into a clear picture: categories, patterns, recurring costs, and three findings worth acting on.

You leave with
A spending analysis and three documented findings.

ChatGPTSpreadsheet
Paired with 06 — AI for Financial Empowerment

Expected outcomes

  • You can redact a transaction export so no account numbers, names, addresses, or reference codes remain
  • You can categorize a month of spending with AI and confirm the totals yourself, catching the card payment and savings transfer before they're counted as spending
  • You can list every recurring charge in a month and its yearly cost, counting annual charges once
  • You can write a finding with a number and a source, and rewrite an AI answer that drifted into advice

Questions about this class

Is two hours enough?

Enough to learn the method that everything else depends on: redact, categorize, check the totals, find what repeats, write it down. Building a budget from actuals, goal math, decoding a credit card statement or insurance renewal, comparing two options, and preparing a one-page agenda for a professional are follow-on labs that start from the month you analyze here.

Will you give me financial advice?

No. This is financial education. You learn to organize your numbers, understand what they show, and prepare better questions. Decisions about debt, taxes, insurance, and investing belong with a qualified professional who knows your full situation.

Do I have to share my real bank information?

No. Every exercise uses a fictional month of transactions. If you later want to work on your own numbers, you'll know how to remove account numbers and personal details first, or how to have AI write spreadsheet formulas so your data never leaves your computer.

Do I need a paid AI account or Excel?

No. Free ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Copilot works, and Google Sheets is free. Some paid tiers read uploaded spreadsheet files more reliably, but pasting the data as text works on free accounts.

Tools used

ChatGPT Claude Gemini Microsoft Copilot Google Sheets or Excel

Skills you build

Redaction and data privacySpending analysisSpreadsheet checkingRecurring-cost reviewDescribe, don't advise

Top of the ladder

This is the LifeQuest capstone. From here, learners move into ongoing build sessions and community projects.

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