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By Lauren Young, Digital Special Projects Editor

Should you trust a chatbot for money advice?

OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard are dominating headlines recently, for their generative capabilities and vast storehouses of information. Each has far more processing power than, say, any individual personal finance writer (ahem).

We asked our AI assistants-slash-overlords these classic personal finance questions including the most affordable place to live, investing suggestions and what college gives the most bang for the buck.

But I think my favorite answer is a more existential one: Can money buy happiness? 

Click here to see what the bots have to say.

Woman holds U.S. dollar banknotes in this illustration taken May 30, 2022. REUTERS/Dado

Americans said last month that access to credit was at its toughest level in nearly a decade, as they also braced for higher levels of inflation over the next few years, a report from the New York Fed said Monday.

Meanwhile, Warren Buffett is not worried about the banking industry or the safety of U.S. bank deposits.

The billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc said that while more banks “will go bust,” the industry’s recent problems do not resemble those that helped trigger the 2008 global financial crisis.

“People shouldn’t be worried about losing their money and their deposits they have in an American bank, but the message has gotten very confused,” Buffett, 92, said on CNBC.

A woman watches the sunset over the Pacific Ocean along Highway 1 near Half Moon Bay, California, U.S., January 24, 2023. REUTERS/Matt Mills McKnight/File Photo

Will Social Security be around when I retire?

That’s probably a fun question for the bots. And despite lots of gloom and doom, I’m optimistic I’ll receive some kind of government payment when I stop working.

Naysayers, however, will point to a recent report, released on March 31, which forecasts that the Social Security retirement trust fund reserves will be depleted in 2033. A separate report found that Medicare’s financial situation improved a bit last year.

But Social Security finished 2022 with $2.7 trillion in reserves, and it can pay full benefits for another 10 years. Still, the program is on course for sharp across-the-board benefit cuts in 2033, absent action by the U.S. Congress.

What does the new Social Security forecast mean for current and future retirees? Here are the key questions to consider.

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What makes more financial sense for a college student this summer: working or taking classes at a community college? Is it time to downsize? Send your money questions to me, and I’ll tap my extensive source network and braintrust for expert advice.

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