US Woman Paid Off Over Rs 10 Lakh Debt Using ChatGPT: Here’s How

Jennifer Allan did not have a spending problem when she turned to ChatGPT for finances, at least not in the way most people think. A 35-year-old realtor from Delaware, she was making a decent living. However, like many others, she never really learned how to manage money. So when life threw her a few curveballs, especially after the birth of her daughter, credit cards became a way to stay afloat. Survival, not indulgence, drove her debt up to over $23,000 (around Rs 20 lakh).

“I avoided budgeting because I thought working harder would solve everything,” Allan said in an interview with Newsweek. However, it didn’t. And when she finally sat down to confront the numbers, she decided to get a little unconventional with her help: she turned to ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence tool by OpenAI.

What did she do?

Allan took a 30-day challenge to bring a shift into her habits. Every day, she asked ChatGPT for a new task to help her save or earn more money. She put in different prompts, seeking suggestions on cutting a subscription to even hunting for loose change.

“I used it for structure, just one small step each day,” Allan said.

Some suggestions by the AI tool were surprisingly practical, like selling unused items on Facebook Marketplace or checking old finance apps and forgotten accounts. That single tip led her to uncover over $10,000 in forgotten funds, including money sitting idle in an old brokerage account and leftover balances on apps like Venmo.

By the end of the 30 days, Allan had paid off over $12,000 (nearly Rs 10 lakh) of her debt and slashed her grocery bill nearly in half by creating a meal plan using only what she already had at home.

Eventually, Allan started tracking her finances while facing the discomforts associated with talking about money openly. She even began sharing the process on TikTok, building a small community that followed her journey day by day.

“It wasn’t some big financial hack,” she said in her interview. “It was just doing the work every day and not being scared of the numbers anymore.”

“ChatGPT didn’t shame me. It just gave me structure,” she stated, pointing at the lack of judgment, a benefit of using AI. Now she plans to continue another 30-day challenge with the help of ChatGPT to pay off her remaining debt.

However, it is worth noting, though, that while Allan’s experiment worked for her, AI tools like ChatGPT are not a substitute for professional financial advice. They can help with discipline, ideas, and structure, but they do not understand your full financial context, goals, or risks the way a licensed advisor would.