I Use ChatGPT for These 5 Money Tasks and Now Work About Half as Much
Written by
Laura Beck
Edited by
Levi Leidy
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I was tired of working 70- to 80-hour weeks just to keep my head above water financially. Working a full-time job, freelancing and constantly balancing my money was exhausting me. So I asked ChatGPT a simple question: What money tasks could help me work less without sacrificing my lifestyle?
The artificial intelligence (AI) came back with a detailed roadmap that focused on making my money work harder so I didn’t have to. Three months later, I’ve cut my working hours nearly in half while maintaining the same income. Here’s what ChatGPT told me to do and how it actually played out.
Automate Everything That Repeats
ChatGPT’s first recommendation was brutal in its simplicity: Stop manually managing things that happen every month. Set up autopay for rent, utilities, insurance and credit cards. Schedule automatic transfers to savings accounts the day your paycheck hits.
The AI suggested expense tracking tools like Monarch or YNAB to categorize spending automatically. It also recommended setting up recurring investments through a robo-advisor so I’d stop agonizing over when to buy ETFs.
I bit the bullet and implemented all of this in one weekend. The result freed up about four hours per week that I’d been spending on financial busywork. More importantly, it eliminated the mental energy I was burning on repetitive decisions.
Replace Hours With Systems
ChatGPT pushed me hard on creating semi-passive income streams. As a writer, the AI suggested licensing my existing work through syndication or Substack. It recommended looking at what assets I already owned that could generate money without active work.
I started repurposing old articles and pitching them to content licensing platforms. I also created a small digital product — a guide on pitching editors — that I built once and now sells repeatedly. I have even taught a pitching editors class to groups and individuals and made decent money doing that. These moves took some upfront effort but now generate steady money without ongoing work.
ChatGPT also suggested dividend ETFs and bond ladders as ways to build investment income that don’t require constant attention. I redirected my savings into dividend-focused funds that now kick out a few hundred dollars monthly.
Outsource the Grunt Work
This was the hardest recommendation for me to accept. ChatGPT calculated that hiring a virtual assistant for $300 per month could save me 10 hours weekly if I delegated administrative tasks, invoicing and scheduling.
I resisted at first because spending money to save time felt backward. But the math worked. Those 10 hours freed up let me take on higher-paying work that more than covered the assistant’s cost.
ChatGPT also recommended using a CPA instead of doing my own taxes. Again, the cost felt steep until I calculated how many hours I was spending on deductions and bookkeeping. Outsourcing that gave me back entire weekends.
Optimize for Leverage Instead of Volume
ChatGPT’s most valuable advice was about changing how I earned money rather than how much I worked. The AI suggested raising my rates and negotiating value-based pay so each hour generated more income.
I followed that guidance and increased my freelance rates by 30%. Some clients balked, but enough stayed that my income held steady while my hours dropped. ChatGPT also recommended batching similar tasks into intensive work days rather than spreading them across the week.
I now do client work on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The other days are for writing projects that generate passive income or just living my life. The focused intensity makes me more productive during those two days than I was across five scattered days before.
Build a Freedom Fund
ChatGPT reframed savings as “runway” instead of just an emergency fund. The AI calculated that having 12 to 18 months of expenses saved meant I could confidently cut my working hours because I had a buffer.
I automated contributions to a high-yield savings account and Treasury bills. Every month, money moved into these accounts before I could spend it. ChatGPT also pushed me to audit subscriptions and recurring expenses annually because unnecessary costs steal time.
I’m still working on this one — I think it’ll take me about eight months to build up a solid runway, but I’m well on my way.
The Results After 3 Months
I went from working 70-80 hours per week to about 45. My income dropped slightly at first but stabilized once the passive streams kicked in. More importantly, my mental health improved dramatically.
ChatGPT’s roadmap wasn’t magic. It was basic financial optimization that I’d been too overwhelmed to implement on my own. The AI broke it into concrete steps with timelines and expected returns, which made it feel achievable instead of abstract.
The biggest shift was understanding that working less isn’t about being lazy. It’s about building systems that generate value without consuming your time. ChatGPT helped me see which tasks were worth my hours and which ones I could automate, delegate or eliminate entirely.
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