Week 5 of the AI, Eh? Summer Boot Camp is about AI and your money, budgeting and smart questions. Money is personal, so we are going to spend a minute on privacy before we touch anything else.
Quick reminder of the shape, same every week. A detailed prompt you copy and paste. An iteration showing you how to fix it. Something personal you apply it to. And a Prompt Card you save to your toolkit.
Grab your toolkit document. We are adding Card 5. Let’s go.
Six things every good prompt needs
Same checklist as every week. Watch for all six in the prompt below.
One extra thing for money week
Real numbers help AI give you a useful answer, but there is no reason to hand over more than you need to. Round your income and expenses to the nearest hundred, and never paste anything directly from a bank statement, login screen, or account number. AI needs the shape of your finances, not the literal document.
Step 1: Run this prompt exactly as written
Open ChatGPT, Claude, or whatever AI tool you already have. Paste the whole thing below in exactly as written, and hit enter.
Step 2: Here is how you adjust it once you see it laid out
You will get back a clean breakdown, essentials at $2,600, savings at $500, and roughly $1,100 left for discretionary. Nothing wrong with the math here. But this is a good moment to show you something else important, iteration is not only for fixing mistakes. Sometimes you just want to change your mind once you see the numbers in front of you.
Say seeing that $1,100 discretionary number makes you think you would actually rather put more toward retirement. You do not need a new prompt. Just say so, in the same conversation.
AI reworks it to four categories, essentials still at $2,600, savings still at $500, RRSP at $250, and discretionary drops from $1,100 to $850, all coming out of that one category since your essentials and emergency savings did not change.
Step 3: Build your own, then save it as a Prompt Card
Now think of a real money question or budget of your own. In your head, walk through it. What is actually going on, your real numbers, rounded. What you actually want back. Your real limits, goals, whatever is boxing you in. How you want it formatted. What you want it to double check before you trust it. And keep it private, rounded figures only, no account numbers or anything from an actual statement.
Now say all of that out loud as one real paragraph, the way you would actually explain it to a friend. That is your prompt. Paste it in and run it.
Once you have a result, ask yourself two quick things. Did you want to adjust anything once you saw it laid out? If so, what one line did you send to change it?
Now open your toolkit document, add a heading called Prompt Card 5, and write out these four things yourself, based on what you just did.
What this is for. One line, plain language, describing your real situation.
The prompt. The real paragraph you wrote and ran.
The fix that got it there. The one line you sent to adjust it, if you needed one.
When to use it again. One line reminding future you when this applies.
That is Prompt Card 5, done. Five real, working prompts in your toolkit now, each one proven on your own life.
Coming up next week
Week 6 is Creativity, writing, photos, and ideas. Same four steps. Bring your toolkit document, Prompt Card 6 is next.
Whatever AI produces for you, always read it, verify it, and make it sound like you. AI is an incredible first draft machine. Your judgment, your voice, and your values are always the final layer.
This one is a bit different, I am not going to ask you to share your Prompt Card 5. Money is personal, and that is kind of the whole point of this week. Just know your toolkit is one card richer, and that is yours to keep.