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CNET
11 hours ago
- Business
- CNET
I Leveled Up My Retirement Strategy Thanks to AI. Here's How
Some retirement tools have AI features that can help you craft the right plan for you. Getty Images/Viva Tung/CNET Three years ago, I left my cushy corporate job as a software engineer to write and explore my creative projects. I wasn't making as much as I had before, and sadly, I no longer had my shiny 10% employer 401(k) match either. I knew that leaving the corporate world meant I wouldn't be able to put as much money toward savings and retirement during my first few years freelancing. I still saved regardless, but I needed help figuring out how my retirement plans would shift with career changes. Come to find, artificial intelligence tools were excellent for this. Some AI tools can do a lot to help you plan for retirement. They can take your financial data and forecast retirement trends -- like job losses and market fluctuations. And the right prompts and queries can determine how much money you need to retire by a certain age, and even calculate your spending power at the time of retirement. But I found that AI has limitations. Here's how you can use AI to prepare for retirement and what I recommend if you're leaning on robots to help you plan for your financial future. How to use AI for retirement planning Different AI tools use different machine-learning models, and it's important to know which one to use and when. ChatGPT is a large language model useful for answering financial questions and performing dynamic planning through prompts and queries. For example, I like that ChatGPT can help project retirement timelines, especially when expenses, income, or taxes change. It may not be a financial adviser, but it's a great starting point when you can't afford one. However, ChatGPT is a general-purpose chatbot with limited capabilities compared to the AI tools used within banking and retirement software. The AI models that banks use in retirement apps are ideal for automated portfolio optimization and other financial tasks. So which one is best? It depends on how you want AI to help you plan for retirement. To get the most out of ChatGPT, use specific queries and include all of the important factors the model needs to analyze and answer your questions correctly. For example, I used the following query in ChatGPT: "If I currently have $200,000 saved for retirement at age 35 and want to retire at age 55, how much will I have at that time? Forecast with a monthly contribution of $500 and 10% interest rate." ChatGPT's response: "If you're 35 years old with $200,000 saved for retirement, contribute $500 a month, and earn an average 10% annual return (compounded monthly), by the time you reach age 55, you would have approximately $1,845,299." Then from there, I can ask clarifying questions to dig deeper, like: "How will that change if I can only save $200 a month?" "If my projected monthly expenses for my retirement age are $5,000 a month, what will that increase to in 20 years due to inflation?" "What would $1,845,299 be worth in 2045?" "If I have $1,845,299 at retirement and want it to last 20 years, how much should I spend per month? How would that change if I add $3,000 a month from Social Security?" An expert's take Jannese Torres, a fellow CNET Money Expert Review Board member and author of Financially Lit!, recommends using AI tools for financial guidance, too. Mainly, because of the transparency. "The truth is, AI is pulling from massive amounts of financial data and research to give you clear, actionable insights," Torres says. "It's not emotional, it doesn't have sales quotas, and it's not trying to upsell you on some shady investment like some unscrupulous 'advisers' do. That's a big win in my book." Torres pointed out that most of us didn't grow up learning how to plan for retirement. And figuring it out on our own can be overwhelming. That's where large language models can help, including ChatGPT and some of the tools I recommend. "It's like having a 24/7 money nerd who can break things down in plain English, no jargon included. You can ask anything, from 'What's a Roth IRA?' to 'How much do I need to retire by 55? and get an answer that makes sense," Torres says. The AI tools I trust to help plan my retirement Even though AI can help me plan for retirement, I still keep my money and data protected with my two trusted financial tools. My IRA and Roth IRA are with Fidelity, and I also have a brokerage account with M1 Finance. That being said, here are a few AI-featured tools that I use alongside the apps and tools I trust. AI tools and features I use for retirement planning Tool What it's used for My local credit union Monthly budget forecasting, spending analysis, and I'm able to securely connect my financial data to other apps, such as M1 Finance and Fidelity. Fidelity Retirement Planning Forecasts retirement readiness based on income, age, goals and assets. It can also estimate your future savings growth and recommend contribution strategies. Fidelity Go is a robo-adviser that automates investing and retirement portfolio management. M1 Finance Uses rule-based automation to rebalance portfolios and manage IRAs. Capitalize Helps users roll over old 401(k)s into IRAs using an AI-assisted platform that automates paperwork and finds forgotten retirement accounts. Empower Tracks your net worth and automates your savings. It also gives personalized retirement and investment advice in a dashboard. ChatGPT Acts as a personal financial brainstorming assistant. It can simulate retirement plans and understand complex financial topics through conversational AI. The risks of relying on AI for retirement planning Just because AI can help you personalize your plan for retirement doesn't mean it should be your only source of truth. There are two points worth noting before you use any AI tool to help you with your money goals, especially your retirement. AI isn't a safe place to store your data It's important to be cautious about how you're exposing your data when using any financial AI tool. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't use tools like ChatGPT. Even I use it. The trick is to avoid giving ChatGPT or similar AI tools any personal financial data, like account numbers or login information. One upside to using AI tools for retirement planning is that you're getting objective advice about your financial situation, and not from someone trying to sell to you or scam you. However, these tools aren't designed to securely store information, which risks your data falling into the wrong hands. So it's best to be cautious of any information you share and double-check any advice you receive with another trusted source. It lacks the personal, second opinion you need for your finances Relying on AI alone to plan your retirement can be dangerous. Between the lack of human understanding, accuracy (AI chatbots do sometimes "hallucinate" wrong information) and changes in retirement, it's best to have a second opinion. Using AI can make retirement planning more accessible, but it can't understand your emotions, values or life circumstances that shape your financial decisions. These tools cannot weigh the emotional trade-offs of retiring early to care for a loved one or the peace of mind you get from having extra savings -- even if the AI tool's algorithm says you don't need it. Satayan Mahajan, CEO of Datalign Advisory, an AI company that connects Americans with advisers, recommends a hybrid approach. "It's like having a tireless analyst who can crunch numbers all day. But it needs a human check. If you're trying to figure out how much you need to retire, AI should be your starting point. But it shouldn't be your only point," Mahajan says. It's best to pair AI with a professional, such as one through your bank, employer-sponsored retirement plan or similar, to make sure you're proceeding with your financial plans correctly. There's no one-size-fits-all in any financial plan. Above all, do what works best for you.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Man Tells Job Candidate to ‘Shut Up' During Interview After Being Repeatedly Interrupted
A man was pushed to his limits in a job interview and scolded the man he was interviewingNEED TO KNOW A man was pushed to his limits in a job interview and scolded the man he was interviewing After being interrupted multiple times, the interviewer told the man to "shut up and listen" People on the internet sided with the interviewer, saying that he told the man being interviewed what he really needed to hearA man revealed on Reddit that he told a job candidate he needed to "shut up and listen" after an exhausting interview. In the post, the man explained that he and his colleague were "interviewing this guy for a very good software engineering position." The candidate passed the first round, and everyone agreed that he had a great "resume and experience." "On paper, he had everything we were looking for, and honestly, this looked like a life-changing opportunity for him," the poster explains. However, when the man showed up for the second interview, he was "very serious and not smiling at all." After a round of introductions, the man immediately asked if he could tell them a bit about himself. 'He started talking and talking about his personal and professional background. After about three minutes, I jumped in to ask a follow-up question based on something he mentioned. He replied, 'I will answer, just give me a moment,' and continued talking,' the man recalls. 'A coworker jumped in with another question, and he said the same thing to her. But after more than five minutes, I jumped in again with another question. I had to talk over him to do it," the poster adds. "He finally paused and answered, but in such a long-winded way that he ended up veering into another topic." His coworker then asked another question, and the same thing happened. At this point, the poster "was ready to end the interview," and "tried to politely wrap it up several times, but he was unable to read the room and just kept talking." Finally, he "raised [his] voice slightly" and asked the man being interviewed if he had any questions for the team, and he did. However, after each question, the candidate interrupted and found a way to bring the conversation back to himself "I tried once more to interrupt politely, but he kept talking," the poster explains. "At that point, I was done. I said, 'John, you really have to shut up and listen.' He was surprised, as was my coworker, but he finally stopped talking." "I continued, 'You walked into this room with a 99 percent chance of getting the job. Now that chance is zero. The only reason is because, in less than fifteen minutes, you've demonstrated that you don't have the capacity to listen at all. So I'm telling you now, you're not getting the job. But if you take anything away from this interview, let it be this: no matter how good you are technically, if you can't listen, you'll never excel in this career.' " The man being interviewed apologized and asked if they could start again, to which the interviewer declined. The poster wished the interviewee good luck in his job hunt and encouraged him to "listen" more in the future. Looking back, he admits he "could have handled that differently," and "feels bad for the guy," but Reddit users suggested it was likely for the best. 'Honestly, he needed to hear it from someone in a position of hiring authority. Sure, his ego may be bruised, but that likely needed to happen,' one person commented. Another person added, 'You actually gave him more feedback than many people would have.' Read the original article on People Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Goldman Sachs doesn't have to hire a $180,000 software engineer—meet Devin, its new AI-powered worker
Goldman Sachs just hired Devin, an AI-powered software engineer that's capable of coding just as well as humans—minus six-figure salaries. The company also has plans to potentially unleash it by the thousands and expand workers' productivity with AI tools by over four times. While the firm's tech leader sees a future that's a 'hybrid workforce' between humans and AI, leaders like Ford CEO Jim Farley warn of a decrease in white-collar work. The newest hire at Goldman Sachs won't be able to have a coffee chat with co-worker Rishi Sunak, or attend the firm's after-work happy hour—rather, it'll be working all day on its coding assignments. The Wall Street investment bank recently unveiled it had hired Devin: a new AI-powered autonomous software engineer, created by AI startup Cognition. With the tool being capable of conducting end-to-end coding tasks, Goldman hopes it will improve worker productivity by up to three or four times the rate of previous AI tools, according to Goldman's chief information officer Marco Argenti. 'We're going to start augmenting our workforce with Devin, which is going to be like our new employee who's going to start doing stuff on the behalf of our developers,' Argenti recently told CNBC. Goldman Sachs plans to launch Devin by the hundreds—maybe eventually even by the thousands, Argenti added—joining the nearly 12,000 existing software engineers at the company. He said this move will hopefully help usher in a 'hybrid workforce' era where humans and AI coexist. 'It's really about people and AIs working side by side,' Argenti said. 'Engineers are going to be expected to have the ability to really describe problems in a coherent way and turn it into prompts … and then be able to supervise the work of those agents.' Fortune reached out to Goldman Sachs for comment. Despite the push to launch Devin, Goldman is continuing to hire software engineers, with dozens of open roles around the world. The salary of some New York-based associate roles start out at around $115,000 annually—and can even extend to $180,000. But business leaders have warned that these early career roles are the ones that AI might make obsolete the soonest. For example, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years. Ford CEO Jim Farley went even further, and warned that all white-collar work could disappear in the U.S.—beyond those early in their careers. 'There's more than one way to the American Dream, but our whole education system is focused on four-year [college] education,' Farley said at the Aspen Ideas Festival last month. 'Hiring an entry worker at a tech company has fallen 50% since 2019. Is that really where we want all of our kids to go? Artificial intelligence is gonna replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.' For the banking industry in particular, this AI-driven workforce transformation could lead to 200,000 fewer people on Wall Street within the next three to five years, according to Bloomberg. However, Argenti said that those who choose to embrace AI will be best equipped for a successful future—and it's especially important for young talent facing dwindling entry-level roles. 'The AI shift is happening in years, not decades,' Argenti wrote in a commentary piece for Fortune. 'Workers who lack proficiency in leveraging AI tools will fall behind, and those who have learned to harness it to elevate their work will advance,' he added. This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Verge
03-07-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Meet Soham Parekh, the engineer burning through tech by working at three to four startups simultaneously
One name is popping up a lot across tech startup social media right now, and you might've heard it: Soham Parekh. On X, people are joking that Parekh is single-handedly holding up all modern digital infrastructure, while others are posting memes about him working in front of a dozen different monitors or filling in for the thousands of people that Microsoft just laid off. From what social media posts suggest, Parekh is actually a software engineer who seems to have interviewed at dozens of tech startups over the years, while also juggling multiple jobs at the same time. Several startups had this revelation on July 2nd, when Suhail Doshi, founder of the AI design tool Playground, posted a PSA on X, saying: PSA: there's a guy named Soham Parekh (in India) who works at 3-4 startups at the same time. He's been preying on YC companies and more. Beware. I fired this guy in his first week and told him to stop lying / scamming people. He hasn't stopped a year later. No more excuses. Doshi's post was quickly flooded with replies that included similar stories. 'We interviewed this guy too, but caught this during references checks,' Variant founder Ben South said. 'Turns out he had 5-6 profiles each with 5+ places he actually worked at.' When asked what tipped him off about Parekh, South told The Verge that his suspicions arose during Parekh's interview, prompting his team to do a reference check earlier than they usually would. 'That's when we learned he was working multiple jobs,' South said. Parekh's resume and pitch email look good at first glance, which helps him garner interest from multiple companies. 'He had a prolific GitHub contribution graph and prior startup experience,' Marcus Lowe, founder of the AI app builder Create, told The Verge. 'He was also extremely technically strong during our interview process.' Just one day after this all unfolded, Parekh came forward in an interview with the daily tech show TBPN. Parekh confirmed what many tech startup founders had suspected: he had been working for multiple companies at the same time. 'I'm not proud of what I've done. That's not something I endorse either. But no one really likes to work 140 hours a week, I had to do it out of necessity,' Parekh said. 'I was in extremely dire financial circumstances.' Parekh seems to have made a good first impression on many people. Digger CEO Igor Zalutski said his company 'nearly hired him,' as he 'seemed so sharp' during interviews, while cofounder Justin Harvey similarly said that he was 'THIS close to hiring him,' adding that 'he actually crushed the interview.' Vapi cofounder Jordan Dearsley said Parekh 'was the best technical interview' he's seen, but he 'did not deliver on his projects.' The startups that did hire Parekh didn't seem to keep him around for long. Lowe said that he noticed something was off when Parekh kept making excuses to push back his start date. After telling Lowe that he had to delay working because he had a trip planned to see his sister in New York, Parekh later claimed that he couldn't start working following the trip because he was sick. 'For whatever reason, something just felt off,' Lowe said. That's when Lowe visited Parekh's GitHub profile and realized he was committing code to a private repository during the time he was supposed to be sick. Lowe also found recent commits to another San Francisco-based startup. 'Did some digging, noticed that he was in some of their marketing materials,' Lowe said. 'I was like, 'Huh, but he didn't declare this on his resume. This feels weird.'' Create ended up letting Parekh go after he failed to complete an assignment. It looks like Parekh even had a stint at Meta. In 2021, the company published a post highlighting his story as a contributor working on mixed-reality experiences in WebXR. In the post, Parekh said that he found 'that the best way to get better at software development is to not only practice it but to use it to solve real world problems.' Meta didn't immediately respond to The Verge's request for comment. Parekh's purported scheme may have been uncovered, but his outlook might not be all bad — if you believe him. Parekh claims he landed a job at Darwin, an AI video remixing startup. 'Earlier today, I signed an exclusive founding deal to be founding engineer at one company and one company only,' Parekh posted on X. 'They were the only ones willing to bet on me at this time.'
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Earning More Than $100,000 Feels Like A Dream To Many. But When You Look Closer, Some Of These Jobs Aren't As Difficult As You'd Think
For anyone stuck in a low-paying, high-stress job, making six figures might sound like the ultimate goal. A recent Reddit post asked a simple question: 'To those of you making $100K+ per year, how hard is your job, really?' The answers surprised a lot of people. While some six-figure earners put in long hours or deal with intense pressure, many say their work is surprisingly manageable. 'I am making $205K this year and I'm stoned most of the time while doing my job,' one person said about their remote public relations role in New York. 'My job is easy to me, but maybe not to other people.' Don't Miss: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — Peter Thiel turned $1,700 into $5 billion—now accredited investors are eyeing this software company with similar breakout potential. Learn how you can A software engineer making $450,000 admitted, 'I work about 40 hours a week, just like most other jobs. My job would be very hard for engineers with less experience in my domain,' but for him, 'things feel pretty straightforward.' Another added, 'I work about 15 hours a week running email campaigns in my boxers [for $110,000]. Could easily be making $150-200K, but the work/life balance is invaluable.' Many said their jobs only feel easy because of the years of work they put in earlier. One person summed it up like this: 'The job isn't hard. What was hard was getting here.' Some roles, like development, security, and operations, or DevSecOps, come with real responsibility. 'I make 225k base with 30-70k bonus. The pressure is real... infrastructure being the backbone of everything,' one worker said. But even in those demanding fields, the payoff can be worth it: 'I wouldn't trade it. I've reached a point where the pay is good, the work is meaningful, and I have enough autonomy.' Trending: Invest early in CancerVax's breakthrough tech aiming to disrupt a $231B market. There's a big difference between physical labor and mentally demanding work. A registered nurse making around $120,000 said, 'It's more so mentally tough having to take care of the more difficult patients.' Dealing with families was one of the top complaints among nurses. Others echoed that not all 'hard' jobs feel the same. 'Jobs aren't paid by how hard they are,' one commenter wrote. 'You're paid based on how easily replaceable your skill set is and how much value the position creates.' Sales and tech roles were common among high earners, often with flexible hours and big bonuses. 'When it's great, it feels like I am cheating in life,' said one tech salesperson. 'When it's bad, I regret all my life decisions. In sales, you don't just make 'less,' you get fired.' Another person in the same field making about $300,000 a year said, 'As long as I get my sh*t done, my manager doesn't care what I do. I take off early to golf a lot, wake up 30 minutes before my meetings, and can take my calls from anywhere in the world.'Not everyone in the thread had it easy. Military officers, air traffic controllers, and clinical nurse managers described heavy stress and long hours. 'Work/life balance is terrible,' one officer wrote. 'I heavily dislike it but I have a family to feed and the retirement is literally the best there is. 40 hours a week isn't even close enough to cover all the sh*t that I need to do, on top of all the things I'm expected to do outside of work—physical training, master's degree, military education.' The responses made one thing obvious: pay and difficulty aren't always connected. A job might be stressful, but not hard. Or it might be chill, but it took years of hustle to get to that point. As one person put it: 'You aren't paying someone to push the buttons so much as you are paying them to know what button to push.' Read Next: UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Earning More Than $100,000 Feels Like A Dream To Many. But When You Look Closer, Some Of These Jobs Aren't As Difficult As You'd Think originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
