Questions worth asking an AI about your own spending
Once an AI can read your ledger, the useful questions are the ones only your own records can answer. Example questions, what a good answer to each must include, and how to catch a wrong one.
The questions worth asking are the ones only your own ledger can answer: how two periods compare, where a budget went, what one habit costs in a year, and why your net worth moved. A good answer names the dates, the currency and the entries it counted, so you can check it.
This page assumes an AI can already read your records, either through Hundo's own assistant or through an AI app you connected over MCP. If yours cannot yet, the setup page covers Claude, ChatGPT and other clients, and what an MCP server is explains the connection itself.
Is there enough in your ledger to ask anything?Link to this section
An AI reads what is recorded, and nothing else. Three things decide whether its answers are worth reading:
- Enough history. A question that compares two months needs both months in the ledger. Put a few weeks of real entries in before you ask anything.
- Categories on most entries. "Where did my money go" is a grouping question. Entries with no category end up in one bucket the AI cannot explain.
- The money you forgot. Cash you did not log does not exist to the AI. If a total looks low, that is the first place to look.
Where did your money go last month?Link to this section
What were my five biggest spending categories last month, and how does each compare with the month before?
A good answer has:
- Calendar dates for both months, not "the last 30 days", unless that is what you asked for.
- The currency of every total.
- Both months side by side, with the change as an amount and as a percentage.
If you hold money in more than one currency, add one line to the question: "Convert everything to one currency and tell me how you converted it." A total that silently adds euros to dollars is not a total.
What is growing?Link to this section
Which spending category grew the most over the last three months? Is that more purchases, or bigger ones?
A good answer gives the number of entries and the average size for each month, not only the total. That is what separates "I eat out more often" from "I eat out at more expensive places", and the two have different fixes.
Which budget will you go over?Link to this section
Which of my budgets am I most likely to go over this month, at my current pace?
A good answer has, for each budget, the amount budgeted, spent and remaining, and it says how it projected the rest of the month, for example "spent so far, divided by the days gone, times the days in the month". Hundo's budget tool returns budgeted, spent and remaining for a month, so the AI does not have to rebuild those from raw entries.
Budgets in Hundo can be weekly as well as monthly. For a weekly one, the pace question is about the week, and a good answer says so.
What does one habit cost in a year?Link to this section
How much did I spend on coffee in the last 90 days? List the merchants you counted, then give me the yearly figure at the same pace.
The list of merchants is the important part. Descriptions are messy - "Blue Bottle", "BLUE BOTTLE SF" and "coffee with Sam" are the same habit to you and three different strings to a query - so a total without the list cannot be checked. Asking for the list is the single most useful check on this page.
Are there duplicates or odd entries?Link to this section
Find entries from the last two months that look like duplicates: the same amount, on the same day or the next, with a similar description.
List any single expense last month that was more than three times my usual amount in its category.
A good answer shows the entries themselves, with dates and amounts, so you make the decision. If you then say "delete the duplicate", the AI drafts the deletion, and nothing is removed until you approve it.
Who owes you, and what is it worth now?Link to this section
Who owes me money, and what is the total in my own currency today?
A good answer lists each person and each amount in its original currency first, then the converted total. Hundo tracks money owed in both directions, per person, and the AI reads it through its own tool.
Why did your net worth move?Link to this section
My net worth went up last month. How much of that was money I saved, and how much was prices or exchange rates moving?
A good answer splits the change into parts, each with an amount, and the parts add up to the whole.
If you hold more than one currency, you do not have to take the AI's word for the exchange-rate part. The net worth page in Hundo shows how much of a period's change came from exchange rates, so you can compare the two.
Which questions can your ledger not answer?Link to this section
Some questions sound like spending questions and are really questions about the future, or requests for advice:
- "Am I on track to retire?" That needs assumptions about returns, inflation and income that are not in your records. An AI can still produce a number, but it is only as good as those assumptions, so ask it to list every one.
- "Should I cancel this subscription?" Your ledger can say what it cost and how often it charged. Whether it is worth that is your decision.
- "Is this a good investment?" Nothing in a spending ledger answers that.
How do you check an answer?Link to this section
- Ask for the entries. "Show me the entries you added up" turns a total into something you can verify.
- Check one number yourself. Pick one total and compare it with Hundo's reports page or a filtered list of transactions.
- Look for an answer that is out by exactly 100. Hundo stores most amounts multiplied by 100, and its query tool tells the AI which columns to divide by 100. A total that is a hundred times too big or too small means that step was missed.
- Ask which currency. A figure with no currency is not an answer.
- Ask how it got there. A connected AI can show you the query it ran. Hundo's query tool is read-only SQL across your own data, so a query can look but never change anything.
Can a question change your records?Link to this section
No. The tools an AI uses to answer questions only read.
A follow-up that asks for a change - "log that coffee", "delete the duplicate" - is different. The AI drafts a proposal, nothing changes until you approve it in the conversation, and a proposal you never approve expires.
If you only ever want answers, Settings has a read-only switch. With it on, the tools that draft changes are not offered to your AI at all.
Is it safe to connect an AI to your finances? covers the rest, including where your data goes after the AI has read it.
Common questionsLink to this section
Which AI apps can answer these questions?Link to this section
Any AI app that supports remote MCP servers, including Claude and ChatGPT, once it is connected to Hundo at https://hundo.finance/mcp.
The same questions also work in Hundo's own assistant.
Both are part of Hundo Pro, which is pay what you want from $36 a year, with $72 suggested, or $8 a month.
Does the AI read your whole ledger at once?Link to this section
No. It reads through tools that each return one thing - a month's budget, your accounts, the result of one query - and every call is limited to your own account.
Do you need to know SQL?Link to this section
No. You ask in plain words, and the AI picks the tool. SQL only matters if you want to read the query it ran.
Why is the AI's total different from your bank's?Link to this section
Usually because the ledger and the bank hold different entries: cash you did not log, a charge that is still pending, or an entry you have not added yet. Ask the AI to list the entries it counted and compare them with your statement line by line.