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Using AI to Make Better Financial and Life Decisions

Use AI as a thinking partner to evaluate tradeoffs, uncover blind spots, and make more confident decisions.

Created byDavid Johnson

Last updated 7/2026

English

What you'll learn

Use a practical 5-step framework to make clearer and more confident decisions using AI as a thinking partner.
Define complex or overwhelming decisions more clearly by identifying the real problem and separating tangled issues.
Identify, prioritize, and compare decision variables using structured techniques such as pairwise comparison and tradeoff analysis.
Use AI prompts to reduce mental clutter, organize thinking, and evaluate realistic options without becoming overwhelmed.
Understand opportunity costs and tradeoffs so you can make more disciplined decisions in real-life situations.
Review past decisions more effectively in order to improve judgment and decision-making over time.

Course content

4 sections • 14 lectures • 2h 15m total length

Introduction3:44
Welcome to the course!
In this introductory lecture, you'll learn what the course is about, who it is designed for, and how AI can be used as a thinking partner to support better decisions. You'll also receive an overview of the 5-Step Decision Model that forms the foundation of the course and see how the lessons fit together into a practical system for making clearer, more confident decisions.
After completing this lecture, you will understand the purpose and structure of the course and be ready to begin applying AI to real-world decisions.
Using AI with the 5-Step Decision Model9:57
Lesson 1: Using AI with the 5-Step Decision Model
Lecture Description
This lesson introduces the core framework used throughout the course: the 5-Step Decision Model. You'll learn why many decisions feel overwhelming, how AI can support clearer thinking, and how a structured process can help you move from confusion to confidence. We will also explore the importance of using AI as a thinking partner while maintaining your own judgment and responsibility for decisions.
After completing this lecture, you will be able to:
Understand the 5-Step Decision Model and how AI can support each stage of the decision-making process while keeping you in control of the final decision.

Using AI to Help Define Your Decision11:33
Lesson 2: Using AI to Help Define Your Decision
Lecture Description
Many difficult decisions feel overwhelming because they are not clearly defined. In this lesson, you'll learn how complex situations often contain multiple hidden decisions and how AI can help untangle them. By clarifying exactly what you are trying to decide, you can reduce confusion and build a stronger foundation for the rest of the decision-making process.
After completing this lecture, you will be able to:
Use AI to clarify and define complex decisions by identifying the real decision—or decisions—that need to be made before evaluating options.
Using AI to Identify Decision Variables10:44
Lesson 3: Using AI to Identify Decision Variables
Lecture Description
Strong decisions depend on identifying the factors that truly matter. In this lesson, you'll learn how hidden variables often influence decisions and how overlooking important considerations can lead to poor outcomes. You'll discover how AI can help surface, organize, and clarify the variables involved in complex decisions so that nothing important is overlooked.
After completing this lecture, you will be able to:
Use AI to identify, organize, and evaluate the key variables that should be considered when making important decisions.
Using AI to Prioritize Decision Variables8:55
Lesson 4: Using AI to Prioritize Decision Variables
Lecture Description
Not all decision factors are equally important. In this lesson, you'll learn how to distinguish between critical variables and those that have less impact on the outcome. You'll discover how AI can help you rank priorities, reduce complexity, and focus your attention on the factors that matter most. Prioritization is often the step that transforms a confusing decision into a manageable one.
After completing this lecture, you will be able to:
Use AI to prioritize decision variables and focus on the factors that have the greatest influence on your decision.
Using AI to Compare Options with Tradeoffs12:14
Lesson 5: Using AI to Compare Options with Tradeoffs
Lecture Description
Every decision involves tradeoffs. Choosing one option means giving up something offered by another. In this lesson, you'll learn how to compare alternatives more effectively by evaluating both their benefits and their costs. You'll discover how AI can help organize comparisons, reveal hidden tradeoffs, and provide a clearer view of the strengths and weaknesses of each option.
After completing this lecture, you will be able to:
Use AI to compare alternatives, evaluate tradeoffs, and make more informed decisions based on what matters most to you.
Using AI to Decide with Confidence18:44
Lesson 6: Using AI to Decide with Confidence
Lecture Description
Making a decision can be difficult, even after gathering information and evaluating options. In this lesson, you'll learn how to move from analysis to action by applying the 5-Step Decision Model. You'll discover why a good decision is defined by the quality of the process rather than the outcome alone, and how AI can support your thinking without making the decision for you.
After completing this lecture, you will be able to:
Use AI and the 5-Step Decision Model to make decisions with greater confidence, clarity, and trust in your decision-making process.

Using AI to Review Decisions and Improve10:18
Lesson 7: Using AI to Review Decisions and Improve
Lecture Description
The best decision-makers do more than make decisions—they learn from them. In this lesson, you'll discover how reviewing past decisions can improve future judgment. You'll learn how to evaluate decisions based on the quality of the process rather than the outcome alone, identify patterns in your thinking, and use AI to uncover lessons that can strengthen future decision-making.
After completing this lecture, you will be able to:
Use AI to review past decisions, identify lessons learned, and continuously improve your decision-making process over time.
Using AI Without Outsourcing Your Thinking7:10
Lesson 8: Using AI Without Outsourcing Your Thinking
Lecture Description
AI can be a powerful thinking partner, but it also creates the risk of becoming overly dependent on technology. In this lesson, you'll explore the concept of cognitive surrender—the tendency to let AI do too much of our thinking for us. You'll learn how to use AI to enhance judgment, challenge assumptions, and support decision-making while remaining actively engaged in the process.
After completing this lecture, you will be able to:
Use AI as a thinking partner while maintaining independent judgment, avoiding cognitive surrender, and staying actively involved in important decisions.
Using AI in the Future: The Captain and Crew Model8:42
Lesson 9: Using AI in the Future: The Captain and Crew Model
Lecture Description
AI is evolving rapidly, moving beyond simple chatbots toward assistants, agents, and integrated AI ecosystems. In this lesson, you'll explore where AI may be heading and why maintaining human judgment will become increasingly important. You'll learn the Captain and Crew Model, a framework that helps ensure AI remains a powerful assistant while humans retain responsibility for values, priorities, and final decisions.
After completing this lecture, you will be able to:
Apply the Captain and Crew Model to use AI effectively while maintaining human judgment, responsibility, and control over important decisions.
AI Personalization: Helpful Assistant or Cognitive Trap?13:23
Lesson 10: AI Personalization: Helpful Assistant or Cognitive Trap?
Lecture Description
As AI systems become more personalized, they will increasingly learn your preferences, habits, goals, and decision patterns. While this can make AI more useful and convenient, it can also create new risks, including overreliance, confirmation bias, and reduced independent thinking. In this lesson, you'll explore both the benefits and dangers of AI personalization and learn how to use personalized AI systems while preserving critical thinking and sound judgment.
After completing this lecture, you will be able to:
Recognize the benefits and risks of AI personalization and use personalized AI tools while maintaining independent thinking and decision-making.

Your SmarterDecisionsAI Prompt Pack2:28
Lesson 11: Your SmarterDecisionsAI Prompt Pack
Lecture Description
In this lesson, you'll receive the complete SmarterDecisionsAI Prompt Pack, a collection of practical prompts designed to support every stage of the decision-making process. These prompts can help you clarify decisions, identify variables, evaluate tradeoffs, challenge assumptions, review outcomes, and improve future judgment. You'll learn how to use the prompts effectively and adapt them to real-world decisions in your personal and professional life.
After completing this lecture, you will be able to:
Use the SmarterDecisionsAI Prompt Pack to apply the 5-Step Decision Model and support better decision-making across a wide range of situations.
Staying the Captain: Preserving Human Judgment in the Age of AI10:24
Lesson 12: Staying the Captain: Preserving Human Judgment in the Age of AI
Lecture Description
As AI becomes more powerful, personalized, and integrated into everyday life, maintaining independent judgment becomes increasingly important. In this lesson, you'll explore practical strategies for avoiding cognitive surrender and preserving your ability to think critically, challenge assumptions, and make decisions aligned with your own values. You'll also receive a toolkit of prompts designed to strengthen reflection, intellectual humility, and independent thinking in the AI era.
After completing this lecture, you will be able to:
Use practical tools and prompts to preserve independent thinking, strengthen judgment, and remain the captain of your decisions while using AI effectively.
The Emerging AI Toolkit: Tools That Support Better Thinking and Decisions6:52
Lesson 13: The Emerging AI Toolkit: Tools That Support Better Thinking and Decisions
Lecture Description
The world of AI is evolving rapidly, with new tools appearing every month to support research, organization, productivity, automation, financial analysis, and decision-making. In this bonus lesson, you'll receive an overview of some of today's most useful AI tools and learn how they can support different parts of the 5-Step Decision Model. You'll also receive a downloadable reference guide that can help you navigate the growing AI landscape and identify tools that fit your personal and professional needs.
After completing this lecture, you will be able to:
Identify AI tools that support research, organization, productivity, and decision-making, and understand how they can complement the 5-Step Decision Model.

Requirements

No prior AI experience is required. No technical or programming skills are needed. Students should have access to ChatGPT or another AI chatbot. A willingness to think carefully about real-life decisions and tradeoffs will help students get the most from the course. This course is designed for beginners and focuses on practical decision-making rather than technical AI concepts.

Description

This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.

Using AI to Make Better Financial and Life Decisions

Have you ever spent weeks researching an important decision only to feel more confused than when you started?

Maybe you're deciding whether to buy a home, retire, relocate closer to family, replace a vehicle, make a major purchase, change careers, or choose between competing financial priorities.

Most people assume they need more information.

In reality, they often need more clarity.

Today, information is everywhere. Search engines, websites, experts, social media, and AI tools can provide endless advice and opinions. The challenge is no longer finding information. The challenge is identifying what matters most, evaluating tradeoffs, and making a confident decision when no option is perfect.

This course shows you how to use AI as a thinking partner—not as a decision maker.

You'll learn a practical decision-making framework that helps you untangle complex choices, clarify priorities, uncover blind spots, evaluate alternatives, and make more confident decisions.

What You'll Learn

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

Break overwhelming decisions into manageable parts
Clearly define the decision you are trying to make
Identify the factors and priorities that matter most
Compare alternatives using structured tradeoff thinking
Use AI to uncover blind spots and challenge assumptions
Avoid information overload and analysis paralysis
Make decisions with greater clarity and confidence
Improve your judgment over time through reflection and review

How the Framework Works

The course walks you through a practical step-by-step process:

Define the decision
Identify important variables
Prioritize what matters most
Compare alternatives and tradeoffs
Make the choice
Review the outcome and improve future decisions

Throughout the course, you'll see how AI can assist at every stage of the process while keeping you firmly in control of the final decision.

No Technical Background Required

This is not a programming course.

You do not need coding skills, technical expertise, or prior experience with AI tools.

The focus is not on technology.

The focus is on using technology to support better human judgment.

Included Resources

You'll receive a downloadable Prompt Pack containing all of the prompts used throughout the course so you can immediately apply the framework to your own financial and life decisions.

Who This Course Is For

This course is ideal for:

Individuals facing important financial or life decisions
Professionals evaluating complex alternatives
People overwhelmed by too much information and competing priorities
Lifelong learners who want a more structured approach to decision-making
Anyone interested in using AI responsibly to improve judgment and clarity

AI can generate information.

But judgment remains human.

This course will help you use AI to think more clearly, evaluate tradeoffs more effectively, and make better financial and life decisions with confidence.

Who this course is for:

This course is for people who want to make better personal and professional decisions using AI as a thinking partner. It is designed for: beginners who are curious about using AI in practical ways professionals overwhelmed by complex decisions and information overload people making important life, career, financial, retirement, or family decisions lifelong learners who want a more structured way to think through tradeoffs and priorities anyone interested in improving judgment and decision-making in the AI era This course is not focused on programming or technical AI skills. Instead, it focuses on using AI to: clarify decisions organize thinking identify priorities compare options realistically and make more thoughtful choices with greater confidence.

Using AI to Make Better Financial and Life Decisions

What you'll learn

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Course content

Introduction2 lectures • 14min

Using AI in Support of the 5-Step Decision Model5 lectures • 1hr 2min

Section 3: Judgment and Thinking in the AI Era4 lectures • 40min

Section 4: Course Prompt Pack3 lectures • 20min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: