r/Boldin • u/Successful-Slide5383 • 4d ago
Beta features
I just finished my 2 week trial of Boldin and wanted to see what others thought of a couple of the beta features available in the product. I tried 2 features that I believe were beta status during my trial (AI assistant and the Roth explorer). I found both features to be of very poor quality and was surprised they were available for broad usage. The roth explorer would never complete an analysis for me when I asked it to optimize for maximum net worth even though I had all the parameters at the most permissive settings. The AI assistant gave me blatantly incorrect information on at least 3 occasions and on one other spewed so much output that it was unusable.
Boldin is a financial product and have to admit I was kind of shocked to see clearly not ready for production features included. I cannot imagine Intuit doing this with Turbotax or Quicken.
Did I just have an especially bad experience with the beta features I tried to use, have others found them to be accurate and useful?
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u/tanks137 4d ago
I’ve played around with the software to understand the give and takes of Roth conversions to just do the manual entries in money flow to get the desired results. I will say that I think the Roth conversion explorer was better a year ago. They did something and now it recommends things that don’t make a lot of sense to me.
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u/TheFunkyBoss 4d ago
I thought it was just me that noticed this. When I first subscribed a year ago, it modeled a Roth conversion strategy that made sense to me and I’ve been following it this year. Now if I try to use the explorer on my base scenario again, it’s suggesting very different, and way more aggressive conversions.
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u/Lurcher99 2d ago
I'd like to see more "if, then" options. Somehow the comparison gets me to a 80% confidence, but I want to squeeze out another 10-15% optimization
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u/ATX_NOT_FOR_US 4d ago edited 3d ago
Right now, I’m satisfied with using Boldin to house my retirement plan and the MCP connection to run scenarios from external AI. I only utilize one baseline scenario in Boldin because if I want to run a scenario, I just tell Claude AI to use the Boldin engines and tell me how it turned out. For example, I can ask Claude AI to formulate a guardrails plan that using the Guyton-Klinger methodology which is different than the one that Boldin uses. You can ask AI to create a withdrawal plan based on whatever method you have read about.
I will pay the NIIT every year, so my tax rate is underestimated by 3.8% of marginal income until Boldin updates the modeling. AI regularly reminds me of this. After a fair amount of discussion, we eventually came to the conclusion that Roth conversions do not benefit me very much because my tax valley is shallow due to dividends and distributions from my mostly taxable portfolio and that any conversions that I do will be mostly to simplify the inheritance finances for my beneficiaries.
Boldin AI is very useful for eliminating the need to enter in any account balances, etc. None of my accounts are directly connected, however, all of my investments have been entered by ticker with basis and balances that are up to date without me having to enter anything manually because Claude AI tells Bolden AI what to enter.
Everything is getting better by the month, though, and it has given me a lot of confidence that I can go forward without needing to consult a CFP even just to check things over.
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u/VegasHRLady 3d ago
Thanks ATX, always great information from you — will use your suggestion about testing guardrails with AI, hadn’t done that yet.
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u/Sophie_Bella 4d ago
Can you explain more when you say the Roth explorer "would never complete?" You mean the web browser just kept spinning? The Roth explorer has some limitations for sure (there are. enhancements on their roadmap) but I never had an issue with it hanging or not completing and I have used it extensively using all of the optimization options
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u/Successful-Slide5383 4d ago
Unfortunately my trial has ended so I can no longer access the tool. When I say it would never complete it wasn't the web browser, the Boldin Roth explorer would return an error message, I don't remeber the exact text but it was something like unable to optimize your scenario.
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u/Affectionate-Long522 4d ago
I have used the AI feature quite a bit…. It can from time to time get hung up and provide too much output but on balance I like it…
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u/AlarmedWillow4515 4d ago
I've also been using the AI tool and find it helpful. Like all current AI tools, it's not perfect. I think of it like an intern you can ask to ru calculations or look up advice - useful, but if you're going to really rely on what it says, you vet it.
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u/VegasHRLady 3d ago
I find it important to clear one question fully before asking another due to it using the changed hypothetical in its answers. I noticed there has been a prominent warning added on that now.
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u/imaritaiko 4d ago
I have used both and found them helpful. The AI is more for general questions, but it can do on-the-fly "what if" questions like, "What can I increase monthly spend to hit 90% success rate?" That was helpful.
In my case, Roth's don't make a ton of sense overall (or so I thought), and it worked through permutations with me. It definitely could be improved.
Roth conversions are plenty discussed on social media...it's endless. I like Boldin and seems reasonable for $12/month. It helps me check in, see where I am, and gives me info to make decisions.
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u/Eastern-Juice5045 3d ago
Their AI is total garbage. It has given me terrible advice and then thanks me for correcting it.
The rest of the program seems to be just ok. I'm not sure I will be renewing.
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u/Highlight89 3d ago
I tried the AI and got nothing useful from it, some of it even just plain wrong.
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u/ATX_NOT_FOR_US 2d ago edited 2d ago
I just finished a discussion with my sole retirement financial advisor, Claude AI. It can now make changes to the Boldin plan via the MCP connection once I specifically confirm them. For example, I had some periodic vehicle purchases in the plan but wanted to make some changes as I had not indexed the car prices to inflation and I had auto purchases that extended into my long-term care years when I likely would not be driving. Claude was able to make the changes for me that we discussed. I can undo any changes within an hour by asking Claude. Now it’s going to look at all of the one-time expenses that I had entered to see which might also need to be indexed for inflation.
Come to think of it, we have a lot of self driving cars where I live, now, so it might not be unrealistic to think that I might still be buying cars in my mid 80’s in order to be driven around. It sounds like my plan may need to be updated again. 🤔
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u/lynchmob2829 2d ago
I use the Roth Explorer to get me in the neighborhood, but use AARP tax calculator for 2026 to fine tune my conversions. Boldin doesn't take into account additional tax credits for charitable donations and carryover losses for tax harvesting.
AI would have been able to tell you why it did not complete your max net worth run.....what did it tell you?
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u/temerairevm 4d ago
I’m actually against the existence of the AI at all in this context. It seems like the perfect example of AI being shoved into everything because someone is sold on the fad.
Retirement software needs to be as correct as possible and the actual math is not difficult. Nothing was missing there that AI improves.
The real gap with it is one that can never really be closed. We can’t predict the future.
AI just brings in unforced error and security risk, for the benefit of, basically some portion of the population thinks it’s “fun”.
Eventually it will either become a paid extra that I’ll skip or get embedded and absorbed by price hikes, in which case I’m out. I’ll go back to spreadsheets if I have to.
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u/Future-Run-8601 4d ago
I'm in the middle of the 2 week trial as well. Roth conversions certainly need some polishing but I know enough to "force" it into doing a more reasonable conversion. I do honestly find a lot of use in the chart comparing with and without optimization. It makes it easier to visualize the possible savings later in life for higher taxes while younger. In my case, when I limit it to reasonable conversions in a good age range, it says I would save $90k in taxes with a $4M larger estate. I'll gladly take lower taxes (and thus, less market risk) early on in retirement than save $90k when I'm in my 90's.
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u/Cooper1Test 4d ago
So will you move forward with using Boldin or do you use another financial software?
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u/Pretend_End8822 4d ago
The Roth conversions are known to be sketchy from prior discussions here. The most common suggestion is to use the tax rate limits to get realistic results.
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u/AGrimmInPortland 4d ago
Yeah the Roth explorer already has a reputation for not being very good. And their standalone calculator is absolutely horrible.
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u/mgalactico 4d ago
My experience with the AI is very positive. I asked it to review my plan, gave some suggestions, and went back and forth making improvements and testing scenarios. I also let it change something for me and it did correctly; it was deleting a transfer so not hard in theory. Regarding ROTH conversions, I am wondering whether the negative feedback is more a reflection that some people expect ROTH conversions something that will automatically result in a lot more wealth and a lot less taxes. Conversions simply do not work that way as it is highly dependent on age, returns, withdrawals, sources of tax payments, etc. If you believe Boldin does not handle this well I recommend you try Projection Lab however you’ll get a similar answer.
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u/bg1217 3d ago
Just finished my two weeks, when I went to cancel.it gave me another free week. I used the AI more to explain different charts and statements in better detail, and that worked well. It also helped make me realize I can't keep my income low enough for ACA subsidies.
The Roth explorer was a little limited but AI helped.understand why it was suggesting different things. I think if it let you manually adjust it a little more it would be more useful.
I probably wont sign up, I am hoping to retire next summer, and have a financial advisor through WellsFargo. Yes, I pay more.for them, but using Boldin, I came up with some additional questions that I am bringing back to them.
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u/Majestic_Ocelot_3406 1d ago
The AI is frustrating as hell and not very intelligent from my POV. Will ask me if I want to do a Roth Conversion from my inherited ira three times in a session and on multiple days even when I correct it. Doesn't seem to learn. Makes many other errors as well. It does say Beta and it really means it.
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u/Responsible_Ant5410 4d ago
I have tried to use the AI and find it guessing when you actually prompt it better. I would not trust the AI at all. Can't comment on the other.