If you’ve spent any time looking for ways to get on top of your money, you’ve probably heard of Scott Pape’s Barefoot Investor. Pape’s three-bucket method is a popular way to keep everyday spending in check while making sure you’re building a safety net and investing for your future.
At its heart, the approach is simple: set up your accounts into three ‘buckets’ – all your income lands in one bucket, and when it’s full, it flows into the next bucket, and so on.
Many people love this because it’s easy to picture and easy to follow – immediately helping them feel more in control of their finances.
And people are already discovering how their Savvy account can take their Barefoot approach from buckets to brilliance.
Here is a guide how you too can use your Savvy account the Barefoot way.
From small buckets come mighty stacks
In your Savvy account, the ‘bucket’ concept is already built in, with extras, so you can effortlessly set up your accounts in the Barefoot way, if you choose.
You can organise your money into stacks inside your Savvy account, giving each stack its own name and purpose.
Want a dedicated emergency fund? Make an emergency stack! Want to save for a holiday? Holiday stack! Saving for a car? You can make a stack for that too.
You can move money between stacks anytime, set up automated flows from one stack to another, and create or rename a stack if a new saving or spending need pops up.
You can supercharge your savings by giving your Stack a goal (a target amount and date) – and Savvy will keep you informed with how you are going towards it.
Stacks help you to organise your money and keep your savings goals on track.
Want to build your stacks the Barefoot Investor way?
Here’s how you can set up the Blow -> Mojo -> Grow approach that Pape promotes.
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The Blow Stack: This is your primary account so set up your paycheque to land in this Stack. Money in here is for all your everyday needs: bills, food, rent and life.
It’s your cash, on tap and on track. -
The Mojo Stack: This is your safety fund – money in here is to help cover an unexpected but unavoidable financial pinch. Some people aim to have a month’s salary in their emergency fund – for manya, the good first goal is getting it up to $500.
Use Sweep and Salary Split and see the balance grow faster. It’s savings, boosted! -
The Grow Stack: This is where you are growing your long-term wealth. Your goal might be saving for a house deposit, retirement or other investments down the track – if you have money overflow from your Mojo Stack into here – you’re on your way.
And you’ll get there quicker with Savvy where every dollar in your account makes a return, calculated daily and paid monthly.
Why use Savvy instead of regular accounts?
The Barefoot method was designed around multiple accounts - but managing this across traditional accounts can get clunky.
With Savvy you get:
- Stacks instead of accounts – customise up to 28 Stacks: name them, give each a goal, and keep everything in one place.
- Automatic savings tools – Boost, Sweep and Salary Split help your money flow where it needs to go, without you having to shift it around each week or month.
- Sweet returns – these are calculated daily and paid monthly, on every dollar in your account.
- Flexibility – dip into your Blow, Mojo or Grow stacks whenever you need to – no penalties or fees for transferring between stacks.
The best of both worlds
If you like and use the Barefoot buckets, then Savvy can make them even smarter. You get all the structure of Barefoot’s method, plus the flexibility, automation and returns that Savvy offers.
Because whether you call it ‘Blow’, ‘Mojo’ and ‘Grow’ - or just ‘Everyday’, ‘Safety’ and ‘Home Deposit’ - the most important thing is that it’s your money, working for you.
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The Booster Savvy Scheme (‘Savvy’) is not a bank account and Booster is not a registered bank. Savvy is a managed fund and Booster Investment Management Limited is the manager and issuer of Savvy. Find Savvy’s Product Disclosure Statement, and other important information about Savvy (including a comparison document highlighting some of the differences between Savvy and a bank account) here.
This blog post provides information about Savvy and is not financial advice. Talk to your financial adviser for advice on your financial needs.