The Barefoot Investor. Scott Pape
Читать онлайн книгу.
I want you to give them nicknames (this is easy to do with online banking — just ask your bank if you're not sure how it works).
Call one ‘Daily Expenses’ and the other ‘Splurge’. Trust me on this — exactly why I'm asking you to give them these nicknames will be revealed in Step 2.
Any downsides to look out for? Well, you might find that you need to deposit a minimum amount into one of the accounts every month. You can easily make this your wage, for example, straight into ‘Daily Expenses’.
Since this book has sold a truckload of copies, there are plenty of banks piggybacking off the buckets set-up. A quick google will reveal who they are.
Steal my wife's purse
Now if you stole my wife's purse … she'd be very upset.
And you'd find the same debit card as mine (and a lovely picture of our family — no dogs).
See, one of our iron-clad rules is that we keep the same account.
No, not like cute matching cards so that we're colour coordinated. And no, not just one card between us. (That would be weird: ‘Honey, I'm just popping down the shops. Can I have the card?’)
What I mean is that we have separate cards for the same bank accounts.
And, most importantly, we have an agreement that we can each spend up to $400 on whatever we choose. No need to ask for permission. Anything over that we talk about, and make a joint decision.
(And that's a good thing. Personally, I am deeply offended by how much her hairdresser charges. My barber hasn't changed his ‘$20 short back and sides’ pricing in 15 years. Though, admittedly, she looks a lot better than I do.)
It's my firm belief that if you're in a healthy, trusting relationship, you should be sharing the same bank account, and all your finances.
That said, I've sat across the table from many women (and yes it's almost always women), whose partners have used money as a form of control. One of the first things I do is help them to set up a separate escape fund, so they can (eventually) get the hell out of there. If you think this could happen to you, don't share any accounts.
If you're already in this situation, I strongly suggest you sit down with a financial counsellor (call 1800 007 007) and get a game plan sorted.
Get some interest, brah!
You need to earn a decent interest rate on your savings. Granted, when interest rates are low, earning enough interest each year to buy a soap on a rope is almost mission impossible.
Yet that doesn't mean you should keep all your dough in your everyday transaction account, which pays ‘two parts of bugger-all’ (that is actually a finance term) in interest.
What you want is separate online saver accounts that are linked to your everyday transaction account.
In addition, you want the ability to move your money when needed and to set up automated triggers (we'll get to that later in Step 2, where we'll put your money on autopilot so you don't have to continually make decisions).
My linked high-interest online savings accounts
Back in 2016, for high-interest online savings accounts I used ING Savings Maximisers that were linked to my ING Orange Everyday account.
I want you to set up two of these accounts — and again I want you to give them nicknames. Call one ‘Smile’ and the other ‘Fire Extinguisher’.
(WTF, Barefoot! These names are getting crazier by the minute! Trust me on this and I'll explain all in Step 2.)
Here's a screenshot of my set-up.
By the way, with these online saver accounts I am not a ‘rate tart’. I have no interest in switching accounts every time some other institution offers a piddly 0.15 per cent extra interest. It's just not worth my time.
(You may have more time on your hands, perhaps because you live at home with your mum and she does your ironing and plaits your hair, leaving you free to pore over spreadsheets on a Saturday night. If that's you, feel free to check out comparison sites like RateCity, Mozo or finder.com.au, where you can usually find bank accounts paying a bee's dick — another finance term — more interest than the one you have chosen.)
In summary:
Zero fees. Good interest. All in one account.
Simple.
In any event you'll notice that I deal exclusively with online banks for these accounts. There's a reason for this: they do better deals because they've got lower overheads.
Plus, they're fighting against the Big Four, who rely on a mixture of apathy and a reputation for safety (which is rubbish, because the government guarantees all deposits — up to $250 000 per financial institution — for all local and international authorised deposit-taking institutions).
Get some Mojo, baby
Finally, you should have one bank account completely separate from your day-to-day banking.
I'm talking another financial institution altogether.
Why?
Because I want to make it hard-ish to get at this money. This account will become what I call your ‘Mojo’.
The aim of the Mojo account is to get your Mojo back, baby. So you don't have to stress about money like everyone else.
So what is it?
Well, it's not a redraw facility. It's not shares.
It's cold, hard cash in the bank.
And it's hard to access. You see, managing your money is about behaviour.
Most people shuffle money around from one account to another without ever actually saving any of it.
Now, the number one question people ask me about Mojo is this:
‘Barefoot, can't I use my offset account for my Mojo?’
My answer?
It's not how I did it, but sure, you can if you want. The most important thing is that you do it!
My Mojo account
Back in 2016, my Mojo account was a UBank USaver (UBank is NAB's ‘Jetstar’ brand).
You know the drill: zero fees, good interest. Google it.
No prizes for guessing the nickname this time: ‘Mojo’.
As I've said, I deliberately keep this account separate from my day-to-day banking because I don't want to be tempted to spend it. It's for emergencies like, say, your house burning down. And it's a good feeling knowing that you have a separate pot of money that can be your ‘get out of jail free’ card when you need it.
And if you have a mortgage…
When I had a mortgage, I was given a ‘professional package’ by the bank, which included a credit card (I chopped it up) and a basic bank account.
If you have a home loan, you've probably got a professional package too. Everyone gets one. It's a marketing gimmick designed to flog you as many high-cost products as possible.
I tried to screw down the same deal with my home loan provider as ING's zero-fee, high-interest-earning banking (and zero international ATM fees). They just laughed at me. So I made ING