Read Barefoot Investor but couldn’t make it work?
Scott Pape must have sold a few million copies of his book by now, and it’s one that I love and recommend everyone reads, particularly because what he says about investing is gold.
But the fact is the ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution for budgeting just doesn’t work for everyone.
So if you’ve been feeling like a failure for not being able to adopt the Barefoot approach for your finances, then please know that you’re absolutely NOT alone. Here are some of the reasons why you may not have been able to apply the Barefoot Investor’s principles.
One major reason you’re finding it hard to implement is that you’re not on a regular wage.
Maybe you’re self-employed, work on commission or are a freelancer or casual worker.
If that’s the case it’s much harder to predict your income week to week. Especially if you’re self-employed and you receive really varying amounts of money into your account day-to-day.
Then you have to set aside tax and Super as well. In that case it’s not so easy to do the sums on a daily basis to work out how much you should put into your Smile or and Fire-extinguisher accounts, or to pay off debt. Then it becomes a daily chore of trying to figure it all out.
And when you have to spend time doing that that you don’t have then it’s very easy to see why you would give up.
Another major reason is that you just don’t have time to set it all up.
If you’re running a company, or 2 or 3 jobs, then you might be working 40-80 hours a week. When you get home at the end of the day you’re just DONE with a capital D.
So you keep kicking the can down the road saying you’ll get to it next weekend.
Truth is next weekend never really comes, and by then you’ve lost the spark that was ignited by reading the book.
And one more reason you might have is lack of confidence.
Maybe you earn a good, regular income, but you just wish you had someone who could just guide you through the whole process of setting up your spending plan, customise it for your life, and then hold you accountable.
In that situation, a book or an app – no matter how good they are – just isn’t going to cut it. That’s when you need personal support.
There’s definitely help out there, and a real solution.
You are NOT a failure because you couldn’t apply Barefoot principles. You’re certainly NOT alone (there are so many people who also can’t), but there’s more than one way to peel an orange.
Have you found it hard to make Barefoot work? Why do you think that is – for you? Identifying the barriers is the first step in fixing the problem.
Thumbnail Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay
froleprotrem says
Appreciate it for helping out, good information.
bsadmin says
I’m glad you found it useful 🙂
Leeann Lewis says
Hi I was wondering what to do if my husband doesn’t want to do this cano do it in my own
bsadmin says
Hi Leeann, Yes, we have plenty of clients where one person in a relationship decides to do it if the other is resistant. We often find that the other partner comes on board later. Happy to have a chat with you if you’d like to hear about your situation.
Melissa says
I relate- not having regular income and couldn’t make Barfoot work..felt like I’d failed or wasn’t trying other ways to manage the buckets..
Thanks Anthea.
bsadmin says
More often than not when I meet a client for the first time they say “I’m terrible with money/ and or budgeting”, even when they have tried countless approaches including BFI. I felt the same way before I discovered that it’s not us that is the problem. It’s that the system is not right. Once you get the system right, it becomes easy. It’s definitely not your fault, Melissa.