Safe-to-spend modes: Strict, Balanced, Flexible

The question every cashflow tool is really trying to answer is the same: how much of this paycheque is actually mine to spend without breaking something later? Haven gives you three different answers to that question, because households genuinely sit in different places. The mode you pick decides how generous the safe-to-spend number is — and how much of your existing cash cushion is allowed to flow into this month's spend room.

Strict — count only this period

In Strict mode, your starting cash doesn't enter the calculation at all. The number is just this month's expected income, minus your fixed obligations, minus the contribution toward upcoming reserve items, minus your planned savings. Whatever's left is safe-to-spend. If income doesn't cover the bills this month, the number is zero — Haven won't let it go negative.

This is the right mode if you live close to your paycheque, if your cash buffer is already at or near the floor you want to hold, or if you just want the most defensible number on the page. It treats every period as standalone and never quietly draws on the cushion to make this month look better than it is.

Balanced — the default

Balanced is what new periods use unless you change it. The math is the Strict formula plus a small draw from the cash you have above your minimum buffer — specifically, 25% of that excess. So if you keep a $5,000 minimum buffer and you're sitting on $9,000, Balanced lets $1,000 of that $4,000 cushion flow into this month's spend room. The other $3,000 stays put for next month.

It's the default because it matches how most people actually think about money. A healthy cushion isn't supposed to be untouchable; it's supposed to gradually translate into a slightly more relaxed life. A quarter draw is small enough that the buffer rebuilds quickly when you have a quiet month, and large enough that you're not punishing yourself for being prepared.

Flexible — the cushion is for spending

In Flexible mode, every dollar above your minimum buffer is fair game this month. Income plus the entire above-buffer cushion, minus obligations, reserve contributions, and savings. If you have a $4,000 cushion above the floor, Flexible adds the full $4,000 to your spend room rather than just a quarter of it.

This is for households whose cash position is high relative to their monthly burn — people whose savings strategy already happens inside investment accounts, and whose chequing balance is genuinely meant to be drawn down. The risk is real: if you spend the cushion without rebuilding it, next month's number gets thinner. The dashboard shows the assumption explicitly so you can see what's being counted.

How modes change the answer

Same six inputs, three different numbers. Strict gives the most conservative read; Flexible gives the most generous; Balanced sits between them. None of the three is wrong — they're answering slightly different questions. Strict asks "what does this month afford on its own?" Balanced asks "what does this month afford if I let a slice of my cushion help?" Flexible asks "what's the most I could spend this month without crossing my floor?"

If you ever want to see the exact arithmetic, the exact formulas are written out in plain math.

Switching modes

The mode selector at the top of the cashflow page changes the current period only — no recompute, no history rewrite, just a different lens on the same numbers. You can also set a profile default so new months start in the mode you actually want. Try Balanced for a couple of months; if it feels too generous, drop to Strict, and if you find yourself ignoring the number because your cushion is huge, try Flexible.