Buffer
How to set a buffer without getting advice
Jan 9, 2025
You choose the floor. A buffer is the cash you want available, not a recommendation from Nort Capital, and not a product feature that picks the number for you.
Everything above that floor is idle for the measurement. The software does not debate whether your floor is “right.” It measures above the line you enter.
That separation matters. Advice would choose the line. Measurement leaves the line to you.
Set a buffer that reflects what you want liquid. Then let the Idle Cash Calculator show surplus and annual cost vs a published reference rate.
No banks suggested. No accounts ranked. No money moved. Educational software only.
The free calculator is ungated. Watch ($6/mo or $49/yr) is optional if you want duration and quarterly reports later.
Your buffer can change. When it does, re-run the measurement. The tool follows the floor you set now.
That is how Nort Capital keeps measurement separate from advice.
You own the floor. The instrument owns the math above it.
support@nortcapital.com · (888) 791-8250
Myths that sneak advice into a buffer
Myth: someone else should pick your available-cash number. Reality: only you know what you want liquid.
Myth: a buffer is a product recommendation in disguise. Reality: Nort Capital never turns your floor into a bank or account pick.
Myth: you need advice before you can measure. Reality: you need a floor you are willing to type in.
Myth: the “right” buffer is universal. Reality: different households choose different floors, and the software is fine with that.
Strip those myths away and the buffer becomes a simple input: available cash you want on hand.
Idle cash is whatever sits above it. Annual cost uses a published reference rate so the surplus is comparable.
How the calculator uses the buffer you enter
Enter balances. Enter the floor. The calculator isolates idle cash above that line.
It does not grade your buffer. It does not suggest a higher or lower floor. It measures.
Annual cost against a published reference rate turns that surplus into a readable figure. Still not advice.
You set the floor. The calculator measures above it. Nort Capital does not choose either for you.
What the buffer unlocks in the tool:
- A floor you type yourself
- Idle cash only above that floor
- Annual cost vs a published rate
- No grade on whether the floor is “right”
- No product attached to the surplus
Without a buffer, surplus stays unnamed. With one, idle cash becomes visible.
The next decision, if any, remains yours.
Set the floor. See what sits above it.
When a one-time buffer check is enough
Many people only need to see idle cash once with the floor they chose.
The free calculator covers that. Watch is optional if you want duration later ($6/mo or $49/yr), still read-only.
Changing your buffer later is normal. Re-enter the new floor and measure again.
No account is required to try the calculator. No pitch is attached to the number.
Nort Capital Performance Partners Inc., 6445 Powers Ferry Rd NW, Atlanta, GA 30339.
Educational software. No fabricated savings stories.
Pitfalls: treating the floor like advice
Do not outsource the buffer to a stranger’s rule of thumb framed as “what you should keep.”
Do not confuse annual cost with a recommendation to move surplus somewhere specific.
Do not assume Watch will eventually tell you what to buy. It will not.
Keep the floor yours. Keep the measurement educational.
That discipline is how a buffer stays a buffer.
Advice would collapse the line into a prescription. Measurement refuses that collapse.
A practical way to pick a starting floor
Start with cash you already treat as must-stay-available. Type that as the buffer.
Run the calculator. Read idle cash and annual cost. Adjust the floor if your sense of “available” changes.
No advisor approval required. No product pick required. Just an input and a measurement.
That loop (set, measure, revise) is intentional.
It keeps you in control of the line while the software stays quiet.
Why Nort Capital will not set it for you
If the product chose your buffer, it would stop being measurement and start being advice.
Idle cash above a user-set buffer is the entire model. The floor is the user’s job.
Published reference rates keep annual cost transparent. They still do not choose your buffer.
That is the line between educational software and a recommendation engine.
Nort Capital stays on the educational side.
Open the Idle Cash Calculator, enter balances, and type the buffer you want available.
Read idle cash and annual cost vs a published reference rate. Adjust the floor whenever you want.
Add Watch only if duration matters. Skip it if a single measurement is enough.
No advice. No product picks. Your buffer, your number.
That is how to set a buffer without getting advice.
The floor stays yours.
