Another way to protect large future expenses through bucketing is to use time-phased protection. For instance, if a large expenditure is expected ten years from now, one could maintain 25% of the required amount in the safety bucket during years 1–4, increase the protection to 60% during years 5–7, and hold 80% during years 8–9.

This step-based approach provides increasing protection as the expense approaches while avoiding frequent adjustments to the level of protection each year.