Three Accounts, One Job Each

Set up accounts so each one has exactly one job.
Move the tax share the day a payment lands, before anything else.
Set a reserve target from what a real month costs you.

One account doing every job is how NIL money disappears. A few accounts, each with one job, is how it stays.

Four accounts and the one job each does

Account	Its job	The rule
Holding	Every NIL payment lands here first	Pay yourself from it once a month
Tax reserve	The share you will owe on each payment	Moves in the day money lands; never spent on anything else
Spending	Your monthly pay to yourself	Bills, life, fun. The only account you spend from
Emergency reserve	A few months of costs, set aside	Touched only for a real emergency, then refilled

The tax reserve is the one athletes skip. It is also the one that hurts most when it is missing.

A Ⓛ4,000.00 payment lands in the holding account. What moves first?

Pick your answer first, then open it.

The tax share, into the tax reserve, the same day.

✓ Right. Tax is owed on the whole payment whether or not you set it aside. Moving it first means it cannot be spent by accident.

Rent, since it is due this week.

Rent comes out of spending, from your monthly pay. Paying it straight from a lump is how the lump stops being a plan.

Nothing until the end of the month.

By the end of the month the tax share has usually been spent. The move works because it happens on the day.

Your monthly costs are Ⓛ1,800.00. You want a three-month emergency reserve. What is the target?

Work it out, then check

Ⓛ1,800.00 times three is Ⓛ5,400.00. Three months is this example’s choice. Some people plan for more. The number that matters is the one you write down and fund.

This week

Open the accounts you have. Give each one a single job, in writing. If one account has two jobs, that is the one to split this week.

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