The Tax Set-Aside System
A percentage, a second bank account, and a quarterly calendar so tax season is a transfer, not a crisis.
Published Aug 29, 2026
Preview
Set aside the wrong amount and you find out in April, when the money is gone. This guide gets you a specific percentage based on your own numbers instead of a rule of thumb, a separate account the money moves into on a schedule you'll actually keep, and four dates on your calendar with the payment link already in them. Budget about two hours total: one hour with your numbers, twenty minutes at the bank, twenty minutes in your calendar.
1. Write your three tax buckets on one page
Open a blank page — paper, a note app, a spreadsheet, it doesn't matter — and write three lines:
That is where the free part ends.
The rest walks the whole thing through, step by step — including the parts people get wrong and what to do when the normal route fails.