# What a second pot is, and why it keeps your number true [Home](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en) › [Study](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/study) › [Articles](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/study/articles) author: [Axel Jedlitschka](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/about) published: 2026-10-13 updated: 2026-10-13 language: en reading time: 5 min topic: Money source booklet: [Your Bank Balance Is Not Your Money](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/shop/introduction/finance) A second pot separates the money that looks like yours from the money that is yours, so the number in your main account stops flattering you. Some of the money sitting in your account is already meant for somebody else. The second pot is a separate place for that money, and it exists for one purpose: so that the number in the first pot tells the truth. ## The second pot The source calls it the Reserved Payment Account. By its definition, it holds money set aside for a certain destination that has not yet been sent there. Its purpose is stated outright as well. It prevents a false picture of your financial position. Money that is waiting to be paid moves to a place of its own before you pay it, which takes it out of the general accounts and out of every estimate of how much money you have. Three kinds of money like that commonly sit in a self-employed person's account: the sales tax you collected, the estimated tax due on your profit, and a payment you took up front for work you have not delivered. All three look like money, and all three are a liability. Suppose a carpenter opens a second account and starts moving the sales tax across on every invoice. Until then he was frightened twice a year, and since then he has stopped being frightened. Or take a coach who separates out the payments she took in advance. At any moment she knows how much work she already owes her clients. ## The teapot on the top shelf The source makes no claim to sophistication here, and demonstrates the idea with a kitchen habit. People handle their own money this way all the time: an amount set aside for a new jacket, an amount for this week's share of the rent, an amount for a debt to a friend who is looking for the note. Everything goes into a broken teapot on the top shelf, and that is the purpose and the action of the account. The expected objection is that this money lies idle while you pay interest in another account. The source answers it on the spot. Those small crumbs of interest are a small price for the security of knowing you can meet your obligations. And in the source's words: “To juggle with already committed funds is financial brinkmanship.” Suppose a renovation contractor leaves the sales tax in his current account because he considers it dead money. Twice a year he takes a short-term loan to pay it. After he opens a second pot, the interest he gives up comes to a few dollars. The short loans had cost him thousands. ## The reserve, and why you never touch it Beside the second pot, the source also sets up a reserve fund, built from a fixed allocation out of your income. The rule that makes it a reserve, and not just another account, is this one: gather “a cushion of cash to fall back on and don't ever fall back on it”. In its full wording, the source says to refuse to spend reserves, and to meet an emergency by earning more. Usually that is quicker than digging out money you hid away long ago. It also says never to borrow to pay bills, because making the money takes less trouble. Suppose the owner of a clinic sets aside a fixed amount every month. After two years she has six weeks of expenses standing to one side, and she has never touched them. Compare an installer who dips into his reserve every time there is a weak month. After three years he has no reserve left, and the weak months are exactly the same. **A reserve you dip into is a current account with a different name.** ## What you sold and have not delivered A last kind of money also belongs to someone else, and it is the most dangerous one, since to an outsider it looks like success. According to the source, a service that is paid for and not yet delivered is a liability of the business. Delivering it now will cost you more than delivering it would have cost on the day the money came in. Delivering later costs more in three ways. Your future time is worth more. It takes extra effort merely to win the customer back. And the customer is entitled to ask for the money back in any case. Suppose a coach sells 40 packages in a single campaign. Six months later she is working at full capacity and not a dollar of new money is coming in. Or take a business owner who sells annual subscriptions at a discount. His second year is entirely work paid for by the first year's money. **Money you received for work you have not yet done is a debt, and you pay it in work.** The booklet gives this chapter two short exercises, doing it and counting. In the practice section at the end you will also find one called the second pot. How much money you have is measured after you take out what already belongs to tax, to the reserve and to customers still waiting for their work. The second pot is where that money waits, so that it stops flattering your number. The booklet is general knowledge, not financial advice for your business. - [Your Bank Balance Is Not Your Money](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/shop/introduction/finance): Two numbers and a short weekly routine. That is enough to stop you guessing whether it was a good month. --- [עברית](https://theonlyaxelj.com/he/study/articles/the-second-fund-for-money-that-isnt-yours) · [Español](https://theonlyaxelj.com/es/study/articles/the-second-fund-for-money-that-isnt-yours)