The Raise That Disappeared
A listener got a 20 percent raise and felt poorer a year later. Maya traces where it went and lays out a rule for catching lifestyle creep before it settles in.
What Is Your Number
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Show notes
What Is Your Number
Most people have a vague sense that they need more money. Very few know how much. In this opening episode Maya walks through the exercise she did at her kitchen table in 2020 to work out the real annual cost of her family's life, and how that single figure replaced a lot of anxiety.
- Separating the cost of living from the cost of worrying
- Why her number came out 30 percent lower than her guess
- Three categories that quietly inflate every budget
- Turning the number into a monthly target you can actually see
A simple worksheet is described at the end so listeners can do the same with a pen and one bank statement.
Transcript
Hello, I am Maya Sarkis, and this is Enough Is a Number. I am an accountant in Beirut, and in 2019 my family lost nearly everything we had saved when the banks froze our accounts. This show is about what I learned afterwards, starting with the single most useful thing I did, which was to sit at my kitchen table and work out exactly how much our life costs in a year. Not what I earned, not what I wished for, but the real number. It came out 30 percent lower than I had been afraid of. Today I will walk you through how I did it, the three categories that quietly inflate everyone's budget, and a worksheet you can complete tonight with a pen and one bank statement. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.
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