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The Seven Most Common Unexpected Expenses
1. Emergency room visits
2. Broken-down car
3. Emergency pet care
4. Last-minute travel
5. Cracked tooth
6. Burst pipe
7. Job loss

A healthy emergency fund is your first line of defense for keeping these unpredictable costs from devastating budget.

Financial Checkup
1. Net worth - the amount of money you’d have if you sold everything and paid off all your debt
2. Debt-to-income ratio (DTI) - your total debt divided by your annual income
3. Credit score - a number assigned to you by a credit rating agency that indicates your likeliness to pay back debt
4. Credit utilization ratio - the percentage of your total available credit that you’re using right now

[ ] Build Your Budget
- income
- fixed expenses: rent, minimum credit card payments, loan payments, insurance, cell phone bill, savings
- variable expenses: electric bill, groceries, gas, clothes, socializing

[ ] Determine necessities vs discretionary (things you don’t need to get by)

Three Main Steps for Your Budget
1. Budget
2. Revise
3. Repeat

Think SMART

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-oriented

“Do not save what is left after spending; instead spend what is left after saving.” - Warren Buffett

Budgeting does not mean sacrifice; it means choice.

The right budget is a game plan for your money that assigns specific jobs for every dollar.

For you, a thousand times over.

Zendagi migzara. Life goes on.

Perspective is a luxury when your head is constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons.

That’s how children deal with terror. They fall asleep.

“Dostet darum.” I love you.

A man with no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer.

“How seamless seemed love and then came trouble!”

Zendagi migzara. Life goes on.

My eyes returned to our suitcases. They made me sad for Baba. After everything he’d built, planned, fought for, fretted over, dreamed of, this was the summation of his life: one disappointing son and two suitcases.