The Number That Sets You Free?

by Kristina Karlsson

Let me start with a simple question. Stay with me, because most of us have never actually stopped to answer it.

What is the number that would set you free?

I'm not talking about the number that would make you rich. I'm certainly not talking about a fantasy lottery figure. I mean the number that would genuinely let you breathe out and live the life you truly want.

It's a question I explored on this recent podcast episode.

Most people can't answer that, and I understand why. It's not something we were ever taught to think about. We were taught to want more. We were never taught to know our number.

I had a conversation a while ago with a woman who was smart, successful and working very hard.

She told me she wanted more. More money, more security, more breathing room. So I asked her, how much more? What does enough actually look like? She couldn't answer. Not because she wasn't capable, but because she'd never stopped to think about it. She had been running towards a number she had never defined.

That conversation stayed with me, because I realised how many of us are doing exactly the same thing. We chase "more" without ever deciding where the finish line sits.

Before we go further, I want to make one thing clear. This isn't about being good or bad with money. I often hear people say, "I'm terrible with money." That's not what this is. It isn't a character test. It's simply a question most of us have never been invited to ask.

So today, let's ask it together.

The trap of more

More is probably the most expensive word in our language, because more never actually arrives. It's a horizon. You walk towards it and it moves further away. You earn more, your life quietly expands to match it, and suddenly you need more again. You get the pay rise, have the better year, reach the goal you thought would finally make everything feel easier, and within a few months it just becomes your new normal. Then you're already reaching for the next version of more.

I want to be clear here. There is nothing wrong with ambition. I'm ambitious, and I will always encourage you to dream big and create a beautiful life. But ambition without a clear destination isn't freedom. It's a treadmill. You can run on it for thirty years and still never feel free, because freedom has never lived inside "more."

Freedom lives inside "enough." And enough has a number. A real one. One you can actually discover.

Once you start looking, you see it everywhere. The bigger house with the bigger mortgage that somehow brought less peace. The promotion you wanted that quietly took the evenings you loved. We keep upgrading the outside of our lives, then wonder why the inside doesn't feel any different.

I've met people with very little who feel completely free, and people with great wealth who feel completely trapped. The difference is rarely the size of the bank account. It's whether they've defined their number.

So here's the reframe I want to offer you. The number that sets you free isn't the biggest number you can imagine. It's the right number for the life you genuinely want to live.

The two numbers worth knowing

I think there are two numbers worth knowing.

The first is your security number. This is the amount that comfortably covers your real life. Your home, your food, your essential expenses. The things that let you sleep peacefully knowing you and the people you love are safe.

Just knowing this number removes an enormous amount of stress, because so much of our fear around money isn't really about money. It's about uncertainty. The moment you replace uncertainty with a number, the fog starts to lift.

The second is your freedom number. This is the exciting one. It doesn't just fund your survival, it funds your dreams. The work you'd keep doing. The work you'd stop. The time you'd reclaim. The travel, the people, the space, the generosity you'd practise. This is the number that gives you choices.

And here's what surprises most people. Your freedom number is usually much smaller than you imagine. When you actually cost the life you want, rather than endlessly chasing more, you often find it's a very human-sized number. One that feels achievable.

If the word "number" makes you nervous, please don't worry. We're not doing complicated maths. We're creating clarity. Your number is simply your dream made specific enough to move towards. It's your dream with a price tag attached. Nothing more.

Why knowing it changes everything

Clarity is the antidote to fear. Most financial worry lives inside uncertainty. We avoid looking because looking feels uncomfortable, and so the fear sits quietly in the background, shaping our decisions and stealing our peace.

Naming the number changes that. You can't move towards a destination you've never identified. But the moment you name it, you stop drifting and start aiming.

I've seen this happen so many times. When people finally sit down, look honestly at their finances and define what enough really means, their shoulders drop. The fear they've carried for years begins to loosen its grip. Often the biggest fear wasn't the money. It was avoiding the looking.

Your daily decisions change too. You start saying yes and no differently. Not from guilt or restriction, but from purpose. Every decision gets simpler, because you can ask one question: is this taking me closer to my number, or further away?

That single question quietly transforms your financial life.

And your relationship with money changes completely. Money stops being something you chase or fear, and becomes what it was always meant to be. A tool. A tool that buys back your time and gives you choices. You stop serving money. Money starts serving your dream life.

How to begin finding your number

Three simple steps.

One. Start with the life, not the money. Most people do this backwards. Don't begin by asking how much you need to earn. Ask what life you actually want. Picture it clearly.

Where do you live?

How do you spend your days?

Who's around you? What have you stopped doing, and what have you finally started?

One of my favourite questions is this: what would you do if you had all the money and time you needed? Answer that first.

Your number is simply the cost of creating that life.

Two. Name your number. Write it down. It doesn't need to be perfect. An imperfect number always beats vague uncertainty. Spend twenty minutes estimating what your dream life would cost each year.

That's your first draft, and you can refine it later. The point is to begin, because writing it down moves your dream from "someday" into a plan.

Three. Take one brave step. Just one. There are only three ways to move closer to your number. You can earn a little more, keep a little more of what you earn, or want a little less of what doesn't truly matter.

You don't have to do all three. Choose one, and take one courageous step this month. Momentum isn't built by one dramatic leap. It's built through small, consistent actions.

Define the life. Name the number. Take one step. That's how your freedom number becomes a plan instead of a fantasy.

The doorway, not the destination

Before we finish, I don't want you to miss the most important part. The number itself isn't really the point. It's the doorway. What's waiting on the other side is what matters.

Choice. The freedom to spend your precious life the way you choose. To be present for the people you love. To do work that lights you up, to travel, to rest, to let go of work that no longer serves you, to finally say yes to the dream you've been postponing.

That's why we do this. We're not becoming obsessed with money. We're becoming free from worrying about it. We're turning it into a tool that quietly gives us back our time, our choices and our lives.

So many of us spend years waiting, waiting until money somehow sorts itself out before we let ourselves dream bigger. But money rarely sorts itself out on its own. It changes when we gently turn towards it with clarity instead of fear.

The waiting is what costs us. Knowing our number is what ends the waiting.

For me, creating a dream life has never been about becoming rich. It's always been about becoming free. And freedom has a number. It's knowable. And it may be much closer than you think.

Take it into your journal this week

I want to leave you with one question to carry into your journal: what is the number that would set you free?

And what's one small step you can take this week to move closer to it?

Be brave enough to name it. The people who feel most free usually aren't the ones with the most money. They're the ones who stopped chasing more and started creating enough. You can be one of them. And you can begin today.

This month inside the Dream Life Coaching program we're focusing on creating greater freedom with both money and time.

Not through restriction or complicated spreadsheets, but by getting clear on the life you want, finding the number that supports it, and taking real steps towards it together.

We'll also be joined by Mel Browne for a special Dare to Be Wealthy workshop, to help you build practical confidence around money. If something in you has been leaning into today's conversation, trust that.

We'd love to welcome you: https://www.yourdreamlifestartshere.com/course

With love,