Edited: Imagine someone's income is X, but they cost X+1. Then I was wondering if someone lets me know whether the verb used in the sentence below sounds natural to indicate this message or I could state it in a more natural way:
- He can't add up his business expenses and revenues.
If there is a better way to state the same this (e.g. an idiom, fixed expression etc.) I would be grateful if you let me know about it.
Added: How can I indicate that the person in our question cannot match these two (I mean (their incomes and expenses).
I'm really sorry to edit my question again!
When we say such a thing the listener can easily diagnose which one of the following two cases is the intended matter by the speaker (based on the extracted feedback from the conversation). I supposed it as a default and even didn't think about any need for any separation to clarify my meaning to you.
Well! Let me explain a bit more. Actually on second thought it can indicate two absolutely different matters according to our language:
(First)
imagine the person earns 6000 $ per month, but he buys e.g a suit for 4500 $ and yet has to pay for the house rent, grocery, commuting costs etc. so it would be not surprising that the guy will end up getting in trouble spending his money that way.
(Second)
Imagine this individual earns 2000 $ per month but he has to pay for many things. Babysitting cost, house rent, transportation costs, grocery, eating and so on. Nevertheless the person just earns 2000$ monthly, but he has to pay for all these.