Disposable income is the amount of an individual's total income left after taxes, plus any transfer payments (grants) received from the government or elsewhere. This income is available to be "disposed of" as either spending or saving. Income, generally defined, is the money that is received as a result of the normal business activities of an individual or a business. ... A tax is a compulsory charge or other levy imposed on an individual or a legal entity by a state or a functional equivalent of a state (e. ... In political science and economics, a transfer payment is a payment of money from a government to an individual, a group or another order of government for which nothing is directly required in return. ...
Another concept that is often confused with disposable income is discretionary income. This is equal to disposable income minus the cost of the fixed expenses of life (such as rent/mortgage, food, car payments, insurance, etc.). It is income that can be saved or spent on goods and services wanted, not needed. Unfortunately, the definition of discretionary income is fuzzier than that of disposable income, making it harder to measure. A mortgage is method of using property as security for the payment of a debt. ...
Composition See also Household final consumption expenditure External links Eurostat - Consumption expenditure of private households Disposable income is also a very useful indicator of the spending patterns of consumers. ...
External link
A simple discretionary income calculator -- even though this says it's measuring "disposable income," using the economist's language, it's discretionary income.
The formal definition of discretionaryincome is disposable income minus savings and expenditures for essential livings costs such as for clothing, food, and housing.
High levels of discretionaryincome in an economy usually signal prosperity and a high standard of living, as it is a measure of personal economic activity beyond subsistence.
U.S. Total U.S. discretionaryincome as of 1997 was estimated at $930 billion, or roughly 15 percent of gross personal income in the United States.
Discretionaryincome is what consumers (households) have to pay for the goods and services they desire.
Income is increases in economic benefits during the accounting period in the form of inflows or enhancements of assets or decreases of liabilities that result in increases in equity, other than those relating to contributions from equity participants.
To calculate a company's income, it starts with its amount of revenue, deducts all costs, including such things as employees' salaries and depreciation, and the number that results is its income, which may be a negative number.