THE GLOSSARY · BUDGET
Disposable income
What is left once you have paid what you cannot not pay. It is the only figure that says whether a month is liveable — and it is on no statement.
Your account balance does not tell you whether the month will go well. It tells you how much is in there today, which is not the same thing: some of it is already spoken for. Disposable income is what remains once everything that leaves anyway has been taken out.
| On $4,400 net | Amount |
|---|---|
| Housing | $1,250 |
| Car loan and student loan | $610 |
| Subscriptions | $96 |
| Phone and internet | $85 |
| Insurance | $95 |
| Committed | $2,136 |
| Disposable | $2,264 — 51.5% |
Those $2,264 are not free money. Groceries and transport take about $780 of it: they are variable spending, not commitments, but they arrive every month. What is genuinely available is therefore $1,484, a third of the income.
Three figures, three different questions. $4,400 says what you earn. $2,264 says what you control. $1,484 says what you can decide on this month.
It is also why the housing ratio decides everything else: the higher housing climbs, the more your disposable income melts, and the more an unexpected bill becomes a debt. Our entry on the housing ratio puts a figure on what a point of mortgage rate is worth in month-end cash.
In Yoseri, the Budget page separates committed from variable on your real transactions, and shows what is left per day until the end of the month.
- acfc-budget
Your money, with no made-up numbers.
Accounts, budget, savings, debt and investments in one statement. Free with manual entry.