Discretionary Income
Also called: spare income, discretionary spending power
Discretionary income is what remains after tax and essentials — the money you could stop spending tomorrow without losing your home or your health. It's the part of a budget that actually flexes: eating out, travel, subscriptions, upgrades. In US student-loan repayment rules it has a legal definition (income above 150% of the federal poverty line) that drives your monthly payment. As a personal metric it's the honest measure of how much slack a budget really has.
Formula
Discretionary income = Disposable income − Essential expenses
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