Mandatory, essential and discretionary expenses
The three budget categories in order of flexibility — taxes and loan repayments which must be met first, living costs like housing and food which can be economised, and entertainment and recreation which can be cut back…
This one is not written up yet
The definition above is the short version. A full explanation — how it works, a worked example and the exam traps — is still being written. In the meantime the chapter below covers it in context.
Written up from the same chapter
- Accumulation stageThe working years, in which saving and investment build the retirement corpus — the stage where the ability to take risk is highest and where time, not contribution size, does most of the work.
- Debt to income ratioMonthly debt servicing commitment divided by monthly income — the ratio that says whether a household's income can carry the loans it already has, let alone another one.
- Distribution stageThe retired years, in which the corpus built during working life is converted into periodic income — the stage where protecting capital matters more than growing it, because it can no longer be topped up.
- Pre-retirement stageThe middle of the three phases of retirement planning — the years just before and around retiring, when physical and psychological changes arrive and the rules and procedures must be learned.
- Real rate of returnThe return on an investment after the effect of inflation has been removed — what the money actually buys more of, as against the nominal percentage the product advertises.
- Reverse mortgageA loan that pays a senior citizen a periodic income against a pledge of the residential property they live in, repayable from the sale of that property after death or permanent departure.
Where this is taught
Free preparation for NISM Series XVII← All terms