How to Use discretionary income in a Sentence

discretionary income

noun
  • This is a nod to rising prices and a way to attract customers who have less discretionary income to spend.
    — Suzanne Blake, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Aug. 2025
  • There was a time when Arlington was flush with tourists and their discretionary income.
    — Christopher Muther, BostonGlobe.com, 20 Apr. 2023
  • That’s because their payments are based on their discretionary income and household size.
    — Tara Siegel Bernard, New York Times, 1 June 2023
  • There’s just less discretionary income for these improvements.
    — Brent Lang, Variety, 14 June 2024
  • Eventually, all my discretionary income would go to flight time.
    — R29 Team, refinery29.com, 14 Oct. 2024
  • The plans cap borrowers’ monthly payments at a share of their discretionary income.
    — Annie Nova, CNBC, 3 Mar. 2025
  • Enrollees’ payments will be based on their family size and discretionary income.
    — Byalicia Adamczyk, Fortune, 15 Sep. 2023
  • This is where a lot of American consumer discretionary income is going right now.
    — Boaz Sobrado, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026
  • Those with only graduate loans will still have payments of 10% of their discretionary income.
    — Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY, 26 May 2024
  • This could be a negative for Netflix, which relies on discretionary income.
    — Trefis Team, Forbes.com, 18 July 2025
  • High costs to consumers means less discretionary income for spending on tickets, merch and media subscriptions.
    — Brendan Coffey, Sportico.com, 3 Sep. 2019
  • On this plan, borrowers pay no more than 10% to 20% of their discretionary income toward their loans each month.
    — Anna Kleiber, jsonline.com, 12 Nov. 2025
  • Only buy tickets with discretionary income.
    — Charles Trepany, USA Today, 3 Sep. 2025
  • The result is a smaller discretionary income and, thus, a smaller monthly payment required.
    — Shahar Ziv, Forbes.com, 13 May 2025
  • Wealth inequality, rising rent and higher cost of living mean that young people have less discretionary income.
    — Kian Bakhtiari, Forbes.com, 25 May 2025
  • Households also had more discretionary income due to the pullback on spending coupled with federal aid.
    — Greg Iacurci, CNBC, 12 Sep. 2024
  • Borrowers have to pay just 5% of their discretionary income toward student loans, rather than 10%.
    — Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press, 10 Aug. 2023
  • These transplants would demand good restaurants and culture, and would have the discretionary income to support such endeavors.
    — Tad Weber, Mercury News, 15 Aug. 2025
  • The company said Wednesday its customers have less discretionary income.
    — Anne D'innocenzio, Fortune, 15 Nov. 2023
  • Not yet clear is how millions of people suddenly having less discretionary income might affect the economy.
    — Time, 30 Sep. 2023
  • And travel experts say that's only part of the story, as rising costs for housing, groceries and power leave less discretionary income.
    — Joel Rose, NPR, 2 Oct. 2025
  • Their next payment would be due in August and, for undergraduate loans, based on 5% of their discretionary income.
    — Jon Healey, Los Angeles Times, 2 July 2024
  • Payments on undergraduate loans will be capped at 5% of discretionary income, down from 10% now.
    — Adriana Morga and Collin Binkley, Quartz, 18 Mar. 2024
  • Payments on undergraduate loans will be capped at 5% of discretionary income, down from 10% now.
    — Adriana Morga, Fortune, 11 Mar. 2024
  • At the same time, travel experts say rising costs across the board are leaving less discretionary income in Americans' pockets.
    — Joel Rose, NPR, 2 Oct. 2025
  • Payments are capped at 20% of a borrower's monthly discretionary income for 25 years.
    — CBS News, 20 Apr. 2023
  • The Bills already command a lot of people’s attention and discretionary income in the early part of the hockey season.
    — Matthew Fairburn, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2025
  • Those plans cap your monthly payments at a percentage of your discretionary income and forgive any of your remaining debt after a certain number of years.
    — Annie Nova, CNBC, 1 Dec. 2024
  • There are discretionary income, repeat business and compulsive collectors at state.
    — Dewayne Bevil, The Orlando Sentinel, 5 Aug. 2025
  • Most notably, payments on undergraduate loans will be capped at 5% of discretionary income, down from 10% now.
    — Time, 14 July 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'discretionary income.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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