Disposable income: for 4.5 million Brits, it’s under a tenner a month

When we get paid, it’s pretty common to look at our bank balances and conjure up a rough figure of how much we’ll have left to spend once all the bills have been paid.

Well, according to recent research by thinkmoney – who provided this article – some 4.5 million people find they’re left with under a tenner a month once all their bills have gone out.

That means little chance of saving money, little chance of treating themselves and little chance of… well, anything really. It makes pretty grim reading when you consider the cost of things today.

But for a quarter of those people, the situation is worse still. The figures indicate that a million Brits have no disposable income after their bills have been paid. None at all!

One extreme to another

While getting by on no disposable income at all is the reality for a million people in Britain, for one in eight it’s an entirely different scenario.

13% of people say they have over £500 a month left after the bills have gone out – more than double the national average.

The average disposable income for people in the UK is £224.50 but it seems you’re more likely to have a bigger disposable income if you’re a fella.

XY vs. XX

Interestingly, it seems men have a significantly bigger disposable income than their female counterparts.

The average disposable income for men is £272.50, while for women it’s over £80 less, at £190.20.

19% of the men we questioned said they had more than £500 left after the bills had been paid, compared with just 9% of women.

Age is just a number

When it comes to disposable income, it turns out that age is quite significant.

Those aged 18-24 had the lowest disposable income, on average being left with £174.20 once the bills are paid.

And it’s no massive shock to find out that people aged 65+ had the biggest disposable income of all the age groups asked.

The over-65s had almost £100 more disposable income than the youngsters, with £269.50 being the average for people in that age group.