Discretionary Expense

Categories: Company Management

A discretionary expense is a non-essential business (or home) expense. Well, non-essential for the operation of the business (or home). Others might say that company party and those free lunch Fridays were super essential.

Discretionary expenses are paid with discretionary income: leftover money after all the basics (business operations, taxes) are covered.

Is it discretionary expense time? It’s fun time.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What are Prudent Investor Rule ...8 Views

00:00

finance a la shmoop what are prudent invest our rule standards via know your

00:07

client rule and unsuitable recommendations well let's start with

00:13

the prudent investor rule standards their standards for what is rational [Man discussing prudent investor rules]

00:17

like those who can't afford to take a ton of risk think little old ladies who

00:23

are retired with just enough money to make it to you know the end well they [Old woman with pocket watch]

00:28

can't afford to take the risk of volatile equities like a small cap fund

00:32

that can whipsaw 30% up and 30% down in any given year no way not acceptable not

00:39

suitable not prudent or what about they're investing in a venture capital

00:43

fund or a private equity fund that takes seven years or more before it normally

00:47

even begins to distribute IPO sales or proceeds so no in seven years that [Woman counting cash]

00:52

little old lady is more likely doing the backstroke 24 by 7 yeah well

00:57

recommending venture capital investments to a little old lady who needs cash [Old lady and little pooch graves]

01:01

liquidity to make payments on her dentures is an unsuitable recommendation

01:06

you can't do that so what's prudent or suitable for her well bonds government

01:11

bonds shaken not stirred maybe a few corporate bonds and maybe a spicy 10 or [old lady's portfolio piechart appears]

01:17

maybe 20% of her portfolio allocated to equities with a lot of safe boring

01:22

dividend yield think companies like AT&T and GE and IBM oil companies a whole lot

01:29

of nice boring math on her way to the grave then what if the client is a [Insurance company man approaches girl with cheque]

01:33

parentless teenager who just inherited a million bucks from mom and dad courtesy

01:39

of the insurance company of the drunk driver who killed them both when they [Police sirens appear]

01:43

cross the double yellow line should that teen be in government bonds no that

01:48

would be unsuitable at least not all in government bonds in fact probably very

01:52

little in government bonds why well for that teen a heaping allocation to a

01:57

small calf equity fund is totally prudent appropriate and smart because [Equity fund growth graph appears]

02:02

that teen likely has decades maybe even half a century before she'll want to

02:07

call or use that money so time will bail her out of the year-to-year short-term

02:12

volatility because over time the market goes up and

02:16

usually a lot let's gaze for a moment on this beautiful S&P 500 stock chart for [Stock chart for S&P 500]

02:22

glassed-in and give her to take century kind of lovely well the basic idea for

02:26

this rule is that the financial advisor has to recommend investments that are [Financial advisor reading piece of paper]

02:30

prudent and appropriate given the client's age health financial needs

02:35

appetite for risk their own career strength likelihood of being abducted by

02:40

aliens etc and a time at which point they'll need to turn their investments [Alien spacecraft hangs over city]

02:44

into cash to pay for stuff well the good financial adviser knows her client and

02:48

there actually is a rule called the know your client rule but you can only know

02:52

them so well before you start you know crossing the lines [Man sleeping and woman lying awake in bed]

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)