what is personal income 
personal income refers to all income collectively received by all individuals or households in a country personal income includes compensation from a number of sources including salaries wages and bonuses received from employment or self employment dividends and distributions received from investments rental receipts from real estate investments and profit sharing from businesses understanding personal incomethe term personal income is sometimes used to refer to the total compensation received by an individual but this is more aptly referred to as individual income in most jurisdictions personal income also called gross income is subject to taxation above a certain base amount 1personal income has a significant effect on consumer consumption as consumer spending drives much of the economy national statistical organizations economists and analysts track personal income on a quarterly or annual basis 23in the united states the bureau of economic analysis bea tracks personal income statistics each month and compares them to numbers from the previous month the agency also breaks out the numbers into categories such as personal income earned through employment wages rental income farming and sole proprietorships this allows the agency to make analyses about how earning trends are changing 4personal income tends to rise during periods of economic expansion and stagnate or decline slightly during recessionary times rapid economic growth since the 1980s in economies such as china india and brazil has spurred substantial increases in personal incomes for millions of their citizens 5personal income vs disposable personal incomedisposable personal income dpi refers to the amount of money that a population has left after taxes have been paid it differs from personal income in that it takes taxes into account 6analyzing after tax income is important as this is the money that the population is effectively left with to spend save or invest only income taxes are removed from the personal income figure when calculating disposable personal income 7personal income vs personal consumption expenditurespersonal income is often compared to personal consumption expenditures pces pces measure changes in the price of consumer goods and services by taking these changes into account analysts can ascertain how changes in personal income affect spending 3to illustrate if personal income increases significantly one month and pces also increase consumers collectively may have more cash in their pockets but also may have to spend more money on basic goods and services 