Poll: Are You Spending More, Less Or The Same?

The holidays are past. It's time to add up the bills and take stock of income for 2012.

Unfortunately, as we look back at last year, an important economic indicator, personal disposable income, has stalled.

This metric, sometimes called spendable income, actually shrank 1.3 percent in Novermber, according to YCharts, which published the graphic above.

A different analysis looked at spendable income after taking inflation into account. "(Inflation-adjusted) disposable personal income . . . remains about 1.7% below the level at the beginning the 2007-2009 recession," financial blogger Doug Short wrote just before Christmas.

How is the economy supposed to grow if income is shrinking?

Some economists and activists are asking such long-term questions.

Of course such spending numbers are averages. And we have to live in the here and now.

How have you been affected income trends and how has this changed your spending?

Leave a comment and answer our poll.

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