Definition: A remaining monthly balance is a certain amount of money owed from a bill at the end of the month. It is a pending financial commitment that has remained unpaid when the month ends.
What Does Remaining Monthly Balance Mean?
A few examples of monthly bills might be a mortgage, an internet service bill or an insurance premium payment. Depending on the financial arrangement most of this bills have to be paid within a few days after the invoice is issued. If the bill is not completely paid for at the end of the month there will be a pending balance that must be covered within the next month.
Having a remaining monthly balance creates the risk that the service might be shut down. Electricity, gas or water bills are also examples of this type of commitments. Each of this remaining balances are accumulated month after month if the bill is not paid for. In most cases a partial payment can be issued but it will not reduce the risk of a service disruption.
From a personal finance standpoint, accumulating balances from past months is not a healthy practice since it creates a big debt burden that can lead to a bankruptcy situation if the situation gets severe enough.
Example
John was recently fired from his last job as an Office Manager. The lay-off was unexpected for him since it was caused by a natural disaster that shut down the business where he worked at. This situation caught him off-guard and he had not saved enough money to sustain himself until he landed another job. John was not able to pay his monthly rent, electricity bill and insurance premium.
At the end of the month he had a remaining monthly balance of $750 including other pending bills additional to the ones mentioned. A few days after the month had ended he managed to find a job at a local furniture store that allowed him to pay for this commitments and get rid of the pending debt.
