It's important to recognize a Deficit before it can grow too large, and you might have to take actions to reduce it. One example of a deficit is the monthly debt payment. A person may have high monthly debt, but they must have a high monthly income to cover the payment. Another example is the difference between your savings and debt. A person may have a high savings account, but they must be able to cover the additional debt payments. Understanding the definition of a deficit can be a good way to recognize that you might be in a deficit situation.A deficit is the difference between items that are included in a country's gross domestic product (GDP) and those that are not. Any discrepancy between what an economy produces and what it needs to produce is a deficit. This can be caused by a country spending more than it receives or investing more than it pays back in. A deficit can also result from a government deficit, which occurs when a government spends more than it collects in tax revenue.A lot of people believe that a deficit is something bad, but what many people don't know is that a deficit can be a good thing, too. A deficit happens when the incomes of a nation country minus the expenses exceed revenues, imports exceed exports, or liabilities exceed assets. In other words, a deficit is just a difference between two sets of numbers.