{"id":2214,"date":"2011-05-01T02:17:28","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T02:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailygouge.com\/?p=2214"},"modified":"2017-02-26T02:01:55","modified_gmt":"2017-02-26T02:01:55","slug":"wedding-cost-sensible-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maysfinancial.local\/articles\/wedding-cost-sensible-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"An Expensive Wedding? How Silly. Save Money & Your Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weddings are a great<\/strong> opportunity for friends and family to get together.\u00a0 Many people dream about them for years and they are a turning point in our lives.\u00a0 Unfortunately, they’re also incredibly expensive.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I<\/strong>t doesn’t make sense for any couple who isn’t financially <\/strong>stable <\/strong>(minimal consumer debt, car paid off, owns a home, solid income, etc.<\/strong>) to overspend on a wedding.<\/strong>\u00a0 Let me tell you why.<\/p>\n

We know the basics of money, so we can guess what’s silly and what’s smart.\u00a0 If something is practical and makes sense, it’s probably smart.\u00a0 If you’re embarrassed to admit something, you do it to impress others or you can’t really justify the cost…it’s probably silly<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

When we make silly financial decisions, we’re likely making emotional decisions and not being honest with ourselves. We know it doesn’t make sense, but we do it anyway.<\/strong>\u00a0 Does that sound like success to you?\u00a0 It sounds like ramen noodles and an empty bank account to me.<\/p>\n

The point isn’t to downplay a wedding’s importance. I understand that the memories last forever, but so does debt…or at least that’s what it feels like.<\/strong>\u00a0 Debt doesn’t just go away as soon as the wedding is over.\u00a0 You have to pay it all back and more in interest.<\/p>\n

You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to make the day important<\/strong> or create incredible memories.\u00a0 When you get married, overspending on a wedding is not the responsible thing to do for the future of your new family.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

…Which leads us to our next point:\u00a0 Financial issues are one of the leading causes of divorce.\u00a0 Why would you add more stress to your marriage by having an expensive wedding?<\/strong>\u00a0 By putting wedding money instead towards a new home, paying down debt or something similar you can double your money.<\/strong>\u00a0 Here’s an example:<\/p>\n

Scenario 1<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Decision:<\/strong> Spend $20,000 on a wedding.
\nOutcome:<\/strong> $20,000 in debt plus whatever ridiculous interest rate you pay. Let’s be conservative and say the debt + interest totals $25,000.<\/p>\n

Scenario 2
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Decision:<\/strong> Spend $20,000 on something smart and productive.
\nOutcome:<\/strong> Pay down debt (credit cards, student loans, auto loans, etc.) by $20,000 or put it towards a new house (i.e. knock $20,000 off your mortgage).\u00a0 We’ll assume you save around $5,000 in interest for paying your debt off early.\u00a0 This adds up to $20,000 + $5,000 = $25,000 in progress.<\/p>\n[note title=”Difference between Scenario 1 and Scenario 2″]<\/strong>In Scenario 2 not only will you avoid $25,000 in debt<\/strong>, but you’ll financially progress by another $25,000.\u00a0 <\/strong>When you factor in interest and opportunity cost, the $20,000 wedding cost you around $50,000.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What I’m trying to say is…<\/p>\n

A $20,000 wedding costs $50,000 in progress.\u00a0 That’s right, your wedding will cost 250% of its price in lost opportunity.\u00a0 That’s the worst way to start your marriage.<\/h3>\n

We weren’t mathematically precise in these examples, but you get the idea.\u00a0 The better financial decision is obvious:\u00a0 use thousands of dollars to pay down debt, towards a house or for education…not on a wedding.<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

As we already mentioned, financial issues are one of the leading causes of divorce.\u00a0 The divorce rate is around 50%.\u00a0 Why increase those chances by overspending on a wedding<\/strong> when you could strengthen your marriage and set yourself up for financial success?\u00a0 Marriage is more than just the wedding day.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Together you can decide if that one day will be a big step forward or backward for your family’s financial independence.\u00a0 Which will it be?
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There’s a sensible middle ground, so just think about it before diving in.\u00a0 By compromising you will not only give your family a head start but you will also increase the chances for your marriage to succeed.<\/strong>\u00a0 Of course, if you’re wealthy and money isn’t a concern then you just wasted the last five minutes of your life when you could have been yachting.<\/p>\n

In another article we’ll talk in more detail about alternatives to an expensive wedding.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It doesn’t make sense for most couples to have an expensive wedding. In fact, it’ll increase your chances of divorce. Let me tell you why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,14],"tags":[176],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maysfinancial.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maysfinancial.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maysfinancial.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maysfinancial.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maysfinancial.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maysfinancial.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maysfinancial.local\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maysfinancial.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maysfinancial.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maysfinancial.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}