philosophical
planning for weddings when you are single
WSA adsense code -->Ramit @ i will teach you to be rich has written a post about how you should save up for your wedding since it is likely to cost a fortune. Fine, that makes perfect reasonable sense. However, I think he’s actually saying that if you are in your early - mid twenties you should start saving for your wedding. Not just once you are engaged.� Anyone else find that bit wierd?
I mean, I’m single. I’m in my twenties. Should I be saving up for my wedding, even though it sounds a bit desparate?
Maybe I get the point. People in their twenties tend not to have any major life commitments. But people in their thirties do. It seems realistic to think that lots of people will acquire life commitments (house, spouse, kids) at some point during that time, to the extent that its verging on the inevitable. So it makes some sense to save for future events that have a good chance of happening, even if you can’t see them right now.
Unfortunately, that sort of saving is, I think, the hardest to pull off psychologically. And if I started saving up for a wedding when I haven’t been on a date in months I wouldn’t exactly go advertising the fact.
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Discussion
8 comments for “planning for weddings when you are single”
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That assumes that you want your wedding to cost a fortune. If, however, you aren’t wedded to tradition (so to speak), you can spend very little on your wedding. My brother and his wife had their wedding in a city office building, presided over by a justice of the peace with two witnesses (I was one); they then had a small party at home with 15 friends. It was lovely. When I got married it was at home with just a few close family members, and we threw a small party with friends afterwards. It’s perfectly possible to get married for a few hundred dollars if both the bride and groom like small informal ceremonies. I detest big fancy weddings.
Brad is right. I would save for emergency fund, retirement, and a house first. Wedding does not have to be expensive. My friend held his in the backyard of his newly purchased home. I thought it was a very good way to spend his money.
I agree. I’ve seen too many couples start out there lives together in debt because they had to have the best engagement rings and the most lavish weddings. Why do that to yourself?
I think the point of Ramit’s post is that if you saved up in advance, you could make your choice based on what you wanted not what you could afford.
But I think it would be weird to save up for a wedding whilst still single.
I guess it is weird to save specifically for a wedding, but on the other hand I wish I had saved more in general in my early 20’s. I didn’t think clearly about savings, I had no long term plan. If you start saving towards a down payment, or a freedom fund, whatever is meaningful for you, then when the wedding comes you can make a decision about how to use the money you have accumulated. I think that if more people did this, then when the money came, understanding more about the value of the money, they would look for ways to cut corners. Anyway I am sure the numbers for the avg. cost of wedding are very inflated by the superrich.
@Liz
It certainly doesn’t hurt to have a stash of savings regardless of whether or not you get married.
If you’re planning on getting married you should definitely plan for the finances even if you are single. Then when it happens you are prepared for everything because costs can be expensive!