Beat
those Wedding Budgeting Blues
Cascading white roses, fairy-tale
princess gown, romantic honeymoon. For many couples, it all means
saying "I do" to debt.
Every couple wants a beautiful
wedding, and it is easy to go overboard and fall into debt. But
that is the wrong approach to marriage. "Soon-to-be newlyweds
are so focused on the wedding and not focused on reality after the
wedding, " said Kathy Stepp, a Chesterfield, MO-based certified
financial planner. "Couples really do need to be realistic
about the money aspect of marriage."
That's almost never the case.
According to a national survey by Bride's Magazine, couples spend
$42.4 billion on weddings, plus another $8 billion on the honeymoon,
every year. If you are among the 2.4 million couples getting married
this year, brace yourself for a bill that averages $19,000.
Beat
the Wedding Blues
You can turn wedding planning
into a positive. If you and your future spouse are paying for part
or all of the wedding, use it as a learning experience. "Budgeting
for a wedding is a good thing you can carry forward into life,"
Stepp said. "It's a good exercise, and usually couples are
doing this together, so that helps."
Don't start planning your wedding
without setting priorities and a budget. (If you really hate that
word, use the term "spending plan" instead.) Your budget
or plan is not what you'd like to spend but what you are actually
capable of spending with real money -- and that means no loans,
credit cards or poaching your retirement savings to pay for the
nuptials.
If you finance your wedding through
credit cards, you'll be paying for that chicken cordon bleu until
your silver anniversary. Stepp says her most ironclad wedding planning
rule is that before you buy, make sure you can pay off all the current
charges, all the interest and some of the past debt.
Real
Money
The key to paying for a wedding
is using real dollars rather than borrowing. You can consider saving
for some or all of the wedding costs, although Stepp cautions couples
to steer clear of CDs because they tie up your money. Instead, put
your money in liquid investments such as savings and money market
accounts. (To find the top-yielding money markets in the country,
visit bankrate.com)
Even with a savings plan for
the wedding, you mustn't forget your later goals. "You can
have that extra-special cake or a $5,000 wedding dress, but you're
making the choice that that is more important to you than a house
later on, and I really don't think that's true," Stepp said.
In the end, it's all about beginnings.
Your wedding symbolizes your future together. "I encourage
couples to put it all in perspective, over their whole marriage
or whole life," Stepp said. "Think about where you'll
be in 5 or 10 years. If you imagine you'll have a house and kids,
those are all high-ticket items. You have to plan for that."
Wedding
Planning Checklist
1. Think about your wedding as part of your overall financial future.
2. Decide what's important and prioritize.
3. Set a budget amount based on available money.
4. Start saving toward all your goals
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