Save early to meet the big cost of your coming marriage

HOLLYWOOD’S engagement bling is a 15-carat diamond sparkler! 

It was the new gold standard set byKanye West and Future, husbands-to-be of Kim Kardashian and Ciara respectively!

At home, the value of the engagement ring is three times the proposer’s monthly salary!

This can send the groom into debt even before the wedding unless he has rich parents to finance the indulgence.Or he is forward-planning and has worked with a financial buddy to build up the bauble account.

Bliss orBroke?

Getting married today is an expensive affair, even without the bride’s high expectations of bling on her
ring finger.

If you watched The Journey, you would knowthe Mat Salleh groom had to drive his future father-in-law to deliver invitations to all close and distant relatives, friends and even acquaintances.

“Having face” is all about how many guests come to the wedding dinner!

Ka-ching and more ofit. Besides the pre-wedding location photography either in city parks or to more 
exotic locales like Langkawi or Bali, there is the long list of your bride’s wedding and evening gowns,
bridesmaids’ and flower girls’ dresses, flowers, wine, food, wedding cars, invitation cards, dinner venue,
photography and videography and so on!

Compound theBauble Fund

No girl in sight yet?

That’s not the big worry. The concern is you should start the bauble bank rolling as soon as you start working. Let’s do the math.

According to the National Population and Family Development Board survey on trends between 2000
and 2007, the average age of men getting married is 33.

If you start working at 23 and put away 10% of your monthly salary of RM3,000 till marriageable age, you should have “saved” about RM61,500 at 10% compounding growth rate.

Let’s say your salary at age 33 is RM10,000, you are in a good position to spend three times your monthly salary to buy the bling!

With the rest of the fund, you can splash on designer gowns, wedding dinner and whatever she or he rfamily fancies to create her dream wedding.

Don’t let the bling blind you. Fund i twithout fear by investing in your own bauble fund now.

The writer can be contacted at [e-mail]