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comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  4359 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What are you doing with your life, why, and how do you feel about it?

Often, the wedding can lead to some money of the "folding" variety. We took all of our wedding money and put it in various mutual funds and then forgot about it. 7 years later we had turned it in to a substantially larger amount. I think many people (I'm not suggesting you) forget that the reason people give money to you at weddings is so that you can use it as a "nest egg", not so that you can spend it frivolously. It sounds like you are off to a good start. My advice is to max out all of the obvious long term investments: Roth, 401k, perhaps a flexible College fund for those kids you're likely to have. Congrats on the house and a BIG congrats on the upcoming nuptials. Good luck with everything, it sounds like you have a lot to look forward to.





AlderaanDuran  ·  4359 days ago  ·  link  ·  

My fiancee and I don't spend money frivolously. I make great money, but I drive a Subaru, buy my clothes at Kohls, don't eat out a lot, etc. We're really not into designer anythings, or spend a lot of money on stuff we don't need. I know people who make half what I make and have houses twice as big and drive 5 series BMWs. We're pretty good about money, for me, I work hard now so that I don't have to later (IE; I want to retire sooner than later). We're actually having a pretty low budget wedding, but I blew most of my liquid cash on the down payment for my house a few months ago. I put plenty away right out of my paycheck into 401k/Roth, so my take home, even if I DID spend it all, still wouldn't be dipping into retirement, college funds, or emergency funds. I am fully vested at the company I work with and put it almost 20% of my paycheck between my 401k and Roth, and my company matches 7% up to 10k a year which I'm contributing well over. Our wedding is going to be under $10k, which is relatively cheap for most people (where I'm from anyway).

The good news is, my house is already valued at 50k more than I bought it for, as we bought at the bottom of the market in our area. I waited and waited and waited to buy a house until the right time, and feel like we got a steal for the neighborhood we bought into.

My father was founder and CEO of a truckline out of Minnesota for his whole life, and despite that, he still doesn't spend more than $10 on a shirt or pair of jeans. He raised me well, and taught me how to make a lot of money, but not spend any of it.

Any cash we get from the wedding will go into savings, or maybe towards a honey moon. We don't even have a honey moon planned because we are both stingy and don't want to spend the money on it right away. :)

Saving come first! I don't want to work my whole life. But I totally get what you are saying. Many people spend too frivolously this day in age and it's kind of sickening. I'm a manager, and people who work FOR me have nicer cars, houses, and things than I do... but I could care less. That's not what I'm working for.

thenewgreen  ·  4359 days ago  ·  link  ·  
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