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LIW...if you and your bf together have $30K in the bank

Dancing Fire

Dancing Fire

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Joined
Apr 3, 2004
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would you spent it on a $30K wedding or put a downpayment on a house? or buy a $30K E-ring?
 
Technically, I'm not a LIW, but I'm newly engaged so I'll answer anyway!

No question, we'd put it on a house.
 
I would put the minimum down on a house required, usually 3.5% for FHA loans, up to say $20k. Then I'd spend $10k on the ring. And go to city hall to be married.

But I'm one of "those" girls who has no desire for a big wedding. Actually, maybe I'd put $15k towards the house, $10k for the ring, and $5k on an awesome vacation/elopement.
 
:snore: Double post, DF...you're slipping.
 
$25,000 would go on the downpayment and $5000 on the stone. Have a 1 year engagement period and save for a close friends and family reception for after we elope. This is if everything were to be done my way.
 
I don't want a big wedding, so I would put some towards the ring, and the other towards the down payment for a house. Of course, you might also want to consider your honeymoon (if you choose to have one) as well.

I think it really depends on what's important to you. Would you rather have an expensive ring, a bigger wedding, or more money to put towards your house?
 
Well, FI and I found ourselves in this situation a couple of years ago, and we paid off his car loan (mine was already paid off), paid off any debt, and put the rest towards closing and down payment on our house. This was before we even thought about getting married, so my ering came much later.
 
IMO it depends. In my area $30K is not going to make much of a dent in the price of a home - a 3br/2ba in a safe area that isn't going to have a nightmare of a commute and/or require you to put a lot of money into fixing it up is going to cost at least $500K. Thus, we're looking at home buying as a longer term goal. We'd probably put aside enough for a large emergency fund, and then use the rest on a nice - but not over the top - wedding.

Some of my friends live in areas where you can get a nice starter house for $100K or so. If I lived someplace like that I'd get the house.
 
I would split it and put half to pay for the whole wedding and down payment on the house. SO and I both want our wedding to cost no more than 15k but I'm inching it up to 20K at least trying to. In regards to the down payment for the house SO and I are going to do an FHA loan only requires 3.5% and the house we want it would only cost 13K down so were good. Long story short that's what we would do with the money.
 
Well, if he doesn't have $90k to buy me a house, ring, and a fabulous wedding then I don't want to be with him.
 
Dancing Fire said:
would you spent it on a $30K wedding or put a downpayment on a house? or buy a $30K E-ring?
Click to expand...

If that's all we had in the bank, we wouldn't do any of the above. We'd make sure we had a solid cushion for emergencies (so about $20k), put a small part of it towards an e-ring, and the rest towards our honeymoon. I'd rather get married in the courthouse in a dress I already own and take an amazing honeymoon than have a big wedding and no honeymoon.

If that was on top of our emergency fund, it'd be split e-ring/wedding/honeymoon. Maybe put a little aside for a house, but we want to move overseas, so buying doesn't make sense for us for a long time. We still have to save for it, but we're definitely more on a 10/15 year plan on that front rather than the 2-3 year plan most people I know are on.
 
ring funds came out of BF's bank acct and he decided what was an appropriate amount to spend. parents are paying for the wedding.

if we had to do it all on our own with 30K...I would ask BF what type of wedding he wanted. I would want most to go to a house (although we are not buying one any time soon because I am in school for a few more years and he will be looking for professorial positions in 2 years, so likely moving, plus we DEFINITELY cannot afford a house in the bay area).
 
My first thought was along the same lines as Princess, but I would take a a harder stance in that all 30k would be for a cushion and not spent on wedding or house payments.

However, if we had a separate savings and this 30k was solely for these purposes, I would still say that we need to save some more before spending on any of these items. My *personal* priorities would be 20% down for a house (which this amount would not achieve), then make sure we have enough to elope somewhere exotic. E-ring would be way down on my list and I would rather wait until we were more financially stable and not counting savings until I purchased one.
 
With 30k id do south america for 6 months, nepal for a couple of months, red sea diving, and maybe load up the CC with a month in Europe to finish it off :tongue:
 
haha - maybe thats why im still an LIW :rolleyes:
 
If we had 30 K, im gonna say we would spend at least 5 to 10 on a ring. 5 to 10 on the wedding, and than the lst 10 to 20 on vacations. Yes i know it was a choice, but we already have the house, doing renovtions and dont need cars, between the two of us, we have 4 cars.
 
calibali said:
My first thought was along the same lines as Princess, but I would take a a harder stance in that all 30k would be for a cushion and not spent on wedding or house payments.

However, if we had a separate savings and this 30k was solely for these purposes, I would still say that we need to save some more before spending on any of these items. My *personal* priorities would be 20% down for a house (which this amount would not achieve), then make sure we have enough to elope somewhere exotic. E-ring would be way down on my list and I would rather wait until we were more financially stable and not counting savings until I purchased one.
Click to expand...

LOL, yeah, I debated allowing my hypothetical self access to any of the hypothetical money, but I have to be realistic and I'm just not good enough to say there'd be no e-ring or honeymoon and put that money towards student loans instead. I know I SHOULD, I just also know that I probably wouldn't. :oops:
 
Well, my SO is getting control of his inheritance when he turns 25 (it isn't a huge amount) so we're using that as our down payment when we buy a house. If we had the 30k extra I would take 5k for the ring, 15k for the wedding and honeymoon, and save the rest for emergencies. :bigsmile:
 
I would break up 30K this way:

5,000 to paying off the ring
10,000 to the wedding (more than enough IMHO... I'm only having 50-70 guests)
10,000 to a down payment on home
5,000 in the bank
 
we already purchased a home, and our downpayment was 50k.

So i'd say neither, pay for our wedding (15k) and save the other half. :)

but if I didn't have a home or an egagement ring, i'd definitely say home.
 
Wow, tough one!

I really enjoyed my wedding & honeymoon, and one day I'll look back at the photos and be really glad that I had that big, fancy wedding when I was young. BUT, at the same time, you do feel a slight bit of "buyer's remorse" (at least I did) after that day is over. You'll think to yourself "Was all that stress and all that planning really worth $30K for just one day?"

Now, I'm REALLY wishing we had that money because we both just graduated and started real jobs and money is pretty tight right now. If you're financially stressed, it can hurt your relationship because money comes up as a topic of conversation a lot.

If all you have is $30K and nothing else, I would save it. Wait til you have $60K saved up before you decide to blow $30K. You also have to decide what is most important to you right now- that big fancy wedding, a big fancy ring, or a big fancy home? Of those 3, which would bring you the most joy?
 
$3K for both our rings (we're both girls)-- most likely re-use my old 1ct diamond into a new platinum ring and she would get a new wedding ring

$5-7K for the small, intimate wedding

the rest for the house :)
 
All $30K on the e-ring, of course :bigsmile: ! Mommy and Daddy will pay for the wedding and the house. That's what your daughters would say, right DF :cheeky:?
 
Hmmm, I guess I'm more of a worrier than most - even in fantasy land I fret. You guys are good at spending the hypothetical money :devil:
 
As much as I would want to spend 30k on a wedding, I would end up making a rational decision for our circumstances and put that as down payment on a home.
 
thing2of2 said:
:snore: Double post, DF...you're slipping.
Click to expand...
no thing i'm not slipping,cuz most of the LIW don't read HO forum. :tongue:
 
I would get my dream ring, which would probably be about $15k. And I would save the rest for a down-payment on a house in a few years. I like apartment living for now and don't want house responsibilities quite yet.
 
kittybean said:
All $30K on the e-ring, of course :bigsmile: ! Mommy and Daddy will pay for the wedding and the house. That's what your daughters would say, right DF :cheeky:?
Click to expand...

KB
when did you meet my daughters? :Up_to_something:
 
some on a ring... most of the money on a house!
 
If we had $30k right now...

$20k would go toward a house,
$0 would be spent on the wedding (my parents are traditionalists and will pay for what will be a very small wedding),
$8k is going to a honeymoon someplace tropical,
$2k would go toward a ring. I don't need much, and I'm open to upgrades. :Up_to_something:

House takes major priority for me!
 
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