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Planning for a Bright Future


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Planning for a Bright Future

When I graduated college, I landed a dream job teaching accounting at a university. For five years I enthusiastically taught my students important accounting principles. During this time, I put a significant portion of my paychecks into a retirement fund. Because I’ve always been extremely conservative with my finances, I invested all of my cash into money market funds. Unfortunately, this decision did not yield great results. Now that I’m older and wiser, I’d like to rectify the retirement mistake I made when I was younger. On this blog, I hope you will discover the best types of funds to include in your retirement portfolio. Enjoy!

5 Financial Planning Steps To Keep Your Wedding On Budget

The cost of getting married continues to grow. On average, a couple in 2023 may be expected to shell out $29,000 for their wedding festivities. This can put a serious crimp in the budget of many couples, and may even throw their financial plans into disarray for years afterward. What can you do to avoid financial disaster? Here are a few financial planning steps to keep your own wedding on budget.  

1. Meet With a Planner. A financial planner may not be on your to-do list after the engagement, but they should be. Getting married is a huge life change, and you should start it together as a couple with a professional. The planner will work with you to identify how to pay for your plans, where to park the money, and how to prioritize costs. 

2. Create a Separate Account. One of the best ways to keep yourself from overspending is to track that spending. A separate, dedicated account works best for this. By keeping wedding money and expenses outside your everyday spending, you can track everything better and you know at a glance how budgeting is holding up.

3. Fund This Account. Have you been saving for your wedding? Are you receiving financial contributions from family? Will you include cash donations in a registry? Getting a wedding loan? No matter where the money comes from, start by figuring out how to fund the account you set up. Some people can fully fund their wedding account at the start, but others may set up deadlines and milestones to coordinate planning with income. 

4. Prioritize Spending. What are the most important elements of your wedding? Is it the flowers, the dress, the honeymoon, the big party, or the venue? Identify these priorities early on, perhaps even write them down to solidify them. Then, use this priority list to make spending choices so that you don't end up wasting your budget on things that mean little to you personally. 

5. Meet on a Regular Basis. Check-in on your financial plan on a scheduled basis during wedding planning. This meeting should be calm and open, and it needs to involve both parties. Some couples find it more productive to meet as a couple with their financial planner — whose objective goal is to help them achieve their own financial goals. 

Where to Start

Good wedding planning starts with a trip to the financial planner. With their advice, you'll figure out the best way to fund your big day and keep it from damaging your finances as newlyweds. Make an appointment today to learn how they can help.