The Dilemma of an Average Singaporean Groom - Part Two: How much money do you need to get married for an Average Singaporean groom?

This is part TWO of the blog post "How much money do you need to get married for an Average Singaporean groom." If you have not read that post, please do take a look. If you have read and commented that the writer encourages couples to go into DEBT. You are WRONG. Please read the blog post again carefully. You may also read here to understand further about Part 1.

READ ME FIRST

Before we get started let us run thru some expectations:

1. This is not a blog post which you can scan thru and expect to comprehend in less than 30 secs. You have to read ALL of it.
2. My Average Singaporean Groom is base on a monthly income of $2,250 per month. I know many of the readers earn more than that.
3. Installments means 0% interest free.

Yup. I'm dirt poor. But I gave my wife a wedding she deserves.

4. There is no ROMANCE in this post titled MONEY. There is a reason why ROM is not under MOF.

My title is not How much romance do you need to get married.

5. I'm sorry if I made wedding planning sounds like a Maths question. But someone did comment about not planning properly. I know it's hard to please everyone.

My favorite critic

Since you never read after the 2nd point how did you know =)

6. All roads lead to ROME. This is just one of the ways.


Our 2 Average Singapore Grooms, Xiao Ming and John

- Both their starting pay are at $2,250 at the age of 21. (Poly grad at 19 and ORD 2 years later)
- Worked 3 years to clear their education loan.
- Dated 3 years and planning to get married.
- After 3 years, both Xiao Ming and John has no significant savings. This is to make the comparison simpler.

Poor chap. No increment.

The Conventional Wedding Planning by Xiao Ming

- Save $500 a month.
- Take around 10 years to save enough for his wedding.
- Take around 7 years to save enough for his wedding if he were to take in the projection from ang bao money collected.
- Xiao Ming is concern that the hotel rates went up every year from 2010 to 2014 and may be higher 7 years later.

All figures do not reflect the market rate.

The Unconventional Wedding Planning by John

- John decided to hold a restaurant wedding and keep his wedding celebrations to basic but complete
- He saves $300 a month.
- He will need to take 10 years to save enough for his wedding.
- If he take in the projected ang bao money collected after his wedding, he will only need 3 years instead.

A budget but complete wedding celebration

While looking around for a restaurant banquet location, John found out that a 5 star hotel is offering a weekend lunch banquet at $700 per table for that year (2010 rates). He understands that the price will be different 3 years later if he have to save first. (2014 rates range from $968 to $1318)

So John decided to make purchases which can be paid by credit cards by 0% 24 months installments which work out to be $244.93. He will still be able to cover his installments with his savings of $300.

After which he will be left with $29,879. But after he minus off his projected ang bao collection of $25,000 he found out that all he needs to pay after the end of the banquet is only just $4,879!!!

Dilemma, Debt, Diplomacy and Discipline

Although John sees light at the end of his wedding, he still needs to budget hard cash of $9,600 for his dowry, photographer and deposit hotel before the actual wedding. And after the wedding, he has another $4,879 to pay off. Therefore, John will need to prepare a total of $14,879.

Dilemma

John is a hater of debt. But if he starts saving, he will need 48 months to reach his target and the hotel rates will change drastically by then. Should he loan this $14,479 first or miss out this opportunity?

Debt

John calculated that if he loan $14,479 from parents and relatives, he will be able to pay off $9,600 after the banquet. The remainder amount of $4,879 will take 17 months to repay. But due to the first 2 years of 0% credit card installments, he will need 41 months or 3.5 years to repay. This is still too long for him.

Diplomacy

After discussing the budget with his wife, John's wife managed to seek her parents' understanding of the situation and they decided not to request any tables from John.

John will now be able to receive a projected amount of $5,000 ang bao money and this means that John will be able to clear all his debts (excl installments) at the end of the wedding. Hurray!

Discipline

For both Savings and Repayments, one needs to have Discipline. If you do not have the discipline to repay, you also do not have the discipline to save. If John cannot repay his 24 months installment, don't expect him to be able to save for his wedding 3 years later.

It's all about viewing things from a different angle

Summary

So how much did John actually spent on his wedding?
Can our fellow Average Singaporean Groom afford to get married in Singapore?

Singaporean couples are often turned off by holding wedding banquets due to hearing that some couples lose more than $10,000 because of holding their wedding banquet. If couples know the reason, they can avoid it and still hold their wedding banquet according to their budget.

Wedding couples who have done their wedding planning according to their budget will be able to budget for their house, kids, family and future. Holding and planning your wedding is really just the first step.

I do not expect couples to follow the suggestions above, because if the recent articles on "How to buy a car and house in 5 years" by a HK Billionaire & "How to be successful in life and business " by an ex-CEO, did not change 99% of the world's way of financial planning, how can I?

Do share your thoughts but if you spent less than 30 secs reading this, please don't comment =)