How to Balance Short-Term Goals and Retirement Savings

I'm in Bo's camp. The wedding is one day. Do not, do not, do not think of it as the same thing as a house. Fun weddings are great, but I can tell you after 14 years of marriage, most of the people at my wedding I have not seen in more than 10 years. Don't get sucked into keeping up with the Jones' on the wedding. There is no resale value on it.

Spent over 10k on our wedding love my wife, the whole party is overrated tho

I'm with Bo on this. Wedding and home can't have the same priority

I appreciate how Brian actually answered the question.

I remember how "Friends" showed Monica being wound up on how much she dreamed of her wedding day. Did SHE have the money to do it? No. She wanted Chandler's hard-earned and -saved money. Good writing on that show: they had Monica come to her senses and backed off her stance to have a huge wedding. Investing in a home was the winner.

The most memorable wedding I went to only cost $6000 because it was for my best friend. I’ve also been to 30-60k weddings and can’t remember anything about them. How much you spend don’t matter.

Fuck that weeding go to the courthouse

You don’t need a big wedding if you love each other

Where can we send questions for the show?

1/3 of savings towards wedding and 2/3 towards home down payment. Agree that you are cash flowing wedding and all $$$ wedding gifts are toward home down payment.

The average retiree, I believe should have been able to have enough to last the rest of his days. It just depends on choices during your working days, just as I came to realize later. I netted more $2m by retirement. And this is while living in New York!

99% chance of a high ROI from buying a house at 25% of income
50% chance of a divorce after marriage

I think you should set up definitive goals then math it to see what works.

For example:
Retirement = R
Housing = H
Living Expenses = E
Short term goals = g
Fun stuff = F
Income = I

Set your time horizon and how much you need to save to hit those goals.

I - R - E - H - G = left over for F

If your number is negative then you need to adjust your goals. You can do multiple things.

Extend the time horizon.
Make more money.
Change the goal target.

If you math it out this way there shouldn't be an issue if you can afford X because all your goals will be eventually met following your structured budget.

You can buy anything you want, but not everything. Accept that and you'll set a strong financial foundation.

I am regretting not investing in stocks last year but still grateful i kept my money. hoping to retire this year Sep at my 55 birthday. Considering the current rollercoaster nature of the stock market was the mean reason i decided to stay on the sideline for awhile, now I’m worried with the numerous bank failures as of late, am I better off reinvesting my savings in the stock market or do I wait?

My wife and I had a small potluck wedding with immediate family and a few friends and it was great. I think people should be very careful about overspending on a wedding. I get that the answer depends a lot on the person's values but they didn't really answer the question...

What if retirement IS the short term goal?

About half of all weddings represent a future major loss to one party or the other; the male being the most likely to be harmed. Why exacerbate that by letting the wedding financially harm you up front?

Brian is DEAD WRONG about the the wedding experience - I was married this year and made it a priority to eat because we had some darn good food. Is anyone surprised Brian spent the whole time talking too much? I know I'm not, I know Bo and Rebie arent!

Do parents still pay for weddings? My in-laws paid for it, and I just got the tuxes & honeymoon. It was pretty mild financially.

: )

For our wedding, my wife and I got a one day event permit for an outdoor park on a river that we love, and invited five of our favorite people, one of which was our friend that officiated. It was about as low-stress as a wedding could possibly be, we actually spent quality time with the people we wanted to, had a great day, remember it clearly, and have incredible photos to treasure for the rest of our lives... all for next to no money. My wife made her own dress, and our photographer is a close friend - but even if you didn't have those advantages, anyone could still have a similar setup for around $2,000.

A big fancy wedding is not BETTER - it's just DIFFERENT

Let me add an analogy. I've driven dozens of sports cars everywhere from Miata, to Corvette Z06, 911 Turbo, and BMW M4 GTS and Z8. Through all of that, the fancy, big power, expensive cars are not BETTER than the affordable stuff - they're just DIFFERENT. At the end of the day, the point of a sports car is to put a smile on your face, the end. It doesn't matter whether that smile comes from state-of-the-art tech that costs a fortune, or simple playfulness that's far more affordable. You have fun either way, but one is a financial trap (unless you're ALREADY wealthy).

I've been to quarter million dollar weddings, and I've obviously been to my own wedding. Both were truly a blast, but neither was better than the other. But...... although I'm not a gambling man, I'd wager that your post-wedding life would be far more enjoyable if you go the affordable wedding route, and redirect those resources to building the Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow...

I don’t believe you can scrap one for the other. All financial moves must consider both goals. Everyday you don’t contribute to retirement is at least 2 days you can’t retire.

Marriage is less than a 50% chance of working out for your lifetime. I promise you 100% that retirement is going to happen!

Your answer was correct - but you missed the point of the question. Please try again but maybe how to balance between importance of the next 3 years (living in the present) vs living for the future

Pay in cash for wedding, state in the invitation that you'll only accept cash as wedding gifts. If you budget smart enough, you can even earn from your own wedding if your cash gifts exceed your expenses.

"Retirement isn’t an end goal, but a journey best secured by careful and consistent investments."