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What is your wedding budget?
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Our Narrative:
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Let's say, there are 4 wedding expenditure levels. Also, we assume the opportunity cost of not spending that money is saving for future consumption. This is a standard economist's way of viewing consumption and saving. Also, let's assume the money not spent will be invested for a long term and made available to you at retirement.
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Input your Assumptions
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Age of Marriage
25Years to retire:
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Age of Retirement
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Pretax yield10%
(10% is a reasonable pretax yield for a long-term market basket of equities, such as the S&P 500.)
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Opportunity Cost result: This is how much you will be giving uo for retirement
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Opportunity Cost Baseline
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Wedding LevelTotal Wedding CostLevel 1Level 2Level 3
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1 $ 10,000
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2 $ 25,000 $597,479
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3 $ 50,000 $1,593,277 $995,798
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4 $ 100,000 $3,584,872 $2,987,394 $1,991,596
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As an example, let's say you consider a "level 1" wedding as a reasonable cost if you keep your wedding attendance small and keep your venue cost under control. But then you change your mind. You figure, "Hey, I only live once! Go Big or Go Home!" So you switch to "level 4." This is a much more posh but expensive wedding event. In terms of opportunity cost, trading level 1 for level 4 will cost you almost $3 million for retirement. This model does NOT include the cost of borrowing. In this case, all wedding levels assume private funding was available.
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Years37
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Months444
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