Millennials Should Cancel Those Wedding Plans
Millennials, Do not get married.
Well maybe I should clarify…
Do not get married… Before you buy a house!
Now, don’t get me wrong, weddings are awesome and a great way to celebrate your love with family and friends. But let’s be real, they can also be super expensive. The average cost of a wedding in Canada is over $35,000! And that’s just for one day.
What if i told you that the $35,000 is more than enough to use as a minimum downpayment for a first time home buyer on a $450,000 home today? That might be enough to change the perspective on weddings for some people right?
Now 2021 and the first half of 2022 were a bit of an anomaly 📈 in terms of price increases, but if we average the price increase year to year over the last ten years we see that the prices of homes have increased $40,000 per year.
So spending $35,000 on one night, and then starting from scratch to save up again – while the market on average could be increasing by $40,000 year over year – That would mean that it would take the average millennial 5 more years to recoup the $35,000 wedding spend instead of potentially building a lot more than that in equity. 5 more years of rent payments at a local average of $1700/month would be $102,000.
Is it Time to Change our Thinking?
The idea that it’s accepted as a great decision that we spend so much money on one night out, (which can be memorable or not depending on how good the table wine is) is very odd from a financial sense.
For some it’s a wedding is a once-in-a-life-time event… But what if that once-in-a-lifetime event is your window to afford a home? As home prices in the area increase, the average rents increase so if you find yourself in a situation where the landlord wants to sell, you could be even further behind the 8-ball having to rent something even more expensive.
With housing affordability being at the forefront of most of the financial news, it might be time that we start shifting our focus from our usual traditions to what is going to get you ahead financially the fastest. Investing that same amount into kick starting your future would be the most ideal situation, and then you can continue focusing on saving up for your big day.
