How to Fund Your Own Wedding?

With the advent of liberalization, more and more women are entering the workforce and becoming increasingly autonomous. Women are the decision-makers everywhere nowadays -- from purchasing a car to making investments -- and they are not far behind in funding their own marriage as well. However, if you are here and reading this article, then you may have certain inhibitions in planning for your marriage financially. So, we have come up with some of the best ways to fund your own dream wedding. Let's delve deep into them.

How to Save Money for Your Wedding?

• Open a Recurring Deposit account: Start saving money in an RD account. You might have a savings account at present, but an RD account dedicated to a particular cause will not only ensure that a considerable amount is locked away safely but will also offer a higher interest rate to generate excellent savings.

• Invest in schemes run by jewelry stores: Gold is a constant at almost all Indian weddings. Many branded jewelry stores offer lucrative annual deposit schemes, wherein, customers pay a certain amount as monthly investments toward the scheme for a year and the store adds the premium amount for the 13th month to the accumulated corpus. Most of these stores deeply value such loyal customers and offer good discounts during purchase. Moreover, some stores add an additional discount on the making charges of the jewelry purchased using this accumulated deposit. Famous store chains like Tanishq and Kalyan offer such schemes. You could consider investing in such schemes to save a lot of money while purchasing your wedding jewelry. 

• Purchase a gold bar with monthly savings: The amount that we plan on saving every month often sits stagnantly in our savings account. That’s not a smart financial move. You can use the money for buying a gold bar instead; it has certain benefits. First of all, there are no making charges involved in purchasing gold bars. Moreover, unless there’s a severe global economic crash, you can expect a profit on the amount invested as gold prices have been on a steadily rising trend. 

• Invest in mutual funds and grow your money: Before starting an SIP, formulate your financial goals. For instance, if you have a plan to get married in the next six months, then start an SIP in short-term mutual funds for five months. These funds are ideal for investors who search for low-risk asset options. If you wish to make a short duration investment (15 days or less), then you can opt for liquid funds; and if you want to invest in funds that have a maturity period of 2-4 months, then you can choose ultra short-term mutual funds. Compared to standard bank deposit schemes such as savings account and fixed deposits, short-term funds provide higher returns for investments held over a short period. The percentage of returns may vary from 8%-9%, based on the assets in your mutual fund portfolio. With the lucrative tax benefits, the overall ROI (return on investment) is higher in comparison with the post-tax returns earned from other investment schemes. You can also start a SIP with a goal of two to three years in short-term debt funds after searching for the best plans in that category. Investing in the market, of course with adequate research, is a great way to grow your money.

• Plan a destination wedding with fewer people: Millennials have a craze for destination weddings, but a massive guest list is often a budget constraint and thus a deterring factor. Well, the solution lies in reducing the list of guests instead of compromising on your dream wedding. So, if you have a plan of getting hitched in the next two years, then check out your favorite destinations, estimate the expenses that will be incurred, and start saving with any of the above-recommended ways to fund your own dream wedding. If you are worried about the guests whom you are cutting off the list, throw them a small reception in your hometown.

• Plan for a court marriage and save yourself from excessive expenditure: Although this point is at the end of our suggestion list,  you can adapt it at an early stage. Whether you are in an arranged marriage setup or you’re courting your fiance, it doesn't matter; you can always discuss this concern with your partner. Depending on your financial status and the planned pomp and show, a wedding budget can easily range from Rs.10 lakh to crores. You can surely secure your future with that amount of money and accomplish your mutual bucket list if your partner also understands the futility of the unnecessary wedding showbiz. A court marriage and a small reception is a one-day affair, and it can save you the expenditures of rituals that typically last for a week at a typical Indian wedding.

To Sum Up

Planning for marriage, both financially and emotionally, is a tough nut to crack. However, if you adopt the above-mentioned measures, you can surely save a considerable amount of money on your wedding arrangements and protect your future with secured investments in mutual funds, recurring deposit and gold bars.