My wedding was just over two weeks ago and as I’ve recently discussed, weddings can take a huge toll on finances. With that being said, our wedding was worth every penny. We were blessed by beautiful weather, helpful family and friends, and wonderful vendors to work with. It was exactly what we wanted the weekend and the two week honeymoon that followed to be like. Pictures from us and our photographer will be coming soon.
As we returned from our honeymoon and got back to our apartment, we reflected on the past three weeks of fun and sun, new family members and friends, and a relaxing couple of weeks to start our marriage together.
Now let’s take a look at how this major life event has affected our finances.
Insane Levels of Spending
The last costs for the wedding (final payments to vendors), expenses from the honeymoon (food and festivities), and the booking of a stay at the same resort in Cabo during the next 18 months (more on that in a future post) caused July to be another expensive month. We spent $6,767.86 during July and have spent over $27,000 (regular and wedding expenses combined) in the past three months.
When you compare this three month average of us spending $9,000 to a regular month of expenses before all the wedding craziness of around $2,000 or $2,500, it is quite astonishing that we were able to take the big a hit and still keep our net worth at a reasonable level.
In addition to the high levels of spending, the recent turmoil in the stock market over the past few weeks has caused long-term savings in my Roth IRA and 401k has gone down over $4,000. (And now after yesterday’s huge drop they have fallen at least another 5 %.)
The Three Year Wait is Over
After thousands of dollars in spending and a downturn in our retirement accounts, how exactly did our net worth stay relatively stable?
I received a stock bonus that finally vested after three years at my company. The stocks were from a now defunct program where employees received company stock as a reward for receiving higher level degrees. I was an intern before I finished my two bachelor’s degrees, so I got the stock as a reward back in 2008 and 39 months later I have access to it.
I now have access to the stocks, but haven’t cashed them out yet. I am waiting a bit for some major upcoming (public) milestones in my company, the fact that most investors have it highly undervalued right now, and because the market has been down the past few weeks. (The stocks have already lost over $1,700 in value since I received them in July.)
This stock will be used to help fund our upcoming planned world travels and/or pay off my wife’s student loans.
Other cash flow has come from side consulting work that I am doing and cash received as wedding presents from our very giving friends and family. All in all, a complicated month to explain financially and we should be back to normal in August and September.
Side Note: We are not concerned about the balances on our credit cards as they will be paid off as soon as the payments go through. It is simply a timing issue.
Our Next Big Financial Steps
Registry Buying Spree
Some of the money we received for gifts is in our accounts, so we’ll be spending money to purchase items off our registry.
Travel Plans
We will now be assessing the reality and timeline of our ability to travel full-time.
Entrepreneurship
Investments will be made in photography equipment (lenses mostly) for my wife to dive into starting her photography business.
Student Loans
Now that the wedding is behind us we really want to start paying down the $18,000 left on my wife’s student loans because the interest rate is over 6%.
Total Change Since College Graduation
(Start) May 2008: –$28,120.00
(Today) August 2011: $52,270.29
Total Net Worth Increase in 39 Months: $80,390.29
Previous Net Worth Reports
July 2011: $53,244.08
June 2011: $53,583.20
May 2011: $60,268.74
Learn more about how to determine your net worth in just 10 minutes or how I use Mint.com to track my spending and net worth progress.
