Indians are generally inclined towards grand weddings. As children grow up and incomes and lifestyles improve, it is natural to want a grandeur wedding. Indians parents, more often parents of a girl child, tend to start saving for their kids’ weddings early on. This has been the trend ever since the concept of ‘the big fat Indian wedding’ gained popularity.
Financial planning for wedding of children is a major target in the financial timeline that every parent plans for. Although it’s not possible to determine the expenditure at that time, it is a wise idea to start allocating funds for it well in advance.
Today, just saving is not enough. An investment plan for wedding is required. It is essential to invest in the right plan with the right interest rate to maximize benefits. The earlier you start investing, lesser the amount you’ll have to invest. For example if you start investing at an early stage, you may just have to invest six or seven thousand every month. If you start investing five years later, you may end up having to save double that amount to get the adequate returns at the time of the wedding.
While investing in products that use the word ‘child’ to define the plan, one must keep in mind that these are basic mutual fund or traditional insurance policy which lock your money for several years till your child turns 18 years. You may not have access to the money in times of emergencies.
Another tendency that Indian parents have is to buy gold for their child marriage plans. People buy both gold coins as well as gold jewelery. It is advisable to buy physical gold than gold ETFs for weddings. Gold prices are always on the rise and couples tend to start gold purchases several years prior to the wedding date.
Kumar Ramamurthy of Goa said, “Instead of opting for a separate wedding fund for my daughter I have invested my money in various financial products. It’s a mix of LIC schemes and equities so that the risk is balanced out. As for the wedding, I will conduct it with the funds available at that time.”