Did You Spend Too Much on Your Wedding?
If you’d invested in the stock market instead, here’s how rich you’d be.
Photo by Maria Teijeiro/Thinkstock
Does the happiest day of your life also have to be the most expensive? Whether the average cost of a wedding is $31,000, as the Knot reports, or more likely closer to $10,000, it’s a steep price to pay just to watch your cousin’s latest boyfriend abuse the open bar. If we eloped and invested that money instead, we could spend it on things we’ll truly need down the road, like college for the kids or Jet Skis. Use Slate’s calculator below to find out how much money you’d have today if you had invested that money instead of throwing a wedding.
The Real Cost of Your Wedding
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How many years have you been married?
If you're not sure, guess. And shame on you.
About how much did you spend on your wedding?
We don't have data for people who have been married for less than a year. But to give you a sense of how much money you might have in 10 years, here's how much you'd have today if you wed 10 years ago.
If you invested into the S&P 500 the year you were married, you would now have approximately...
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Methodology
The calculator is based on moneychimp.com's Compound Annual Growth Rate calculator and uses annual return rates with dividends included to calculate the growth of your investment. It assumes you invested the cost of your wedding on Jan. 1 of your wedding year, and it returns the value of your investment as of Jan. 1, 2015. It does not make any adjustments for tax or inflation, and it does not factor in the cost of your kids or your divorce.
Interactive by Chris Kirk.