Mortgage before marriage: over half of Londoners prioritise saving for a house deposit over a wedding
https://www.standard.co.uk/homesandproperty/buying-mortgages/londoners-save-money-mortgage-over-wedding-b1229056.html
Posted by Ecstatic_Ratio5997
31 Comments
That’s the smart thing for any couple to do. Marriages cost a fortune these days.
Well why the fuck is it so normalised to spend tens of thousands on a wedding anyway, that’s life changing money even if you just put it into stocks and shares you could have a lot more for retirement.
Never a good financial decision to throw a lot of money on a 1 day event. Especially in this economy
It’s possible to get married without it impacting your house deposit savings.
But it’s if you choose a wedding over a marriage.
I completely understand prioritising saving for a house deposit over a large wedding – but it seems completely insane to me to buy property with someone you are not married to. You don’t need a big wedding to get married.
Cue boomers not understanding that weddings dont cost £500 and a handshake anymore
Wedding industry needs to crash. Utterly ludicrous the price of hire / costs goes up because it’s a wedding.
I know 3 couples who’ve gotten married or are getting married. Their weddings were between £20-25k. That’s a house deposit!
Of course people are putting off weddings.
You could just like not spend tens of thousands on one day?
That’s interesting and shows you the issues with high house prices. If prices were affordablr then would individuals actually sit down and consider a relationship? Doesn’t look like it in the UK.
As someone that’s part of housinguk sub…these people often come to the sub after a split. I’ve also seen an unmarried friend buy with partner and eventually split. Wrecked her financially, physically, spiritually and mentally.
Wedding doesn’t equal marriage.
I’ve watched two family members utterly bankrupt themselves for celebrity style weddings.
The partners i’ve had so far have always indicated they would want a memorable wedding with lots of guests. I’ve always wondered if that’s a disguise for “spend shit loads of money” or if that can actually be achieved on a low budget!
Personally I’d prefer to spend a smaller amount and put the excess into an amazing holiday somewhere exotic.
One is an appreciating asset, the other is… no I can’t think of anything witty.
Our wedding & honeymoon cost the same as the deposit on our house, we were fortunate enough to be able to do both though
Everyone’s talking about cost but I would say some people don’t see that much point in marriage anymore. You don’t need to married to do things like buying a house, having kids, joint bank account, putting each other on your life insurance plans anymore, so really unless you care a lot about the idea of being able to call someone your spouse maybe you just wouldn’t bother? I might be wrong. Is there anything your spouse can do these days that your live-in partner can’t, legally speaking?
At least a house is valuable asset. Marriage is pointless.
Well you can be married and living under a bridge, your life still sucks.
Or you could have a house, live together in it and let the formalities come later.
Big Wedding has blinded y’all. Our grandparents got married at a church for free and had receptions in their parents backyards. The “big wedding” was something boomers did by copying the antics of wealthy people from the gilded age.
Have more humble weddings people!
The average wedding in the UK cost £24k last year. That is a deposit on a very decent first house. Given the rising cost of both, it seems to me that it is not a matter of prioritising, but a choice. Either you buy a house, or have a one-day massive party. One makes you one night of memories, and the other is a house. If you cannot do both, the house is the most obvious, financially responsible and sensible choice. This is another example of things which used to be a standard on an average salary now becoming incompatible.
How is this newsworthy? A house should be everyone’s first priority when saving, regardless of relationship status.
Brace yourself, angry Redditors are coming to tell everyone how they paid 50p for their wedding and how anyone who has a nice big wedding is a STUPID FOOL who deserves to be POOR
£30k for a wedding
or
£25k house deposit and £5k on a holiday wedding, then when back home hire out a hall, catering, drinks, DJ, band etc and invite all your mates for a great afternoon/evening with none of the wedding shenanigans that most people don’t like. Everyones happy, apart from your relatives as they wanted the wedding more than you, and will just forget about in in a few days.
Hmm, should I spend tens of thousands of pounds on a ceremony that’s part of a religion that I don’t follow or should I save it for something a little more long-term like the house I’ll raise my family in?
I mean, this is a good thing. Seems everyone my age (15 years ago) was saving for a wedding over a house.
I moved out of London ASAP to the North West as I knew I’d never be able to afford to settle there, so I didn’t want to waste time.
I took the 10k that my parents had saved for my wedding, and put it towards a housing deposit, and had a £700 registry office wedding with my wife (who was very happy with it!)
We are now in the process of selling that house, 10 years later. I bought at 143 and am selling at 230, so I have made around 100k on the house, and will be buying a small 2 bed flat in a cheaper area outright with the equity.
This is how financial stability can be accessible to most people if you are willing to live within your means, and avoid pomp and ceremony.
This makes sense to me, you don’t need to get married but you do need a roof over your head.
Makes sense. Why blow it all on a wedding day and spend years living in a cardboard box when you can put that money towards a nice place you’re going to spend your life living in.
I feel like it’s mostly women that want expensive engagement/wedding rings and expensive weddings.
As it should be.
Is a 1 day party really more important than a home?
Its fairly obvious that priorities have changed.
People would historically get married before buying a house together because they would be “living in sin”. Culturally it just wasn’t acceptable for an unmarried couple to live together.
Nowadays marriage is no longer essential to live together. The benefits of marriage arguably come later in life when it comes to inheritance etc. naturally it makes more sense to buy a house and then get married once you have assets worth protecting.
You see a lot of young people in the states get married because they still have a bit more of a Christian puritanical mentality and they also have more generous tax relief for married couples.
This is the way it should be. Why blow tens of thousands of pounds on a single-day celebration when all of that money could be invested in your actual married life and future children? I never understood that.
A strong, secure marriage is far more rewarding than any lavish party.
We got married down a registry office and went for a meal with our close families. The day probably cost us several hundred instead of tens of thousands which helped us get on the property ladder.
When I go to these big grand weddings I do think to myself I wish I had done the same, but then I hear how much they have cost, I think I’d rather spend it on my property or go travelling for a few weeks.
After we had to cancel our wedding for the 3rd time in lockdown my wife said to me let’s just put the 25k budget towards a house we were upgrading to and have the wedding in the garden. It was the best financial decision we/she has made.
With marriages it’s a choice to spend a lot of money, you really don’t have to. With a house there is no choice.