School more important than big wedding
Dear Dave: My wife and I have three young daughters. Is there a Baby Step for weddings? We didn’t see one in your plan, but I was wondering if it was included in any of the other Baby Steps. – Cedric
Dear Cedric: This is a really good question. I’m glad you’re thinking about the future and planning accordingly.
I don’t have a specific Baby Step for weddings. If I did, it would probably come after Baby Step 5, which is setting aside a college – or trade school – fund for your kids. Maybe you could look at it as Baby Step 5b. Once you have retirement, education savings and extra house payments underway, you could start putting aside a little something for weddings.
Don’t get me wrong, weddings are special. You absolutely should mark these kinds of milestones with a celebration. But a wedding is only a one-day event. And to be blunt, a good education is more important than a fancy wedding. This idea may not make me popular with some folks, but it’s the truth.
Maybe this is the dad in me coming out, but if I had to choose between paying for more education and paying for big weddings, I’m going to pay for school every time. Besides, there’s no correlation whatsoever between the size and/or cost of a wedding, and the happiness and success of the marriage.
Dear Dave: My husband and I have our emergency fund account in the same bank as our checking and savings accounts. Do you think we should move the emergency fund to a different bank? A friend suggested doing this, but I wasn’t clear on why he thought this. – Shari
Dear Shari: Honestly, I wouldn’t worry about it too much if I were you. The only exception to that might be if you had loans you owed to that same bank.
Some commercial loan documents give banks the right to take money out of your accounts – without your permission – to pay the loan. This isn’t a common practice, and it usually doesn’t happen unless someone gets way behind on a loan. If you had a car loan with a particular bank, for instance, I wouldn’t keep a lot of money in that bank.
But in your situation, Shari, I think everything’s fine.