HOW TO PLAN FINANCIALLY FOR YOUR CHILD’S WEDDING

Mark Salter CFP, Chartered FCSI, Fort Financial Planning

February is known for being the month dedicated to and all about love and romance. When we fall in love, marry and have children, the idea of them marrying one day in the future is often far away from our thoughts.

However, with the average cost of a wedding in the UK currently standing at close to £20,000 and adding honeymoon and hen/stag parties, anything up to £30,000, it is well worth planning towards this cost when your children are actually born.

Saving for your child’s wedding was a key financial goal once upon a time but today saving for their education often takes precedence almost universally. So, before you embark on this project understand whether this is something you would genuinely like to do or something you want your child to handle when they are an adult.

The best advice anyone can give is to plan! Start planning early, the earlier you begin planning the easier it will be, and you will have the magic of compound growth to help you.

Most of us don’t begin planning for our future when we’re in our teens, especially for our future children’s weddings, but people who plan are normally those people who achieve. You can start a DIY financial plan yourself or you can visit a professional financial planner who will develop a plan with you.

Set a budget - First, figure out the type of wedding you are planning for your child. While societal and peer pressure can compel you to spend more, you need not keep up with the Joneses. Each one’s financial circumstances are different; arrive at a budget for a wedding based on your financial situation.

Start saving and investing early - Thankfully, you need not invest the full amount. Instead, you invest for the long term and let the power of compounding work its wonders. By starting early, you also reach your child’s marriage goal faster. For example, saving £20,000 over 20 years with a 4% return would cost £54.80 per month but over a 5-year period, it would be as much as £301.22 per month.

Get the asset allocation right - Create an investment portfolio that’s well-diversified so as the famous saying goes ‘don’t keep all your eggs in one basket’. Another important tip is to make sure you keep your savings and investments in as many tax-sheltered vehicles as possible and remember to use each parent’s annual tax allowances. For example, each parent can invest up to £20,000 in ISAs for the 2022/23 tax year.

First, stick to the plan and target a specific financial goal without diverting retirement or other funds towards the wedding. A child’s higher education expenses typically come up 5-7 years before marriage. Ensure you have separate plans for both. Diverting retirement funds could compromise your financial status in the future or delay the achievement of your own personal goals. ffp.org.uk

Here we go again – once more unto the breach. There’s no hiding that times are tough but fret not, we’ve been here before and together, we can find ways to protect your finances and look to the future. Let’s hatch a plan.

Most people describe the internet in their house as Wi-Fi. For example, ‘the Wi-Fi has gone down’ or ‘I haven’t got any Wi-Fi’. Wi-Fi is however more of a facility that gives wireless internet access to smartphones, computers, or other devices when they’re in range of your router. Your router must be plugged into a telephone socket in your house to connect to broadband, or with a 4G router connected to a mobile phone signal. If there is an issue with your telephone line or socket or the 4G mobile phone signal goes down, you won’t have any broadband, but your router will still send out your Wi-Fi name and your devices will still connect to your router. I try to describe it as the plumbing in your house – your taps are connected to your plumbing system but if you turn off the water at the stopcock none of those taps can get any water, but they are still connected to the system. Wireless signal from your router can only be so strong, as any stronger and it could be damaging to us. This is why it’s always worth putting your router in the middle of the house as it will reach the rooms more equally. Obviously if that isn’t possible there are solutions.

Generally, I do not recommend repeaters/extenders as the repeater can only repeat the signal it is receiving from the router and the signal is repeated but under another network name, so you must manually change networks on your device.

Now, going back two or three years we used to sell a lot of powerline adaptors. They were the only thing that really worked and they were quite cheap and cheerful. They use the electrical wiring in your house to create a network. One plug is next to your router

James Flynn, Milborne Port Computers

which would then send the signal to other plugs placed around the house which would then emit a wireless network. In theory going through walls via a wire rather than wirelessly. The downside again was different network names for each room and depending on what other big electrical devices you had on i.e. the kettle or microwave, they might interfere.

Now along comes wireless mesh systems and a game changer! The mesh system joins two or more Wi-Fi access points together to create and share a single, seamless Wi-Fi network that can be expanded to cover even the largest homes or buildings. At first I was sceptical. I had six powerline adaptors around my house and the system worked until I was offered a mesh system by a supplier to try for a couple of weeks. It was brilliant. Basically, you have three or four of these units plugged in around the house, one plugged into the router and each unit then talks to each other and meshes together hence the name mesh. The network is called one name and your smart devices seamlessly change between each unit because they’re all called the same name. They have dramatically come down in price although you can still pay a massive amount for them –if I’m honest I’m not sure what extra you get for the big money. We would normally leave the system in for two weeks to settle down and see if you need any more. To use a cooking saying, you can always add more salt! As you can imagine we now sell loads of these.

As ever if you need help or more information, you know where to come.

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