What do I liquidate first?

[candoit]

So here is my situation. I am engaged to be married in about 7 and a half weeks. I am feeling more than a little financial pressure. She had offered to elope a few times which I did not take. Maybe I should have in hindsight, but we are too close to the wedding know. I have a few different sources of some savings, nothing huge at all unfortunately, but I am trying to decide what to tap first to help with expenses. I really do not want to touch anything if possible, but I guess wedding/honeymoon stuff is a big enough event in one's life to warrant liquidating for some spending. I am not including my checking account in this. So here is the break down -

- 39% in an online savings account - (only earning .5%, pretty bad from it's glory days when it was owning over 6%. Highest one our there now looks like Ally, at .9%). This one I might want to save for myself personally.
- 30% in an inherited annuity - earning a little under 3% - I am 40, but no pre 591/2 penalties since it is inherited
- 14% in mutual funds
- 12% in an interest bearing account,l, earning about 3%
- 5% in company stock

Some of my confusion is wondering whether to let the stock/equity stuff grow, even though that is a small percentage, and tap the fixed or vice versa. Market is looking good now, but who knows what will happen down the road.

I have an equity indexed annuity which I really do not want to touch until retirement. I also have an equity line of credit of which I still have about 7k available. I also wonder if some of these investments are in the best type of product

Any thoughts/suggestions on the best strategy for how to proceed? Thank you for any insight!.

[KTP]

% are meaningless without some idea of the total assets vs wedding cost

(btw, you are a fool for not taking her up on the eloping Vegas baby!)

Say you had $1,000,000 in assets and the wedding was going to be $20,000. Our answers would be totally different than if you had $40,000 in assets with a $20,000 wedding.

[disneysteve]

I'm not entirely clear on the question. Are you trying to figure out how to pay for the wedding and honeymoon?

How much do you have in savings? Do you have a 6-month emergency fund set aside? Are you contributing to your retirement and, if so, what percentage of income?

How much do you anticipate needing for the wedding and honeymoon? Is your partner bringing any money into the relationship? Do either of you have any debt? Are either of your families helping with wedding costs?

[candoit]

Ugh, I wish I had 1 million in assets! Not even close. Here is the breakdown -

65k in the online account
57k in the fixed annuity (have to account for taxes)
23k in the MFs
20k in the interest bearing account
about 7.5 or 8k in stocks

So about 165k in total. I have about 279k in an equity indexed annuity which I do not want to touch. I have about 30k in my checking account.

She, I am sorry to say, basically has no assets. She lives paycheck to paycheck and has debt. I have some debt too, but I can pay it off, I am just for now taking advantage of splitting the payments up. Right now for costs I have not already paid for I am probably looking at somewhere around 15k or so. She has paid for a little wedding stuff, but it is mostly on credit. I am not getting help from anyone else, my parents are deceased and hers have no money to speak of.

[BMEPhDinCO]

You don't have to elope to do an inexpensive wedding. Send out evites instead of paper. Get a justice of the peace and marriage licence. Then have a few friends stand up and say something nice about each of you... exchange your own vows too.

Have a SMALL party (less than 30 people) in a rented hall. Sam's club or costco have cheap platters for food. Decorations can be spring-time looking and nice and flowers will be easy to get at those places.

You should be able to spend less than $5k on this wedding if you plan right. That should come out of the $65k in the online account.

If you two want a honeymoon, delay it until some debt is paid off and then save for it - even a 3 day weekend in the mountains or beach or near your town would be nice enough for after the wedding (and less than $1k more). A longer one shouldn't be paid for until you are in a better financial spot.

How much debt do both of you have? What is the plan after the wedding? Look forward more than just 8 weeks!

Good luck!

[snafu]

I'm guessing neither you nor fiancee are planners. Invitations are traditionally sent 6 weeks in advance of a wedding. Have you booked an officiant, church or location for the ceremony and location for the celebration where food/drinks/music/ party will take place? Will you hire a photographer? Have you discussed this with her parents and individuals like maid of honor or best man?

Where did you think you'd like to honeymoon? How many days?

[~bs]

What is the cost of the wedding? If she was willing to go cheap for the wedding, id have gone for that. Usually it seems to be the woman who wants the extravagant wedding. Could just get married in front of a judge, them have a small, but fun reception.

Funding source is a no brainer to me. Use the savings account.