There is a lot of wedding talk in our office lately, with employees and employee’s children getting married.  Weddings cost money and can be stressful, but is there a correlation between the cost of a wedding and the duration of the marriage?  Emory University published a study called “A Diamond is Forever” and Other Fairy Tales: The Relationship between Wedding Expenses and Marriage Duration”. Below are some interesting facts:

• In the sample of all persons, spending $1,000 or less on the wedding is significantly associated with a decrease in the hazard of divorce.
• Spending less than $1,000 on the wedding is associated with an 82% to 93% decrease in being stressed about wedding-related debt relative to spending between $5,000 and $10,000.
• In the sample of women, spending $20,000 or more on the wedding is associated with an increase in the hazard of divorce.
• Relatively high household income, regularly attending religious services, having a child with one’s partner, relatively high wedding attendance, and going on a honeymoon (regardless of cost) are all significantly associated with a lower hazard of divorce.
• In the sample of men, spending between $2,000 and $4,000 on an engagement ring is associated with a 1.3 times greater hazard of divorce as compared to spending between $500 and $2,000.
• Spending between $2,000 and $4,000 on the engagement ring is associated with 2 to 3 times the odds of reporting being stressed about wedding-related debt relative to spending between $500 and $2,000.

 
So there you have it – money does not buy you love!

 Any opinions are those of Thomas Fleishel and not necessarily those of RJFS or Raymond James. The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but Raymond James does not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete. Any information is not a complete summary or statement of all available data necessary for making an investment decision and does not constitute a recommendation. Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected.