Financial Planning Archives

The Risk of Holding Too Much Cash & What to Do About It

Too Much Cash?!

Yes, it’s possible.

Much like any time I sit down with a spoon and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, the same holds true with cash… You can, in fact, have too much of a good thing. When it comes to the ice cream, I always do. When it comes to your cash, we want to help you avoid “overindulging”.

Of course, cash has its benefits:

Security
Financial flexibility
Easy access to your money

Even so, there’s a very real tradeoff. What you gain in safety, you give up in potential growth and progress toward longer-term goals.

Risk #1: Inflation

As we all know too well, stuff gets more expensive over time – except, of course, for the Costco hot dog. One dollar today doesn’t buy what it did 20 years ago. This is the handiwork of inflation. It erodes the real value of money through the years, reducing your “purchasing power”.

The graph below shows year-over-year inflation during the last decade.

Source: https://www.bls.gov/

Even now, with inflation cooling, prices were 2.4% higher in February of this year relative to February 2025.

If your dollars aren’t growing at a rate that outpaces inflation, you are losing money in terms of actual spending capacity. An account balance of $100k 30 years from now won’t do nearly as much for you as it would today.

In fact, going off inflation data for the last 30 years, it would do about HALF as much! To buy the equivalent amount of goods and services with $100k in 1996, you’d need $211k today (based on this CPI calculator).

Thanks, largely in part, to the post-COVID spike, the average annual inflation rate over the 10-year period between the start of 2016 and end of 2025 was 3.2%. The Federal Reserve has a target inflation rate of 2%. So even in “the best of times” prices are still expected to go up.

Cash vs. Inflation, an Example

Let’s take a look at what inflation would have done to even a relatively favorable cash position over the last 10 years.

The State Street SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL), as the name indicates, invests in Treasury bills with maturities of 1-3 months. Because T-bills are issued by the US government, they’re considered to be nearly risk-free and are a “cash alternative”.

We’ll match that up to the overall US stock market, using the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index ETF (VTI). Specifically, we’ll view the performance of these two funds for the 10-year period from 1/1/2016 to 12/31/2025.

Assuming that dividends were reinvested, the overall return for each of these funds during the stated period was:

BIL: 2.04%
VTI: 14.25%

Here’s what that looked like:

Source: https://totalrealreturns.com/

If you were in search of safety for your money, BIL would have done well preserving your capital while earning some interest. $10,000 would have grown to $12,236.59. This is roughly what your cash would have done had it been sitting in a high-yield savings account during that stretch.

However, there’s one (now hopefully obvious) flaw here. The 2.04% overall return is before accounting for inflation. The returns above are what we call “nominal”. When we adjust for inflation, we work with what’s called the “real” return.

So here’s how those funds compare over the last 10 years with inflation (CPI-U) baked in…

Real Return

BIL: -1.12%
VTI: 10.71%

Source: https://totalrealreturns.com/

In terms of what your money could actually do for you, it would have lost value if left in BIL for 10 years.

If that same $10,000 was collecting dust in a checking account or traditional savings account, earning 0% to 0.05%?? Forget about it.

Risk #2: Longevity

At this juncture, some people out there may wonder, “What’s so bad about losing just ~1% over 10 years? At least my money wasn’t subject to big swings in the market. In the end, I barely lost any purchasing power.”

Well, sure. But it’s a simple fact: the longer you want (or need) your money to support your lifestyle, the more of it you need to have. So the growth rate of your assets over time directly contributes to the length of the runway you build up for yourself.

This isn’t to say you should go full throttle on the most aggressive investments you can get your hands on. There’s a wonderful world that exists between the extremes. But it underscores the importance of taking a risk-appropriate approach to growing your wealth so that you set yourself up for the best chance of success in realizing your ideal future state.

What is the RIGHT Amount of Cash to Hold?

To determine the “right” amount of cash…

Calculate your Emergency Fund need
Evaluate any short-term goals (new car, vacation, home project, etc.)
Add these together and voila!

We recommend keeping these funds tucked away in a high-yield savings account. To take it one step further, we favor using an option like Ally that allows you to create “buckets” within a single account. That way, you can easily categorize the savings and always know exactly what each dollar is set aside for.

And bear in mind, the point of this cash is NOT to be a growth engine in your plan. Rather, it DOES…

Cover you when something inconvenient inevitably occurs
Help prevent the need for taking on higher-interest debts (credit card balances)
Allow for quick and easy access
Avoid market losses

OK, Now What?

Once you’ve established the optimal cash balance to keep on hand, it’s time to create a plan for the rest. One benefit of getting clear on your cash need is that it frees you up to take on more risk (appropriately) with other resources, creating more efficiency all around. Having adequate cash set aside increases your plan’s risk capacity. In other words, with your bases covered, you are in a position to handle greater risk in the accounts geared toward your long-term goals.

In short, that “extra” cash is ready to be invested.

Similar to what you did above, ask yourself: What is the purpose of these surplus funds? What will they ideally do for you? Additionally, consider the anticipated timeline before you expect to access them.

Addressing these points will guide what type of investment account those resources go into and how much risk you can reasonably take on when they get to work. For example, money tagged to help support your retirement at age 60 makes sense going into a Roth IRA, where it might be allocated to 100% equities. Funds that will be used to help with a down payment 6 years from now are not as well-suited in an IRA, nor should they be invested so aggressively. Those will serve you better in a taxable brokerage account, with a more conservative approach.

Cash plays a critical role in your financial plan. Yet, it pays to understand its limits and what to do if you can identify any excess.

Frequently Asked Questions for Cash

Q1: How much cash is too much to keep in savings?

You may be holding too much cash if you’ve already set aside enough for your emergency fund and any short-term goals, but still have a large amount sitting in checking or savings with no clear purpose. Cash is useful for flexibility and protection, but too much of it can quietly slow your long-term progress if it isn’t keeping up with inflation.

Q2: Why is holding too much cash a problem?

The biggest issue is that cash often loses purchasing power over time because of inflation. Even if your account balance stays the same, or grows a little, the real value of that money can decline if prices rise faster than your interest rate. Over long periods, that can create a meaningful drag on your financial plan.

Q3: Is cash losing value because of inflation?

Yes. Inflation reduces what your dollars can buy over time. That means money sitting in cash may feel “safe,” but if it isn’t earning enough to outpace rising prices, it is losing real value in the background. This is one of the main reasons excess cash can become costly over the long run.

Q4: Where should I keep my emergency fund?

Your emergency fund should usually stay somewhere safe, liquid, and easy to access—typically a high-yield savings account. The goal is not maximizing return. The goal is making sure the money is available when you need it, without taking market risk.

Q5: Should I invest money instead of leaving it in cash?

If the money is not needed for emergencies or short-term goals, investing may make more sense than leaving it idle in cash. The best place for that money depends on its purpose and timeline. Money needed soon should generally stay conservative, while money for long-term goals like retirement can usually tolerate more investment risk.

Q6: Is a high-yield savings account enough to beat inflation?

Not likely. A high-yield savings account can help reduce inflation drag compared with a traditional checking or savings account, but it won’t consistently outpace inflation over long periods. It can be a great tool for cash reserves, but it usually shouldn’t be your primary strategy for long-term wealth building.

Eddy Jurgielewicz, CFP® is a Partner and Lead Financial Planner at Upbeat Wealth, a fee-only firm based in New Orleans and serving clients virtually across the country. He specializes in providing straightforward financial guidance to ambitious young families as they navigate life’s many milestones.

Do you have questions about what we shared in this post, or anything else in general? Feel free to schedule a free consultation or drop us a line!

Sign up for our newsletter (at the bottom of this page) to stay up to speed on our Upbeat Insight.

Disclaimer: All content in this article is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only. None of the information is intended as investment, tax, accounting, or legal advice. Nor is it a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. We encourage you to consult with a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal professional for advice on your specific situation. Read our full disclaimer here.

behavioral finance financial literacy

Should You Buy or Lease a Car in 2026? Costs, Financing, and Smart Strategies Explained

Why Buying or Leasing a Car Feels So Complicated

Choosing a set of wheels is on the Mount Rushmore of tough consumer decisions. It’s right up there with becoming a homeowner, choosing health insurance, or paying for childcare. And while having a roof over your head, access to good healthcare, and seeing to your child’s safety are probably more important, securing reliable transportation is by far the most aggravating of the bunch. It’s a pressure cooker of aggressive sales tactics, opacity, and time-consuming negotiations. All set to leave you emotionally drained and ready to just be done with it already.

How can anyone reasonably expect to compare all deals when the combinations are endless and constantly changing? We can trick ourselves into thinking we got the “best deal”, but you’ll truly never really know. Furthermore, you won’t even know if it was a good deal, let alone the “best deal” for you until 3, 5, or maybe 10 years after making it. So I truly believe that purchasing or leasing a car just had to *feel* good. And for something to feel good, you need to understand some rules of thumb and key terms. Let’s discuss the pros and cons of buying versus leasing, what to expect when financing, how to choose the right car, and ways to boost your leverage during negotiations.

Key Terms You Need to Know Before You Buy a Car

MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price): As the name suggests, it’s what the manufacturer recommends you pay for the car.
Dealer Add-ons: Dealers sometimes add silly things like “paint protection,” which aren’t standard vehicle add-ons, to increase profit on a car.
Dealer Mark-Ups: Extra fee/profit added to vehicles in high demand with limited supply.
Sales Tax: State/Local Tax on Vehicle Price. Most states also allow you to deduct any trade-in value, lowering the amount you are subject to sales tax on.
APR (Annual Percentage Rate): When financing, the interest rate is separate from the APR, which combines the interest rate with any extra fees included in the loan.
Depreciation: Decline in a vehicle’s value over time, affecting resale value.

Key Terms You Need to Know Before Leasing a Car

Net Capitalized Cost: The price of the car that the lease payments are based on. Can include vehicle cost along with other fees not paid up front.
Residual Value: Set at the beginning of the lease by the manufacturer, it’s the estimated value of the car at the end of the lease. It’s also the price you have the option to buy the car for at the end of the lease. The actual market value at the end of the lease may be higher or lower.
Money Factor: the interest rate on a lease, but expressed as a small decimal rather than a percentage. To get the percentage, multiply the money factor by 2,400.
GAP Insurance: Covers the difference between what you owe on the car and the fair market value. Required by most dealerships, but you can add to your existing auto insurance policy rather than roll it into your monthly lease payment. It’s also a reason to try to avoid putting a down payment on a lease. If your car is totaled, the insurance company will just pay off what you owe on the car, not what you’ve already paid.
Mileage Allowance: Maximum miles allowed annually before incurring extra cost.

Buying vs Leasing: Which One Is Right for You?

When Buying Makes More Sense

Anticipate using the car for longer than the financing period, or at least 6+ years.

Drive the car more than the usual 10,000 to 15,000 miles per year common in leases, which can lead to higher mileage and wear-and-tear fees.

When Leasing Makes More Sense

Enjoy having a new car every 3 years.

Are uncertain whether you’ll want/have/need this car beyond the lease period.

Prefer less hassle/maintenance in your life.
Really just need a lower monthly payment because you have other financial priorities at the moment, or can’t afford a 20% down payment when buying a new or used car.

Still a little unsure? Here’s our firm’s flowchart for deciding whether buying or leasing your next vehicle is right for you.

The Cheapest Way to Own a Car Long-Term

Although the financing terms are important and leasing with a subsequent purchase at residual value could be advantageous, the most straightforward way to save money in the long term is to buy a car and keep it for at least a few years after the financing period ends. Even better, you hold onto it for up to 10 years, after which you’ll need to decide if creating an exit plan is worth it. This will depend on your daily usage and the vehicle’s manufacturer. I recommend that any prospective car buyer review the consumer reports on vehicle reliability and vehicle repair costs.

Hybrid vs Gas vs Electric: Which Is Most Cost-Effective?

Hybrid Break-Even Analysis

While there are clear environmental benefits to choosing a hybrid or electric car, I often hear broad claims that it’s also a cost-effective option. Let’s start with a hybrid vehicle. I actually ran this calculation for myself a few years ago when purchasing a car.

The Inputs:

Hybrid Surcharge: $3,500
Annual Mileage: 12,000
Average Gas Price: $3.25/gallon
Non-Hybrid Miles Per Gallon: 24
Hybrid Miles Per Gallon: 35
Non-Hybrid Annual Gallons Used: 500
Hybrid Annual Gallons Used: 342

Ultimately, it would cost $1,625 (500 x $3.25) annually to fuel the non-hybrid version of this car compared to $1,112 (24 x $3.25) for the hybrid. The hybrid would save our family $513 each year. Since it costs an extra $3,500 to buy the hybrid, it would take nearly 7 years to break even given those assumptions. While I was hoping the break-even would come a few years earlier, this still felt like a victory for our family because I knew we’d keep this car for over 10 years. Or so I hope to, as I admit I am taking a bit of a gamble since I don’t know much about the inner workings of a hybrid car and its expected shelf life versus its non-hybrid counterpart.

Are Electric Vehicles Worth It Financially?

Before the federal EV tax credit expired, going electric seemed to make a lot of financial sense. Even the leases on EVs were very cheap because dealers passed the tax credit through in order to attract folks to make the switch. Since we were buying a vehicle to be our primary family car, an electric vehicle wasn’t an option for us. For hurricane evacuation, we needed a vehicle capable of transporting multiple kids and dogs through traffic that could be at a standstill for hundreds of miles, without the worry of not knowing where the next charging station would be.

But for a secondary vehicle just to get around New Orleans by car, I’d be surprised if I bought anything that runs on gas. Admittedly, I don’t know much about lithium-ion batteries or this technology, but the idea that I could have a car for 10-15 years with very little maintenance and no time wasted at the gas station seems luxurious. If the federal tax credit is reinstated in the future, or if your state offers its own, it’s definitely worth exploring. Unfortunately, there isn’t a universal answer because the same factors still apply to your intended use, expected maintenance, and price differences.

Is the “Buy Used” Strategy Still Worth It?

Here’s what the advice USED to be: buy a certified pre-owned car that is 1 -3 years old.

Rationale: Cars depreciate faster during those first few years, and you still have significant useful life left in the vehicle. See the chart below for why this is now a little more complicated.

Used car prices jumped 56% due to supply shortages that began during COVID-19. While they’ve come down in recent years, they’ve only decreased 16% from their post-COVID highs. In comparison, new vehicles *only* spiked 22% post-COVID, though prices have remained relatively flat since.

Certainly, this might still make a lot of sense, but you’re getting less value for your money with a car that usually has a shorter warranty and fewer years of useful life. The further you get away from a car being brand new, the more risk you assume in its remaining useful life.

Eddy Jurgielewicz, a partner and lead financial planner at Upbeat Wealth, has done most of his car shopping outside of dealerships. He filters online marketplaces for used, single-owner cars with no major accident history and few recalls. Yes, he would even target makes, models, and years that appeared to have few maintenance issues. But that was a kidless Eddy living in New Orleans, where owning a car was more for convenience than a requirement. I would be surprised if he used this strategy with a child while residing in Los Angeles for a primary family vehicle.

While buying used no longer seems like a slam-dunk strategy, there is still an opportunity to get a great deal. We know that the profit margins on used cars are usually higher for dealerships. And if you have the ability to negotiate in the private market, there’s definitely value in cutting out the middleman. Either way, that gives you a better chance to negotiate a price reduction. For some, this is worthwhile; for others, it may cause unnecessary stress.

How Leasing Can Actually Make You Money

The manufacturer sets a residual value for the car, which is your guaranteed price to buy it at the end of the lease. There’s always a chance that your residual value is less than the car’s fair market price (the price you could otherwise sell the car at), and you might have built equity unknowingly. Of course, you need the cash available to buy it, but if you do, it could work out in your favor. Think about everyone who leased a car before the huge rise in used car prices following COVID. Cars didn’t depreciate as much as manufacturers expected and had included in the leases because supply and demand dynamics changed dramatically. This created an opportunity for our family when we went to swap out car. We had a leased vehicle with a $17,000 residual value. However, the Kelly Blue Book Fair Market Value was $23,000. We bought our car for cash with no intention of keeping it. In fact, we traded it in a few days later to a dealership as a down payment for our next vehicle.

Downpayments and Financing

How much money is considered a sufficient down payment? A couple of different levels to this question.

If you know you want to buy a car, you should aim for at least a 20% down payment, whether that is cash, the trade-in value of a prior vehicle, or a combination of both.
HOWEVER, if you are in a strong financial position and could purchase the vehicle outright, that doesn’t mean you SHOULD put 20% down or pay in full.

Here’s the rationale. A 20% down payment keeps your monthly payment manageable. If you haven’t been saving toward the purchase of a car to begin with, you might struggle to pay off the increased monthly payment that comes with putting less than 20% down.

On the flip side, if you could just pay off the car anyway or aren’t worried about the monthly payment, then the interest rate dictates how much you should finance.

0 – 3%: You could make more money in a High-Yield Savings Account, so finance as much as possible.
4 – 6%: Maybe your money can beat this in the market; maybe not. Use a hybrid approach and put down at least 20%, probably more. Consider prepaying as well, assuming no penalties.
7%+: Finance as little of it as possible. Assuming you have cash reserves beyond this, the flexibility of holding cash isn’t as valuable to you.

Thinking about the financing term isn’t much different. Great rate? Finance for a longer period. Meh rate? Ideally finance as close to 36 months as possible. Terrible rate? Finance for a maximum of 36 months. And usually, the interest rate incentives/deals are tied to specific term periods. As another general rule of thumb, we find that households with annual debt exceeding 33% of gross income (mortgage, student loans, auto loans, personal loans) tend to feel a little strapped for everything else.

Financing MATTERS, especially with current interest rates. Here’s a comparison of the real cost of financing cars with identical prices but different interest rates.

In this example, an interest rate of 7% versus 3.5% increases your car’s purchase price by 8%. And that’s not including rolling in the sales tax, title, registration, and other fees into the loan.

Smart Car Shopping Tips to Save Money

Shopping for a car isn’t enjoyable, especially when you desperately need one and feel trapped. For example, if your car is in the shop and you’re on a tight deadline to find a replacement. So our best advice for shopping for a car is to do so before you become a captive audience. This will help you establish a reference point for negotiation. Here’s our recommended framework.

Begin filtering cars by preferred size and reliability metrics.
Search online for any promotional purchase, leasing, and/or financing rates for these makes and models.
Check for any upcoming seasonal promotional events offered by these manufacturers.
Check when new models are usually released. This might lead to a better deal on last year’s model overnight.
Review inventory online at local dealerships, but also on sites like CarMax and Carvana.
Create a separate email to prevent spam in the future for your primary email and start inquiring about certain cars. This initiates the negotiation before you walk through the door.
Treat buying a car and trading in your car as separate deals. I prefer to negotiate the price of the new car first. Afterwards, you can discuss what I want to get for a trade-in.
Use sites like Carvana to get an automatic “buy it now” price for your current car and also check the Kelly Blue Book value. This provides some leverage to keep a dealer honest on the trade-in value.
Don’t let a salesperson reduce your car-buying process to a question of “how much do you want to pay monthly?” You’re after the best price, period! Over a long enough financing period, they can meet any monthly payment. That doesn’t mean it’s financially worth it to you. Focus on the total cost of the car.
A final reminder: the more leverage you have, the better off you’ll be. The less you *need* to do something, the more wiggle room you’ll find.

Frequently Asked Questions About Shopping For Cars

Q1: Should I buy or lease a car?

You should buy a car if you plan to keep it for more than 5–6 years, drive high mileage, or want to minimize long-term costs. Leasing may be better if you prefer lower monthly payments, drive fewer miles, and like upgrading vehicles every few years.

Q2: Is leasing a car ever a good financial decision?

Yes, leasing can make sense if the residual value is lower than the car’s market value at lease-end, or if you prioritize cash flow and flexibility over long-term savings.

Q3: What is the cheapest way to own a car long-term?

The cheapest strategy is to buy a reliable car and keep it for several years after the loan is paid off. This avoids ongoing payments while minimizing depreciation costs.

Q4: How much should I put down on a car?

A 20% down payment is a common guideline to keep payments manageable. However, if interest rates are low (0–3%), it may make more sense to finance more and keep your cash invested or in savings.

Q5: Is buying a used car still a good strategy?

It can be, but the advantage has narrowed due to higher used car prices post-COVID. Buyers should carefully evaluate price differences, warranty coverage, and expected lifespan.

Q6: What is the biggest mistake when buying a car?

Focusing only on the monthly payment instead of the total cost of the car. Dealers can adjust loan terms to hit almost any monthly payment, often increasing the total cost significantly.

Great Day Louisiana: Financial Advice For Car Shopping (originally aired on March 17th, 2026)

Mike Turi, CFP® APMA™ is the Founder and a Lead Financial Planner at Upbeat Wealth, a fee-only firm based in New Orleans and serving clients virtually across the country. He specializes in providing straightforward financial guidance to ambitious young families as they navigate life’s many milestones.

Do you have questions about what we shared in this post, or anything else in general? Feel free to schedule a free consultation or drop us a line!

Sign up for our newsletter (at the bottom of this page) to stay up to speed on our Upbeat Insight.

Disclaimer: All content in this article is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only. None of the information is intended as investment, tax, accounting, or legal advice. Nor is it a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. We encourage you to consult with a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal professional for advice on your specific situation. Read our full disclaimer here.

What is Enough?

What is "enough"?

There’s nothing like a major life milestone to bring on a spell of deep reflection. Since having our daughter a few months ago, I’ve really been chewing on the question of, “What is enough?”

I’ve been asking myself questions such as:

What do I need in order to feel fulfilled in my day-to-day life?
What are the experiences that fill my cup?
How do I want to allocate my time?
What is it that I value most?
What does this look like today? Next year? 20 years from now?

Sorry, folks, but this one might leave you with more questions than answers (not that I claim to have all that many to start with). Maybe that’s the point?

Enough is elusive

It’s at the core of any real financial planning endeavor. Yet it has a way of eluding many of us. If we are fortunate enough to fully wrap our minds around the concept one day, it’s likely to shapeshift and escape our grasp not long thereafter, leaving us searching once again for an accurate description of what breeds true contentment in our lives.

It’s almost never a simple question to answer. It makes sense, though. Life is far from linear. People evolve. Circumstances change.

Then there’s the fact that it’s different for everyone. No one can tell me what enough is in my life, just as I can’t tell anyone else what enough is in theirs. Though, as a financial planner, I get to have a lot of fun with gently nudging people to find their answer.

Is enough a number?

I think not.

At least, it’s not the best place to start. Sure, a number is necessary to punch into a financial plan. We need to have that data point as a goal to shoot for, so we know how to build our resources up to it. But what is it that the dollar figure represents? What does it do? What is the significance? What will that money be in service of?

Because the reality is this: a number, alone, is void of any meaning.

A common “enough” question revolves around the idea of retirement. Most people we work with ask some version of the question, “How much money do I need to stop working for a paycheck one day?”

I just typed into Google, “How much money do I need to retire?”, and the AI Overview told me:

“A common benchmark is to save 10–12 times your final annual salary or aim for a portfolio that allows you to withdraw 4% annually. For many, this means a total nest egg between $1 million and $1.5 million, though this varies heavily based on location (e.g., $700k–$2.2M+ in the US) and lifestyle.”

Great! In reality, this largely tells me nothing. Obviously, blanket guidance is rarely all that helpful in specific scenarios. But this is a stark example of that. Sure, it’s better to build up $1 million than $0. Nonetheless, the numbers provided are empty. As would be my response if I attempted to answer a person’s “how much do I need” question before doing the real work of learning what truly matters to them.

The point is, I can’t begin to tell someone how much money they need if I don’t yet know what that money is meant to be in service of. Life is not purely numbers.

This is why, at Upbeat Wealth, our initial planning process includes an entire meeting dedicated to learning about the values of the family we’re working with before we begin offering recommendations.

How do you know when you have enough?

You don’t usually get in the car without knowing where you’re driving to. Unless, of course, you’re an angsty 17-year old Eddy in his ‘96 Crown Vic, blasting The Eagles, windows down, going wherever the road would take him, finding peace in nothing more than the warm southern summer wind and that freedom that only a few bucks of gas can buy… Ok, digression done. You can’t make it to a destination unless you have one to begin with.

Here’s the thing, though: money, on its own, makes a terrible goal. Winning the lottery, getting a big inheritance, landing that promotion, finishing first in your high-stakes fantasy football league… None of those are sufficient if you haven’t done the real work first. You have to first understand what purpose the money will serve in your life.

Ok, now you might be thinking something like, “I’d sure feel like it was enough if I was making triple my current income!” (and not gonna lie, that does sound nice). Still there’s a ton of research out there that remains generally mixed.

An older study from 2010 by Daniel Kahneman indicated that emotional well-being increased as income rose to $75,000 and then basically flatlined from there. In 2021, Matthew Killngsworth refuted this and determined that well-being did rise with income even as it exceeded the $75k mark. Interestingly, hold the phone, the adversarial dynamic duo later teamed up in 2023 and found a more nuanced result. They saw that, generally, higher incomes were associated with higher levels of well-being for many people. However, for people classified as “unhappy”, higher incomes did little to improve their overall level of happiness.

My takeaway is probably overly simple, but I can’t see a way around it: “Happy” people have figured out how to align their resources with what’s important in their lives. If you’re “unhappy”, more money, alone, is not a magic bullet. And if you’re “happy”, having more money increases your ability to fill your life with even more of what brings you satisfaction.

Someone might earn what’s considered a “good” salary. At the same time, if that income isn’t used intentionally to align with the person’s values, it is essentially worthless. It comes and goes.

You could have millions set aside. Yet, what is that money really worth if you don’t have a clear definition of what enough is in your life?

Don’t skip the critical first step: Get clear on what’s important to you and your life. Find your destination.

To answer the question, my best guess for how you really know when you have enough… I wager it’s more of a feeling than anything you can put your finger on.

If your money could talk, what story would you want it to tell?

Here’s a thought exercise I’ve been toying with… I personify money and ask the question: “At the end of my life, what will you have done for me over the years?”

What story would I want Money to tell me in response?

Immediately, I know I wouldn’t want Money’s first words to be anything like:

“I grew to such-and-such balance across all of your accounts”…
Or, “I compounded at an average annual rate of x% over your lifetime”…
Or, “Y% of me was allocated to tax-advantaged and tax-free accounts”…

There’s no emotion in any of that. It sounds a little empty.

Because it’s not about Money. Money is simply a facilitator. It’s the outcome that matters, the life that’s lived.

I would hope to hear something raw. Something with teeth to it. Something that moves me. I’d want Money to tell me a tale that makes me smile. The kind of smile that grows deep inside and extends to every corner of my heart. It’s a story I’d yearn to hear time and time again. That story is beyond the scope of this post…

If you put Money in the hot seat, what would you hope to hear?

So what is enough for me now?

My current version looks something like:

Spending time with my wife and daughter
Seeing a smile on their faces
Supporting my wife’s dreams and ambitions
Raising my daughter to see the best in herself and be a positive force in the world
Sharing time with our loved ones and friends
Experiencing new places, cultures, and ways of life
Getting outside into nature on a regular basis
Prioritizing my physical and mental health through an active lifestyle
Having flexibility in how I distribute energy between my family and my business
Serving client families that inspire me
Being generous with my time and resources so that I can have a positive impact on others in my community

That list right there. That’s my north star. Or as we call it here at Upbeat Wealth, my Statement of Financial Purpose. It’s an ever-changing work in progress, and that’s ok with me because I want it to always represent what’s most important to me in the moment.

If I’m doing it right, my money – my financial plan – will only ever be enough if it facilitates those things above.

Eddy Jurgielewicz, CFP® is a Partner and Lead Financial Planner at Upbeat Wealth, a fee-only firm based in New Orleans and serving clients virtually across the country. He specializes in providing straightforward financial guidance to ambitious young families as they navigate life’s many milestones.

Do you have questions about what we shared in this post, or anything else in general? Feel free to schedule a free consultation or drop us a line!

Sign up for our newsletter (at the bottom of this page) to stay up to speed on our Upbeat Insight.

Disclaimer: All content in this article is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only. None of the information is intended as investment, tax, accounting, or legal advice. Nor is it a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. We encourage you to consult with a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal professional for advice on your specific situation. Read our full disclaimer here.

behavioral finance financial literacy

Financial Checklist for Expecting Parents: What We Did by Trimester

The Key Financial Planning Decisions We Made When Expecting

Are you planning to grow your family, or already expecting the newest addition? If so, I hope this post serves as a helpful tool for navigating the mostly financial (and some not-so-financial) baby preparation checklist.

I’ll break down exactly what my wife and I did by trimester, but keep in mind that your situation might mean doing things differently.

A general word of advice...

If you have a partner through this journey, work together as a team as much as possible. Communicate. Give yourselves grace. Key into when one of you may need to step up and take the lead on a task, so the other can step back and focus on themselves.

Before I give context to each step, here’s the overview of exactly what we did:

First Trimester

Chose a provider and where we wanted to give birth
Reviewed our health insurance and the estimated costs of pregnancy + birth
Looked over our other employee benefits
Created new savings buckets and cash goals
Reviewed our monthly household cash flow
Assessed our life insurance coverage and made necessary increases
Mapped out a plan for leave
Began looking into options for childcare and other support

Second Trimester

Made and shared the registry
Put the baby’s room together

Third Trimester

Got our estate plan done
Made final purchases of baby supplies

Fourth Trimester

Obtained our baby’s birth certificate and Social Security card
Added the baby to our health insurance
Reviewed the hospital bills
Updated our estate plan
Opened a 529
Made a note for the child tax credit
Took necessary steps to open a Trump Account

While we put some intention behind the order of things, you could certainly switch it up. We also wanted to front-load the pregnancy with these financial tasks to leave space for more unexpected life things that might come up as the pregnancy progressed.

The First Trimester

Choose Your Provider and Where You Want to Give Birth

For us, this was fairly easy. My wife’s sister had recently given birth to her second baby, having had a great experience with her OB-GYN and the hospital. This was enough for my wife to feel comfortable following suit. Still, we needed to confirm that the provider was in-network. Fortunately, she was.

Review Your Health Insurance and Estimated Costs

We knew there would be plenty of surprises to come. If we could help it, we didn’t want the cost of birth to be one of them.

My wife spent a healthy amount of time on the phone with various representatives for our health insurance company, over the course of multiple calls, investigating the specifics of costs and coverages for pregnancy and birth-related care.

To be safe, we made a plan to proactively save an amount equal to our out-of-pocket maximum in a dedicated cash bucket. That way, if we encountered something unexpected, we’d still have the funds available to take care of the bill.

Mike gets into everything you need to know about evaluating health insurance while pregnant in this previous blog post.

Look Over Your Other Employee Benefits

Beyond health insurance, there are some other employee benefits that can be especially valuable when expecting a baby. We sat down to review exactly what else we had access to through my wife’s employer (that’s where our family gets our benefits).

Getting pregnant, while an incredibly fortunate and life-changing milestone, is not a “qualifying life event” that allows you to make changes to your benefits outside of the standard open enrollment. But if you pass through an enrollment window for your job (or even switch jobs, giving you an initial benefits enrollment period) while expecting, this is a great opportunity to make any impactful updates. Otherwise, birth is the next chance you’ll get to make adjustments (more on this below).

Create New Savings Buckets and Cash Goals

Hello, Ally (we love their bucketing system for organizing cash)!

There were 3 new cash buckets we wanted to add to the mix:

Medical Expenses
Doula
Baby Supplies

As I mentioned, we wanted to set aside enough cash to cover our OOPM for a potential “worst case” scenario. That went into the “Medical Expenses” bucket. Once we knew how much a doula would cost, we put money aside here to have ready. Then, we set a target of $2,000 for the “Baby Supplies” bucket to cover up-front costs. The idea was that this would cover things like a stroller, car seat, bassinet, etc… anything we thought we’d need ready for when baby came home (emphasis on thought, because I’m telling you… you just can’t fully know until you’re in it).

A word of advice: Based on your baby and how you choose to operate, you will likely find there are new or different things you need after you bring your little one home. We were quick to pivot on some things, or introduce new gadgets to make our lives any bit more manageable in those first weeks. So leave some cash on hand in the “Baby Supplies” bucket for those early postpartum days. You. Will. Need. It.

Review Your Household Cash Flow

Obviously, a new child doesn’t merely come with a one-time setup cost… there’s ongoing maintenance involved. We wanted to make sure we were managing our expenses in a way that we could absorb the increased month-to-month outflows that a new family member creates. When you get to this point, consider things like how you plan to feed (will you have expenses like bottles and/or formula early on?) and how soon you expect to incorporate paid childcare.

This exercise also helped inform us on how we could meet the up-front cash savings goals mentioned above, since we still had time to build those up.

Assess Your Life Insurance Coverage & Increase if Needed

As your family grows, life insurance cannot be overlooked. The bottom line is this: if someone depends on your ability to earn an income, you need appropriate protection in place.

There’s a reason I include this as an action item in the first trimester. Pregnancy-related health complications, like high blood pressure or gestational diabetes, for which women are at a greater risk in the second and third trimesters, could potentially cause coverage to be denied. In other cases, the insurer may delay the application process until after the baby is born, or they’ll issue a policy with a lower health rating (meaning higher premiums).

In short, your health matters. So it’s especially important for birthing mothers to handle this as early as possible to have the best chance of a policy being issued and earning an optimal health rating. Non-birthing parents shouldn’t delay either. Your age contributes to the premium as well!

Even if you’re planning to stay at home for an extended period of time, your family will benefit from you having coverage too. While you may not be earning a salary during that time, it goes without saying that you do provide a wealth of support. If something were to happen, that benefit could allow the surviving parent to take some time away from work with your child, search for a different job that provides greater flexibility of time, cover the added expenses to keep the household together, and more.

Here’s a previous blog post with a helpful explainer on all things life insurance. And this is a calculator we use with our families to help them determine an appropriate amount of life insurance to put in force.

Map Out a Plan for Leave

Parental leave plays a big role in the finances of a baby. How much do you have? Is it fully paid? Can you tap into a state-paid family leave system? Do you and your partner stagger leave to extend the amount of time before needing additional support or paid childcare?

It’s somewhat of a guessing game, especially this early on, since you can’t know exactly what the due date will be. But we wanted to have a draft plan in place as soon as possible so that we could generally know what to expect in terms of other support and childcare.

Begin to Plan for Childcare and Other Support

Even if you don’t know for certain whether you’ll be fortunate enough to have family support, seek out a nanny, put your child in daycare, or do some combination of these, I recommend learning the cost of everything in your area. It’s very location-dependent! Getting on this as early as possible also helps increase the chances you get into the daycare of your choice, if that’s the direction you go. It’s not crazy for wait lists to be several months.

The Second Trimester

Make and Share the Registry

If you’re like us, you’re lucky enough to have already received a random assortment of hand-me-downs and loaned items at this point. This is about the time we sat down to take inventory of what we’d been given and what we thought we’d still need.

After hours of research and interviewing friends with babies, we built out our registry and began sharing it with family + anyone else who was generous enough to ask for it.

Put the Baby Room Together

It didn’t feel totally real in the first trimester. But my type A-ish personality wouldn’t let us get past the second trimester without getting the baby’s room set up. We learned much more about the supplies and such we’d need as the nursery came along. So taking care of this sooner allowed us to have those realizations with less concern that time was ticking down too quickly.

The Third Trimester

Get Your Estate Plan Done

This had been on my mind since getting married earlier in the year, and a baby on the way was just the motivation I needed to get this across the finish line.

With the help of an online DIY-type estate planning platform, we worked through the big decisions… beneficiaries, guardian roles, powers of attorney, healthcare agents, end-of-life wishes, and so on.

In the end, we drew up the following documents:

Financial Powers of Attorney
Health Care Powers of Attorney
Medical Directives (living wills)
Wills

We plan to set up a trust as well, which is on our to-do list for the current year…

If you’re looking for a helpful primer on the various estate planning documents and the important roles they play in your family’s life, start by reading this blog post.

Make any Final Purchases

In the final weeks, we filled in any gaps from the registry and hand-me-downs. I have to plug Facebook Marketplace and local “Buy Nothing” groups here. With resources like these, you really don’t have to spend a small fortune on all that baby stuff, unlike what the baby industrial complex might have you believe (unless that’s your thing, which is cool too).

The Fourth Trimester (yes, this is a thing)

Get the Birth Certificate and Social Security Card

After marking the baby, these two documents are a top priority as you navigate those first few dizzying days. In our case, the hospital had a person responsible for grabbing one of us for a few minutes to fill out the necessary forms. They then handled mailing them off to the proper destinations and provided the next steps for us to complete at home. I couldn’t see straight to know if my spelling was correct, so it was a pleasant surprise when the documents came back with our baby’s name spelled the way we wanted.

Add Baby to Your Health Insurance

As I mentioned above, birth is a qualifying life event, so this is the precious window where you want to get your newest family member added to your health insurance. Employers will give you 30 days (or more, in some cases) to get this done.

For us, this meant notifying my wife’s HR department and our insurance company. We had to send in a copy of our daughter’s birth certificate and provide her Social Security number, so it’s helpful to be on top of getting these promptly.

Review the Hospital Bills

This part was anxiety-inducing, even though we’d prepared for the worst-case scenario. Be on the lookout for those bills. And don’t worry, they know how to find you. Review them carefully and know that you have some options. If you feel inclined to do so, negotiating your bill can possibly save you some money. Also, many healthcare providers will offer generous payment plans that could include 0% interest.

Update Your Estate Plan, If Needed

Now that our daughter had been born, there were a couple of things we wanted to adjust in our plan. Don’t let any updates to your plan slip through the cracks!

Open a 529

Since we wanted to get money to work for college quickly, we opened a 529 as soon as our daughter had a Social Security Number. This is all you’ll need to get the account open (on top of the basic stuff like name and address).

Check out Mike’s college savings blog post for a more in-depth look at how we think about planning for education costs.

If you want to be creative and open a 529 sooner… You could start one before your child is even here and designate yourself as the beneficiary (if you don’t already have one). Start funding it whenever you want. Then, after your baby arrives, simply change the beneficiary of the account from you to them. 529s allow for a beneficiary change to a “qualified family member” at any time without taxes or penalty. Your child counts as one such qualifying family member.

Make a Note for the Child Tax Credit

The IRS gives a $2,200 tax credit for each child under age 17. Up to $1,700 of this is refundable. Both of these amounts are the same for tax years 2025 and 2026.

So if you welcomed a new child in 2025, you could get a larger refund (or owe less money) come tax time this year. Moving forward, you can also decide whether or not you want your W4 to reflect the child tax credit.

Including the child tax credit on your W4 generally results in a higher paycheck throughout the year and less, or no refund at tax time (get your money when you earn it). By not notating the credit on your W4, you’ll get a smaller paycheck throughout the year and may get a larger refund.

And don’t forget that other dependents – those aged 17-18, full-time college students ages 19-23, or older dependents – can be claimed for a nonrefundable credit of up to $500 each.

Make a Note or Take Action to Open a Trump Account

Since our daughter was born in 2025, she’s eligible to receive $1,000 from the Treasury Department toward a Trump Account in her name. We don’t plan to add any additional funds, but we’re happy to accept the free money!

To sign up, the IRS has a new document: Form 4547, which you can file with your 2025 tax return, indicating that you’d like an account to be opened. Our CPA included a checkbox on his intake form for our 2025 taxes to make sure this gets included with the return.

There’s also an online portal that should allow for enrollment this coming summer.

Eddy Jurgielewicz, CFP® is a Partner and Lead Financial Planner at Upbeat Wealth, a fee-only firm based in New Orleans and serving clients virtually across the country. He specializes in providing straightforward financial guidance to ambitious young families as they navigate life’s many milestones.

Do you have questions about what we shared in this post, or anything else in general? Feel free to schedule a free consultation or drop us a line!

Sign up for our newsletter (at the bottom of this page) to stay up to speed on our Upbeat Insight.

Disclaimer: All content in this article is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only. None of the information is intended as investment, tax, accounting, or legal advice. Nor is it a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. We encourage you to consult with a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal professional for advice on your specific situation. Read our full disclaimer here.

Expecting Parents Growing Family

Planning a Wedding Without Losing Your Mind or Your Shirt

Wedding Budgeting for Couples: How to Plan a Wedding Without Financial Stress

For most couples, planning a wedding marks their first serious financial discussion together. It’s a major step up from playful “we don’t even need to spend money to have fun together” dates or choosing a restaurant. Add in varying family wealth levels, a saver versus spender dynamic, and a tight schedule, and it’s almost like Leo Beiderman and Sarah Hotchner getting married with a huge asteroid looming (Deep Impact reference!). Sneaky move by Leo, too – “Marry me because it’s your only chance to survive.” Romantic! All to say, navigating this milestone together requires collaboration, trust, a shared vision, and, of course, a spreadsheet.

Here’s how you can ensure your wedding experience is fulfilling and enriching for your soul, instead of being stressful and exhausting while trying to meet someone else’s idea of the perfect event.

Open Communication is Key

Create a Vision Board

Exchange your visions for the event and the corresponding weekend. Where are you? How many separate events are there? Are you heading straight to a honeymoon?

Separate your vision board into three (3) columns:

Non-Negotiables
Nice-to-Haves
Won’t Go Into Debt for

This will help organize the process of weighing trade-offs among various vendors and focus on what matters most. Our firm believes that how you live your life and celebrate important moments matters.

Therefore, we encourage you not to hold back while creating your vision board, even BEFORE discussing the money.

Finding a Realistic Financial Starting Point for Your Wedding

Disregard Broad Data Re: Wedding Spending

“What do weddings actually cost?” A well-intentioned question, but the answer completely misses the point. There is no one-size-fits-all wedding. And while this is just one data point, I’d argue it does more harm than good. Don’t emotionally anchor how much you should spend on your wedding to the “average” cost others spent on theirs. “Oh, the average wedding cost in Louisiana is $34,000, but we *feel* like we are doing better than most, so we probably can spend twice that amount.” Disaster!

Transparency Around Money

Without completely depleting your household’s individual savings, how much money do you have to contribute to the wedding today? This will vary depending on the household. Besides the emotional concern of how much savings you’ll dip into, it’s important to be realistic about factors such as job security, the ability to rebuild your emergency fund, and the opportunity cost of allocating this money elsewhere. Losing sleep over overextending yourself on your wedding and living paycheck-to-paycheck, or worse, accumulating debt without a realistic payoff plan, won’t help create a stress-free experience.

When It Comes to Stakeholders, Don’t Assume!

Bizarre traditions are well, bizarre traditions. Never assume that one partner’s family will pay for the entire wedding. If you’re fortunate enough to have stakeholders, approach them candidly about what they can contribute. Understanding their financial input will help you better align their resources with a meaningful part of the weekend. More on that later!

Establishing a Timeline

It’s not only the newly engaged who need assistance with wedding budgeting; parents may also be overwhelmed. Even if you believe your parents can cover part of the costs, their funds might not be instantly accessible. Engagements tend to happen rather abruptly. As a financial planner, I frequently see that parents need extra guidance on how much they can contribute and a pathway to making those funds liquid when needed. There’s nothing wrong with having a long engagement, especially if it gives you more time and opportunity to save for your wedding.

Enter: The Spreadsheet

Yes, you need a spreadsheet. Fortunately, you don’t have to start from scratch. Many wedding-oriented websites offer a free one to help you get started. Here’s what I think is important to track:

Estimated Cost
Actual Cost
Difference (Estimated Cost – Actual Cost)
Vendor Name
Vendor Contact Details
Deposit Amount
Paid (YES/NO)
Final Payment Due Date
Amount Remaining
Source of Payment

Once your spreadsheet is set up, I’d recommend narrowing down your guest list. Who NEEDS to be there? The venue is the most consequential decision you have to make, so make sure you research venues that fit your mandatory guest count. Now you can start getting a feel for what venues cost, what dates are available, and what’s included in the price. You can duplicate your spreadsheet to compare different venue scenarios. Some may include everything in the price, while others only provide the bare space. This will also allow you to experiment with your expected guest count and see how it impacts your budget. Remember, it all comes down to identifying your non-negotiables, which definitely includes guest attendance. If you can afford your “nice-to-have” items, that’s an added bonus!

As you start pulling in quotes from vendors, it’s a great time to revisit discussions with your parents or stakeholders. Instead of giving you a check, it may be more meaningful to “sponsor” something. Whether it’s the band, a dress, or a reception dinner, this is an excellent way for them to feel more connected to the wedding. Hell, that excitement may even put a few more dollars in your pocket.

Budget vs. Reality

There’s your original budget, and then there’s reality. CRINGE MEME, sorry Gen Z!

Wedding expenses are similar to home renovations; once you start, it’s hard to stay within your budget. Unexpected costs will arise, and you’ll find it hard to resist adding certain items.

The more you think you thought of everything, the more surprised you’ll be that you haven’t. You should anticipate paying 1.5 to 2x your original budget.

Show Me The Money

Wedding Fund Location

You’ve set money aside, and you’re continuing to save, but where does it go? While you may be able to postpone other large purchases, like a home, if investment returns don’t align with your desired timeline, a wedding has a definitive date, and most of the money is due before it happens. Therefore, you should not be looking to *grow* this money as if it were your long-term retirement fund. Keep the wedding expense money in cash and liquid. If you’re already using a portion of your investments to fund the festivities, it can be tempting to keep it invested. But you’re taking a huge gamble that your wedding could become incredibly more expensive if you have to sell those assets at an inopportune time.

See the illustration below, which shows that the average year sees a stock market drop of -13.5%.

It’s Okay to Pause Retirement Savings, But…

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I’m okay with you pausing your retirement savings to help absorb the cost of a wedding (if that’s something you value!). Life is for living, and it’s okay to lean into those moments. But you should really have a plan for getting back on track. Extenuating circumstances aside, a majority of families should be putting atleast 10% of their gross income toward their retirement. This also isn’t great if you’re losing your 401k match. It’s another *hidden* cost that increases the overall expense of the wedding.

In personal finance, you either make small behavioral changes now or face the need for drastic changes later. And while the roadmap isn’t or doesn’t need to be universal, it tends to get harder, not easier, post-wedding.

The Wedding Economy is Real… Expensive

This is just an anecdote from our wedding, but we were surprised at how costly some rental items were. Instead, we chose to *purchase* certain items and resell them afterward. My wife heroically handled ordering custom pieces from Alibaba for less than the rental cost. We then resold those items on Facebook Marketplace because, well, is there any other place to buy anything? Used is Vintage. Vintage is Beautiful! We also purchased a used Cricut, which helped us create and further customize decorations. I say *we/us* very liberally. I’m not even sure I qualified as an elf in this Santa wedding workshop my wife was running.

Debt Can Be An Ally, But It Is Not Your Friend

There are three (3) important distinctions when it comes to using debt to fund a portion of your wedding, whether it’s through credit cards, venue payment plans, or a personal loan.

Opportunity cost is in your favor. You already have the money, but you are taking advantage of a promotional opportunity that lets you keep it earning interest by shifting certain expenses to a later date.
Income is coming, but you need some extra time. You have a completely reasonable path to paying off the wedding in full from your income/wages, and you are using a 0% credit card promotional rate with some timely benefits (honeymoon!) to create extra runway.
This is a YOLO moment, and you’re taking on high-interest debt you can’t afford to pay off now or in the future without a substantial change in your financial situation.

As mentioned earlier in this post, it’s important to be very clear about where to draw the line and what expenses aren’t worth going into debt for. Financial issues are the primary source of stress in relationships, so accumulating debt on day one is not a recipe for success. Which is my next point…

The Wedding Is The Beginning, Not The End

The beautiful thing about working with young couples is the cluster of milestones that tend to happen close together. Weddings, homes, starting a family, maybe even starting a business. Don’t lose sight of your longer-term goals. Always keep your vision of a wealthy life in mind and collaborate openly with your partner to define and live out your shared statement of financial purpose.

Frequently Asked Questions About Wedding Budgeting

Q1: How much should a couple spend on a wedding?
There is no “right” amount to spend on a wedding. Couples should base their budget on available cash, income stability, future goals, and what they value most—rather than national or state averages.

Q2: Is it okay to go into debt for a wedding?
Debt can make sense in limited situations, such as using a 0% promotional credit card with a clear payoff plan. High-interest debt without a realistic repayment strategy can create long-term financial stress early in a marriage.

Q3: Where should wedding savings be kept?
Wedding funds should be kept in cash or a high-yield savings account. Because weddings have a fixed date, investing this money exposes couples to unnecessary market risk.

Q4: Should couples pause retirement savings to pay for a wedding?
Temporarily pausing retirement contributions can be reasonable if there’s a plan to resume quickly. However, couples should account for the lost employer match and long-term opportunity cost.

Q5: How can families contribute without causing conflict?
Open conversations about expectations and boundaries are key. Allowing family members to “sponsor” specific wedding elements can help them feel involved without losing control of the overall plan.

Q6: Why do weddings almost always exceed the original budget?
Unexpected costs, upgrades, and emotional decision-making add up quickly. Couples should plan for wedding costs to be 1.5–2x their initial estimate.

Q7: What’s the biggest financial mistake couples make when planning a wedding?
Anchoring decisions to average wedding costs instead of their personal financial reality—often leading to overspending or unnecessary debt.

Great Day Louisiana: Planning To Pay For Your Big Day (originally aired on January 20th, 2026)

Mike Turi, CFP® APMA™ is the Founder and a Lead Financial Planner at Upbeat Wealth, a fee-only firm based in New Orleans and serving clients virtually across the country. He specializes in providing straightforward financial guidance to ambitious young families as they navigate life’s many milestones.

Do you have questions about what we shared in this post, or anything else in general? Feel free to schedule a free consultation or drop us a line!

Sign up for our newsletter (at the bottom of this page) to stay up to speed on our Upbeat Insight.

Disclaimer: All content in this article is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only. None of the information is intended as investment, tax, accounting, or legal advice. Nor is it a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. We encourage you to consult with a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal professional for advice on your specific situation. Read our full disclaimer here.

budgeting cash flow wedding

Employee Benefits to Take Advantage of When Expecting a Baby

Employee Benefits to Take Advantage of When Expecting a Baby

Traditionally, Open Enrollment is synonymous with health care. Assessing employer-sponsored coverage amid rising costs and premiums. In a previous piece, we provided a checklist to help you evaluate your health insurance options during pregnancy and coordinate with your spouse. But if you’re expecting, here are some lesser-known benefits you should be aware of when reviewing your employee benefits booklet. In this blog, we’ll discuss how to save money on labor & delivery, childcare, and estate planning.

Labor & Delivery: How Hospital Indemnity Insurance May Reduce Hospital Costs

What is Hospital Indemnity Insurance?

Hospital Indemnity Insurance provides a lump-sum payment if you are admitted to the hospital, along with daily benefits during your hospitalization.

Who Is Elgible for Hospital Indemnity Coverage?

Not all hospital indemnity insurance covers childbirth-related hospitalization or any planned inpatient hospital stay. Some employers offer coverage solely to alleviate some of the financial stress associated with having a baby. Others, not so much. It’s not uncommon to see these plans exclude expected inpatient hospital stays, pregnancy, and/or preexisting conditions. Read your summary plan document or speak with someone in HR before opting into this insurance benefit if you’re unsure which hospitalizations are covered.

Typical Cost and Payout for Hospital Indemnity Plans

Most larger employers offer this benefit with two (2) options: a “Low Plan” and a “High Plan”. The “Low Plan” being slightly cheaper with a smaller cash benefit.

The average cost we see is about $30/month, deducted after-tax from your paycheck.

For “High Plans”, we typically see a lump sum initial hospitalization benefit of $1,000 and a daily benefit of $100/day.

Hospital Indemnity Example for Labor & Delivery

A couple is 6 months pregnant in November. Through one of their employers, they have access to Hospital Indemnity insurance. The premium is $30/mo deducted from their paycheck. Therefore, they will pay $360 in 2026 for this benefit. Their benefit for the plan is as shown above: a $1,000 lump sum if either participant is hospitalized and a daily benefit of $100/day. In February, they give birth to their child and spend three nights in the hospital. They submit their hospital bill and receive a cash benefit of $1,000 + ($150 x 3), or $1,450. Since they will pay $360 for the year, they come out ahead by $1,090, which they can put toward their health insurance deductible.

Wait, It Gets Better

If each partner has access to Hospital Indemnity insurance through their respective employers, there may be no condition preventing them from collecting a cash benefit for the same event.

What To Watch Out For With Hospital Indemnity Insurance

Most require you to pay into it for the whole year. If you choose to opt out during your Qualifying Life Event enrollment period before receiving your cash benefit, you might lose your eligibility to collect it.

How a Dependent Care FSA Lowers Your Tax Bill

What Is a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (DCFSA)?

A Dependent Care FSA is a tax-advantaged account where you can set aside pre-tax dollars to pay for dependent care that enables you to work.

Dependent Care FSA Eligibility Rules for Married Couples

There is a household limit of $7,500 maximum. This is a household limit, not an individual limit. Therefore, it’s irrelevant whether you have multiple children or access to multiple employer-sponsored Dependent Care FSAs; you can only contribute a total of $7,500 annually for your household. Generally speaking, both spouses must be working and have incomes above the contribution amount. There are some exceptions for full-time students and those who are job hunting.

Most mid-sized to large employers offer these, and it’s also quite common for small employers to offer them. This is exclusively available as an employee benefit, and there is no other way to contribute to a Dependent Care FSA.

How Much You Can Contribute to a Dependent Care FSA

There isn’t any “pricing”; it’s just money deducted evenly from your paycheck that you can reimburse yourself for later after proof of claim of an eligible expense.

Dependent Care FSA Tax Savings Example

A couple knows their daycare costs will exceed the $7,500 DCFSA maximum contribution amount and contributes accordingly. $312.50 will be deducted from their semi-monthly paycheck throughout the year. This couple is in the 24% federal marginal tax bracket and the 3% state marginal tax bracket. Contributions are not subject to federal or most state taxes and are also exempt from FICA taxes (Social Security and Medicare), which have a tax rate of 7.65%. As a result, they reduced their taxes by $2,598.75 ($7,500 x (24% + 3% + 7.65%)) by making the full DCFSA contribution and reimbursing themselves for eligible childcare costs.

Common Dependent Care FSA Mistakes to Avoid

Like all “Flexible Spending Accounts,” these funds are use-it-or-lose-it. You might be able to carry over a small amount to spend in the following year, but it’s better only to contribute what you’re guaranteed to spend in the current year. Furthermore, informal childcare arrangements, such as paying a family member or babysitter in cash, are not eligible for reimbursement.

Estate Planning Benefits for New Parents

What Is Group Legal Insurance?

Certain plans provide prepaid legal services and coverage for estate documents, along with various other services such as real estate, adoptions, name changes, court proceedings related to reproductive assistance, and debt collection defense. Here’s a recent blog by Eddy breaking down how to create an Estate Plan.

When to Enroll in Group Legal Coverage?

If your employer offers it, there are no eligibility “gotchas.” However, if this benefit can be added through a Qualifying Life Event, such as having a baby, it likely makes sense to wait until then to take advantage of it.

Availability: Most mid-sized to large employers offer these.

Cost Comparison: Group Legal vs. Online vs. Local Attorney

Most often, we see pricing for group legal insurance set at the household level, around $10/pay period. That’s about $240/annually.

The average cost of a DIY online plan is about $750.

Hiring a local attorney will likely cost $3,000.

If your situation is fairly straightforward, using your group legal benefit to have an attorney create a basic Estate Plan for you is a great starting point, especially for young families.

Estate Planning Example for New Parents

A couple welcomes a baby mid-year. One spouse uses their Qualifying Life Event to add legal coverage for $10 per pay period. They begin the process immediately and, after 2-3 review rounds, complete and sign their Estate Plan before year’s end. This couple has just accomplished a vital planning task for only $120!

Wait, It Gets Better

Some legal programs may put you in touch with a good local attorney, in which case you receive hands-on assistance at a drastically reduced price compared with contacting them directly.

Limitations of Employer-Sponsored Legal Plans

The quality of group legal coverage can vary significantly. You might not have access to a local attorney or one you would have selected yourself. When relying on their national team of attorneys, the level of service can differ greatly. We suggest asking colleagues about their experiences with the plan.

Frequently Asked Questions About Employee Benefits for Expecting Parents

Q1: Is hospital indemnity insurance worth it if you’re pregnant?
Yes, hospital indemnity insurance can be worth it if your employer’s plan covers childbirth-related hospital stays. A short hospital stay can result in a payout that exceeds the annual premium, helping offset deductibles and out-of-pocket costs.

Q2: Can both parents collect hospital indemnity benefits for the same birth?
In many cases, yes. If each parent has their own employer-sponsored hospital indemnity plan, there may be no restriction preventing both policies from paying benefits for the same hospitalization.

Q3: Do both spouses have to work to use a Dependent Care FSA?
Generally, yes. Both spouses must be working, looking for work, or attending school full-time. Exceptions exist for full-time students and spouses who are unable to care for themselves.

Q4: How much can a family contribute to a Dependent Care FSA?
For 2026, the household contribution limit is $7,500 per year. This is a household cap, regardless of how many employers offer the benefit or how many children you have.

Q5: What childcare expenses are eligible for Dependent Care FSA reimbursement?
Eligible expenses include daycare, preschool, before- and after-school care, and summer day camps. Informal cash payments to relatives or babysitters typically do not qualify.

Q6: Can group legal insurance help new parents with estate planning?
Yes. Many group legal plans cover wills, powers of attorney, and guardianship documents, making them a cost-effective way for new parents to establish a basic estate plan.

Q7: When is the best time to enroll in new benefits if you’re expecting?

Open Enrollment is ideal, but having a baby is a Qualifying Life Event that often allows you to add or change benefits mid-year, including legal coverage and FSAs.

Great Day Louisiana: Healthcare Terms You Need To Know (originally aired on October 16th, 2025)

Mike Turi, CFP® APMA™ is the Founder and a Lead Financial Planner at Upbeat Wealth, a fee-only firm based in New Orleans and serving clients virtually across the country. He specializes in providing straightforward financial guidance to ambitious young families as they navigate life’s many milestones.

Do you have questions about what we shared in this post, or anything else in general? Feel free to schedule a free consultation or drop us a line!

Sign up for our newsletter (at the bottom of this page) to stay up to speed on our Upbeat Insight.

Disclaimer: All content in this article is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only. None of the information is intended as investment, tax, accounting, or legal advice. Nor is it a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. We encourage you to consult with a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal professional for advice on your specific situation. Read our full disclaimer here.

group insurance open enrollment

Evaluating Health Insurance While Pregnant

Navigating Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance When Pregnant

It’s hard enough to go through open enrollment and choose your health insurance when it’s just you. Now add a life event into the mix, and the extra consideration can drive you crazy. Marriage can be challenging because it involves another stakeholder who may have their own benefits, requiring teamwork and coordination. That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the most complicated life event, pregnancy.

How will you decide which insurance and benefits are best for you and your growing family? There’s the prenatal care, labor and delivery, and then using the insurance for routine check-ups until the next open enrollment. And with a baby, nothing will feel routine. In this blog, we will help define key health insurance terms, evaluate different coverage options, and provide a checklist for next steps. And for a little precursor, not just focused on pregnancy, you can review Eddy’s original piece on the importance of open enrollment season, here!

Where You Can Buy Health Insurance

Generally, you face the same range of choices as when you weren’t pregnant. Now, though, you’re just evaluating the Family Coverage columns (and costs) of those same avenues. The starkest difference may be in states where Medicaid isn’t extended to individuals who meet the income-eligibility requirements unless they belong to a protected class, such as being a minor or pregnant. There’s also, of course, the Health Insurance Marketplace at Healthcare.gov, which everyone is eligible for. However, there are eligibility requirements to qualify for the subsidies. For the Health Insurance Marketplace, open enrollment is November 1 to January 15th. However, you have to enroll by December 15th to have in-force coverage on January 1st.

For our purposes, we’ll focus on those with employer-sponsored health insurance, which applies to about 60% of people under age 65. It’s important to understand that not all employer health insurance options and benefit packages are the same. While larger, publicly traded companies tend to share certain traits, the options provided by small- to medium-sized employers vary significantly. As does the support available to help you make the best choice, sadly.

Defining Key Health Insurance Terms

Here are the most basic terms to review when determining health insurance.

Premium Cost: Monthly payments to keep the plan in-force
Deductible: Amount you pay before insurance kicks in
Coinsurance: Percentage share of costs you are responsible for after your deductible and before your out-of-pocket maximum
Out-of-Pocket Max: Maximum amount you pay before insurance covers the rest
Coverage Amounts: Certain expenses, like prenatal visits, can be fully covered
Flexibility of In-Network Care: Are your doctors covered?

Using These Terms to Answer the Most Important Questions

There are many acronyms when comparing different types of coverage, but ultimately, you want to know:

How much does the plan cost?
What does it cover?
Which healthcare organizations or doctors are included (in-network)?

One of the best ways to answer these questions is by looking at your Summary of Benefits and Coverage. This 2-5 page document gives a brief overview of what’s covered and provides examples of how costs are shared in specific situations, like pregnancy. If your employer doesn’t give you this document during open enrollment for each medical plan option, you can probably ask for it. The good news is that the examples are quite similar across different insurance companies. Here’s an example document:

How to Best Gather More Information About Your Health Insurance Options

While the examples above may be similar, the plans themselves won’t be. There are a lot of them, and the cost passed on to the employee is determined mainly by how much your employer contributes. So if you find yourself in a deep Reddit hole on the subject, please know that what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for all.

The best thing you can do around open enrollment is schedule a meeting with your company’s benefits manager, as well as make a call to a rep from the health insurance plan. To get specific information, you unfortunately do have to set aside time to contact the people who understand the plan details best. You’ll want to get the best estimate of the associated costs from start to finish and understand whether any alternative birthing methods or extra services are covered if that is a consideration for you.

The Biggest Challenge: Lack of Pricing Transparency

A challenge, because no one is really going to be able to *tell* you exactly what something will cost. Standard prenatal care visits will be easy to assign a cost to in advance. But most people hit the grey area rather quickly on items like ultrasounds, genetic testing, and non-routine visits. So, you’ll want to know where the insurance company draws the line between medically necessary and *voluntary*.

Beyond how an insurance company perceives the medical guidance you need, they also won’t know how much it will actually cost. Which, unfortunately, does make some sense. Your doctor hasn’t provided services to you or billed for them yet. Since every pregnancy is different, your doctor isn’t exactly sure what those services will be either. Covering expenses and medications under co-pays or your deductible is fairly straightforward. However, a significant portion of your costs could be determined by a coinsurance provision. As explained earlier, coinsurance is usually about 20%, meaning you pay 20% of the cost for certain services. The cost itself has two (2) layers do it.

The amount billed by your healthcare provider.
The negotiated rate between your healthcare provider and your insurance company.

Here’s a normal Labor & Delivery example. Your healthcare provider *bills* your insurance company $36,000. The insurance company has a pre-negotiated rate behind the scenes for how much they’ll actually pay your healthcare provider, which lowers the cost to $9,000. Let’s say you had $2,000 left on your deductible and aren’t close to your Out-Of-Pocket-Max. Using a 20% coinsurance, your final bill would be the remaining deductible ($2,000) plus the coinsurance ($1,400), for a total of $3,400. That’s a far departure from the $36,000 that your healthcare provider *billed* your insurance company for.

PPO vs. HDHP: The Most Common Health Plan Decision

The most common decision is between a high-premium/low-deductible plan, usually a Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plan, and a low-premium High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP). Here are some general characteristics:

Please consider that prenatal care guidelines are very inconsistent. It’s common for plans to provide this coverage for free or with a lower co-pay than usually expected. I’ve seen many High-Deductible Health Plans that include generous prenatal benefits.

Aggregate vs. Embedded Deductibles and Out-of-Pocket Maxs.

As noted above, PPOs generally have embedded deductibles, while HDHPs have aggregate or non-embedded ones. Usually, the out-of-pocket maximum is always embedded. Embedded and aggregate refer to how each family member’s medical expenses count toward the limit. Here’s a definition and example of when each could be beneficial for you.

Aggregate Deductible: Usually, it’s a higher deductible amount that your entire family must meet before copays or coinsurance start. This arrangement works better when medical expenses are lower and shared evenly among covered family members, as they may not have met their individual deductibles otherwise.

Embedded Deductible: Usually, a lower deductible amount that can be met by just one covered family member before copays and coinsurance apply for everyone. This tends to work better when only one family member faces high medical bills because it helps you meet the deductible faster for everyone on the plan.

Embedded Out-of-Pocket Max: Generally, all plans have embedded out-of-pocket maximums, including individual limits and a family limit. Each family member will stop paying medical expenses once they reach their individual limit. Additionally, if multiple family members have expenses but haven’t yet reached their individual limits, and their combined expenses reach the family maximum, then no further payments for medical expenses are required. If there is an Aggregate Out-of-Pocket Max, which there may be, but I have never seen it, then there would be no individual limits, only a family limit that must be met by any combination of family members.

Differentiating Expenses Between Mom/Baby & Actually Paying For Them

We performed a simple labor and delivery calculation earlier in this article, but it was simplified for illustrative purposes regarding the lack of transparency in pricing. It goes even further. Who are these expenses even billed to? Until delivery, everything was billed to the expectant mother, but now there’s another person involved. That little person crying nonstop in the corner has its own individual deductible and out-of-pocket maximum. Depending on if they are embedded or aggregate, they’ll start incurring their whole new set of costs. But when does that occur? Bad news, it’s not entirely clear! Although this is worth inquiring about with your prospective health insurance company.

Generally, many of the charges for newborns within the first 48 hours are bundled and covered under the mother’s insurance and billed accordingly. However, if you have specific pediatric needs or the baby requires ICU care, that will be covered under the baby’s insurance. However, as stated, how those expenses get itemized between the mom and the baby isn’t an exact science.

Negotiating Your Bill and Payment Plans

Negotiating your final bill is an option, as it may save you money, but it can be a morally ambiguous decision. Of course, feel free to fight anything tooth and nail with your actual health insurance company. There’s nothing to be ashamed of there. However, when it comes to negotiating with your healthcare provider, the reality is that our system is imperfect, and in an oversimplified view, most issues stem from how insurance companies operate rather than how healthcare providers bill for their services. And the providers are often left with the bill if or when patients cannot make the payment. As a strategy, your healthcare provider may be willing to reduce your bill if you wait 60 days or more, because, unfortunately, if they send you to collections, they will only receive about 33% of that money anyway. So that’s always a phone call you can make.

Healthcare providers also recognize this, so most now offer generous payment plans to avoid the need for negotiation entirely. Although lowering your bill is still preferable, taking advantage of a 0% interest payment plan, if available, isn’t necessarily a bad next step. It remains a good idea even if you can afford to pay everything upfront, as the money could continue earning interest in a high-yield checking account and thereby effectively lowering the amount of money spent.

Qualifying Life Event

An important reminder not to miss your window to add your newborn to your health insurance plan. This must be done after the birth with a copy of the birth certificate. Most plans give you 30 days to do so, so set reminders accordingly before the sleep deprivation kicks in.

Another important point is that not all employers let you change your health insurance plan during a Qualifying Life Event like your child’s birth. You may only be able to add your child to your current plan, making open enrollment from the previous year very important. Even if you can change your health insurance plan, tread carefully. It’s not guaranteed that your current expenditures will automatically roll over to the new plan. Therefore, you might have to start from $0 toward your deductible or out-of-pocket maximum. If they do rollover, make sure you understand how that process works and when the new effective date begins so there are no gaps in coverage or surprises.

Our Preparation Checklist

Have a phone call with the person responsible for your company’s benefits. That could be an internal benefits manager in HR or an external benefits consultant from the firm your company partners with to provide the benefit options for employees. They can hopefully filter through the plans to determine a select few that could make sense and break down the pros and cons.
Review the Summary of Benefits and Coverage document for each plan to understand how pregnancy is covered. This will help you better grasp how deductibles, cost-sharing, and out-of-pocket maximums apply.
Confirm that your preferred healthcare providers are in-network.
Contact a family ambassador or representative from the health insurance company itself to get their expertise on navigating that plan during pregnancy. This is made easier if you’re reviewing different tiers of plans from the same insurance company. Make sure to ask about how prenatal care is covered throughout and roleplay any special circumstances or alternative care not included under routine procedures.
Understand your worst-case scenario by adding your premium to your out-of-pocket maximum. For HDHP, understand how a Health Savings Account affects your bottom line through employer contributions and tax deductions. It’s common for employers to contribute $1,000 voluntarily to an HSA, which can be used to offset your healthcare expenses. Or a great way to invest. Here’s an earlier blog by Eddy on maximizing your HSA. Most importantly, don’t just assume a PPO is a better option. If the out-of-pocket maximums are similar and you expect to reach them anyway, the extra premium for the PPO plan might end up costing you more.
Switching plans using your Qualifying Life Event may make sense, but you want to be really clear on whether your employer actually allows you to do so, if the progress toward the deductible and out-of-pocket maximums will rollover, and what would be billed to the old plan versus the new one. Examples of when this MAY make sense. You’re on a PPO plan with an early-year birth and end up exceeding your out-of-pocket max, or have a relatively straightforward birth. It may be worthwhile to switch to an HDHP for the remainder of the year if the premium savings are substantial enough. Or perhaps you are on an HDHP, and your child requires significant post-delivery care; it MAY make sense to switch to a more expensive PPO plan if you’ll hit the out-of-pocket max much sooner.
Once you have the baby, use your Qualifying Life Event to add them to your health insurance within 30 days. Understand that delaying this doesn’t delay what gets billed to you or what gets billed to them. Charges will be itemized according to the billing codes provided by your healthcare provider and will be applied retroactively to your child even before they are added to your insurance.
Review your bill for accuracy and don’t be afraid to ask a question if you don’t recall receiving a service listed there. Wait at least 60 days before making a payment or negotiating, if you choose to do so. Check if there’s a 0% or low-interest payment plan that works in your favor. Do not pay anything before it has a chance to go through insurance.

Most importantly, enjoy!

Great Day Louisiana: Healthcare Terms You Need To Know (originally aired on October 16th, 2025)

Mike Turi, CFP® APMA™ is the Founder and a Lead Financial Planner at Upbeat Wealth, a fee-only firm based in New Orleans and serving clients virtually across the country. He specializes in providing straightforward financial guidance to ambitious young families as they navigate life’s many milestones.

Do you have questions about what we shared in this post, or anything else in general? Feel free to schedule a free consultation or drop us a line!

Sign up for our newsletter (at the bottom of this page) to stay up to speed on our Upbeat Insight.

Disclaimer: All content in this article is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only. None of the information is intended as investment, tax, accounting, or legal advice. Nor is it a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. We encourage you to consult with a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal professional for advice on your specific situation. Read our full disclaimer here.

group insurance health savings account

When To Refinance Your Mortgage

Mortgage Rate Trends

It’s no secret that homebuyers from 2023, 2024, and 2025 may be eager to refinance. With mortgage rates dropping in 2025 and expected to fall even further, you might be wondering if now is the right time. Yesterday, on September 17th, 2025, Jerome Powell announced the first 0.25% rate cut of 2025, and the Fed as a whole offered lukewarm guidance about additional cuts this year.

Glass half full: Right now, mortgage rates are near their lowest levels in the past three years and nearly match the lows from 1970 to 2001.

Glass half empty: They are still well above the sub-3% rates of 2020 and 2021.

Why Is Everyone Focused on the Federal Funds Rate?

One common misconception about mortgage rates is that they are directly linked to the Federal Funds Rate, which is set by the Federal Reserve. Want to learn more about the federal funds rate? Check out this explainer from Investopedia. The essence of it is that the Fed uses the federal funds rate to influence bank lending, which in turn affects the money supply available to consumers. When *cheap* money is accessible, consumers tend to invest more aggressively and spend more. If left unchecked, this can result in inflation, which increases the costs of goods and services and may even lead to financial bubbles like the one seen during the 2008 financial crisis. Following the economic stimulus triggered by Covid-19, the Fed sensed the economy was *overheating* due to the 0% federal funds rate and took steps to ease us into a “soft landing” a.k.a. a sustainable reality. A prime example of our economy starting to overheat was the surge in home values, as well as the GameStop trading frenzy, which we wrote about in an earlier blog.

What Mortgage Rates Actually Track

What’s important to know is that the 30-year mortgage rate does not move in lockstep with the federal funds rate. Just because the Chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, announces a 0.25% rate decrease doesn’t mean the 30-year mortgage will drop by 0.25%. It’s important to recognize that determining the mortgage rate is not an exact science. There are variables, many of them. And certainly, the federal funds rate has a role.

Borrowers should consider the 10-Year Treasury as a gauge for where 30-Year Mortgage rates are headed. As shown below, mortgage rates tend to be 2 to 2.5 percentage points higher than the 10-Year Treasury yields. This then leads us to the question: if mortgage rates follow 10-Year Treasury rates, then how are 10-Year Treasury rates determined?

Enter the 10-Year Treasury Yield

If we think of the federal funds rate as an educated guess on how to best drive the economy forward and a proactive measure, then the 10-Year Treasury yield represents the market’s response and reaction to that direction. Scorsese makes the movie, and the audience must decide what to make of it. And we’ll run with the movie analogy even further.

Director = Fed Chair

Professional Critics = Fed Board of Governors

Supply and Demand = Theatrical vs. streaming release

Market Sentiment = Pre-release buzz

Inflation Expectations = Cost to see today vs. tomorrow

Term Premium = Can you afford to have the ending ruined for you?

Geopolitical Events = Actor nutjob says something they shouldn’t have

Wrap all of these together, and you have investor/consumer sentiment for 10-Year Treasury rates and renting/owning a movie!

So, Is Now The Time to Refinance?

Refinancing is decided on a case-by-case basis, depending on your current rate, refinance terms, and how long you plan to stay in the home. However, we do recommend a general rule of thumb. Are you lowering your rate by 0.50% and is your break-even point on upfront costs within 18 months or less?

The Break-Even Point

Typically, refinancing your mortgage comes with an upfront cost. And while that’s not always true, lenders typically want something in return when it comes to doing a lot of paperwork to save you money. Therefore, you have to know what your one-time cost is to lower the interest rate for the life of your mortgage. For example, if it costs you $2,000 to refinance your mortgage and refinancing saves you $200 a month on your principal and interest, that results in a 10-month breakeven point. As long as you plan to stay in the home long enough to realize those monthly savings, it’s a sweet deal. And this is a good reminder that ALL you’re looking at is your principal and interest, not your escrow, which may include insurance and taxes. Your mortgage rate isn’t affected by how much you owe in property taxes or homeowners’ insurance, so it’s best to keep the comparison as clear as possible.

Let’s also imagine you refinance, and before you hit your break-even point, rates drop again, giving you another chance to refinance. What do you do? Another part of staying in the home long enough to see those monthly savings is considering whether you reasonably expect to be able to refinance again before reaching the break-even point. And this is where following Federal Reserve guidance can be helpful. As discussed, it’s not the primary driver of mortgage rates, but it is a part of the overall picture. So if they are signaling several subsequent rate cuts, it likely makes sense to wait until those are completed before taking action. Ultimately, if unexpected rate cuts occur, you’ll fall back on the same rule of thumb and treat the original refinance cost as a sunk cost. Saving money in the long run remains the goal, even if you misjudge the timing slightly.

Exercise Caution When Refinancing

Like most things, there are certain things to look out for when it comes to refinancing.

Upfront Costs

Don’t be fooled: just because there are no upfront costs on a refinance, it doesn’t mean there are no costs at all. When you roll costs into the loan, your monthly payments will go up. That’s why it’s crucial to not only know your mortgage rate, but also your Annual Percentage Rate (APR), which includes the total cost of the loan beyond just the borrowed amount.

Existing vs. New Lender

Even if your current lender is eager to work with you on a refinance, don’t assume those are the best terms you’ll get. While they are certainly a natural first step in inquiring about refinancing, remember that mortgages are sold all the time. You should compare their offer with what a new lender can offer. I suggest checking with both a local and a national company. There are also rate comparison sites online if you don’t mind receiving spam emails and calls.

Amortization Schedule

Let’s say you’re a few years into a 30-year mortgage and refinance to another 30-year loan. By definition, you’ll be making payments for over 30 years. But if you’re refinancing to a lower interest rate, it doesn’t matter how many extra years you add to the loan. You’ll still come out ahead over the life of the loan since you’re just lowering your existing balance’s interest rate, which results in less interest paid. Understand that you don’t necessarily have to refinance to another 30-year loan, though. You might try to match your remaining payments to 15, 20, or 25 years, whichever is closest to your original number of payments left. Some lenders will even match the exact number of years you have left on your existing loan. The other option is to refinance into a 30-year loan but keep making your same monthly payment, which effectively prepays your loan and saves you interest over the life of the loan.

When a Recast Might Be Beneficial

There’s a lesser-known approach to traditional refinancing called recasting. It’s for borrowers who can make a lump-sum payment of 10% or more of their loan balance. Although your interest rate won’t change, your lender might let you make a big payment toward your balance and reamortize the loan, resulting in a lower monthly payment going forward. As a result, you’ll keep your current payment schedule with a lower monthly payment rather than shortening the term of your loan. So this is a way of saving today instead of saving tomorrow.

Great Day Louisiana: 2025 Mortgage Trends (originally aired on September 17th, 2025)

Mike Turi, CFP® APMA™ is the Founder and a Lead Financial Planner at Upbeat Wealth, a fee-only firm based in New Orleans and serving clients virtually across the country. He specializes in providing straightforward financial guidance to ambitious young families as they navigate life’s many milestones.

Do you have questions about what we shared in this post, or anything else in general? Feel free to schedule a free consultation or drop us a line!

Sign up for our newsletter (at the bottom of this page) to stay up to speed on our Upbeat Insight.

Disclaimer: All content in this article is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only. None of the information is intended as investment, tax, accounting, or legal advice. Nor is it a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. We encourage you to consult with a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal professional for advice on your specific situation. Read our full disclaimer here.

debt management mortgage

Upsizing Your Home

The Benefits of Upgrading Your Home

Is this not your first rodeo when it comes to buying a home, and you’re ready to get back on the horse? This blog is for you. It’s natural for young families to want to upsize their homes at some point. Common reasons for upgrading include:

More Space
Better School District
Higher Paying Job
Closer to Free Childcare, I mean, Family

Sometimes it’s fashion over function. You just want a bigger or more expensive place to live. For many Americans, a home symbolizes a level of wealth. Ironically, it can also become the greatest barrier to a family living a truly wealthy life.

Weighing the Pros and Cons

Some trade-offs, such as increased income, public schooling, or free childcare, may result in a net neutral or positive cash flow outcome, thereby avoiding the need for lifestyle adjustments. Others may result in a diminished ability to cover current expenditures and lifestyle goals. Examples of expenses and goals that could be negatively affected by a larger mortgage and escrow:

Education Funding
Retirement
Travel
Everyday Pleasures
Work-Life Balance

As a financial planner, it isn’t our job to plansplain what your values should be! Yes, I did just invent the word planspain. Our role is to help you clarify your priorities, establish boundaries, and evaluate trade-offs, enabling you to make the most informed decision based on your specific situation. So, what are some healthy boundaries when deciding what a reasonable amount to spend on a new home is? There are several handfuls of rules of thumb from asset-based and income-based approaches for determining maximum home affordability. I will focus on our preferred guideline, which has been adjusted to be more conservative than the lender’s standard.

Enter the 25/33 Rule, Adjusted Down from the 28/36 Rule

We recommend the 25/33 Rule, which states you shouldn’t spend more than 25% of your pre-tax monthly income on housing and no more than 33% on all debts. Other factors, such as family wealth, lifestyle, schooling costs, and overall assets, also influence your financial flexibility beyond this rule. Still, everything else being equal, going over the 25/33 Rule often causes families earning less than $200,000 to feel financially strained in other areas.

Let’s examine sample cash flows from families whose housing costs are 10%, 20%, and 30% of their pre-tax income.

Case Scenario 1: Millennial Family with 10% Total Housing Cost

Case Scenario 2: Millennial Family with 20% Total Housing Cost

Case Scenario 3: Millennial Family with 30% Total Housing Cost

In the above scenarios, the total housing cost includes not only your mortgage (principal + interest), but also property tax, homeowners insurance, and maintenance costs. For maintenance, we always use the 1% rule, which recommends setting aside 1% of your house value annually for upkeep. As your total housing costs progress from 10% to 20% to 30% of your salary, watch that cash flow dry up. Your ability to save for your future or your children’s becomes increasingly difficult. Travel, Gift, and Education budgets could all find themselves on the chopping block. Depending on your liquid assets, you might have limited options to act or respond during times of uncertainty or when your life becomes more complicated.

The Risk of Your Primary Residence Equaling Your Net Worth

You also wouldn’t be alone if you considered your primary home your most valuable asset and the key to building wealth. Here are the risks:

Lack of Diversification. While it CAN work out, putting all your eggs in one basket is a risky approach.
Illiquidity and Inconvenience. If you need to take money out of the home, it could be expensive in the form of a loan. Or, you might need to sell the home and move entirely.
Surprise Maintenance Costs. It’s important to remember that your Principal, Interest, Tax, and Insurance is the MINIMUM amount you’ll pay.
Mortgage Amortization: If you are forced to sell, you may not have built a meaningful amount of equity in the home. Depending on your interest rate, a significant portion of your mortgage payment goes to the lender as interest during the first 5 years. The payments typically don’t shift to mainly principal until 10 to 15 years into the repayment period.

The Danger in Upsizing Your Home Before Milestones, Specifically KIDS

The times when upsizing your home presents the biggest hurdles:

Before you have kids, if that’s the path you’re choosing.
As you are paying for childcare.

The cost of raising children alters not just your cash flow but your outlook on life. Locking yourself into a bigger home too early, especially one at the upper edge of what you can reasonably afford, can cause financial problems if it’s not part of your long-term plan. And while you might believe you’re preparing for that moment, it’s hard to understand the unknown. It’s worth thinking about how long you stayed in your *starter* home before life changed and you began reviewing options to upgrade. Milestones tend to prompt us to reassess our lifestyles.

Renting vs. Selling Your Previous Home

If you are relocating or upsizing and wondering whether to keep your previous home as a rental, you’re not alone. We get this question often. As of the published date of this blog, mortgage rates are approximately double what they were 3 years ago.

Here are the two questions you need to ask yourself.

Will the rental income you receive actually cover not only your minimum financial costs like principal, interest, taxes, and insurance, but also generate a surplus for unexpected expenses such as vacancies and maintenance?
Do you actually have any desire to be a landlord? If you used to worry about spending evenings and weekends on home maintenance projects and repairs for your family, now imagine doing that for complete strangers on their schedule, while you’re commuting. And oh, by the way, you’re likely moving into a bigger home, which will also require a greater time commitment for maintenance.

If you’re answer is “no” to either of these questions, you should highly consider selling your previous home. Otherwise, you’re really just speculating that you’ll get a better price in 1 – 3 years. That’s a complete dice roll. And if you don’t sell within 3 years, you miss out on a significant tax exclusion where your primary residence is exempt from capital gains tax. The Capital Gains Exclusion for Primary Homes allows you to exclude the first $250,000 of gain for an individual and $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly from being subject to capital gains tax.

Run. Those. Numbers. Then Actually Implement It!

When analyzing upgrading your home, the same principles apply as when you purchased your first home. And now, you’re a seasoned homeowner. You know that the cost of property tax and insurance only go in one direction, up! You understand that maintenance and upkeep costs are not zero, and they are generally expensive and a hassle. You will not mistake your approved borrowing amount with how much home you can afford.

But until you lay out your cash flow and see the trade-offs firsthand, you are blindfolding yourself when it comes to making this decision. My recommendation is to live within the confines of your new projected budget for several months to ensure it’s a worthwhile tradeoff. Are you willing to make the sacrifices necessary to your current lifestyle when it comes to upsizing to a more expensive home? Otherwise, you risk falling into the biggest wealth trap: becoming house poor.

Need a refresher on what total housing costs look like? Last month (May 2025), Lead Planner Eddy Jurgielewicz shared some helpful advice on how much money you need to buy a home. He also included one of our in-house home purchase calculators to help prospective buyers understand the total cost of homeownership. While the calculator was an exclusive offering for our newsletter subscribers, you can view the excerpt about approaching homeownership from Eddy in this LinkedIn post. Want to avoid missing out on future exclusive content? Sign up for our newsletter using this link: subscribepage.io/eXkcnF

Great Day Louisiana: Weighing Your Home Buying Options (originally aired on April 28th, 2025)

Mike Turi, CFP® APMA™ is the Founder and a Lead Financial Planner at Upbeat Wealth, a fee-only firm based in New Orleans and serving clients virtually across the country. He specializes in providing straightforward financial guidance to ambitious young families as they navigate life’s many milestones.

Do you have questions about what we shared in this post, or anything else in general? Feel free to schedule a free consultation or drop us a line!

Sign up for our newsletter (at the bottom of this page) to stay up to speed on our Upbeat Insight.

Disclaimer: All content in this article is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only. None of the information is intended as investment, tax, accounting, or legal advice. Nor is it a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. We encourage you to consult with a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal professional for advice on your specific situation. Read our full disclaimer here.

behavioral finance cash flow planning real estate

Our Journey of Comingling Finances Before Getting Married

What does a financial planner reflect on in the final days before getting married???

Finances.

Ok. Sure – a couple of other things too… But it’s up there. It’s who I am.

Money + Romance = What You Make It

We’ve all heard some version of the statistic about money being a common cause of divorce… Whatever the real percentage may be, or the specific money-related issue that tips the scale – I knew I didn’t want to be in that number. So as I count down the final hours before my wedding, I find myself thinking back on the journey my partner and I have taken to navigate the financial waters together.

While I wouldn’t say it was the first thought that came to mind after she said “yes” (I was mostly consumed by relief that I got the answer I’d been hoping for and somehow managed to string together adequately coherent words), it wasn’t too long after our proposal that I started to think about how Christina and I would begin tackling finances together. I’ve been part of too many conversations with spouses who were already years into their marriage and still dealing with the heavy burden of misaligned thoughts on money. I’ve seen up close the strain it can have on a relationship when matters aren’t properly addressed early on. For me, it was critical to tackle this head-on in my own romantic partnership – so that the two of us were in control, rather than the other way around.

Now let’s lay some things out there before we get into it…

It’s not a given that finances will be a point of distress for all couples. It may naturally work for some. But it will definitely be a matter worth giving time and attention to for most.
People are not likely to fully change how they think about or interact with money. They will continue to have their own unique habits and mindsets that stick with them. But couples can learn how to work positively together despite such differences.
Before any couple can begin to work through financial matters together, they MUST first work to understand the other person’s money story… Their influential memories, their emotions, any anxieties or convictions, and so on.
Any level of judgment will make the conversations exponentially more difficult. Money is already a topic that requires substantial vulnerability for some individuals. It will never help to feel as though someone is looking down on how they handle or think about things.

More on Why I Felt This Was Important

It’s probably no surprise, but money stuff comes fairly easy to me – it’s what I do and talk about all day every day in my professional life. That’s not the case for my fiancée. She’s a psychiatrist who would rather think about most other things besides money. And while she’s a hell of a lot smarter than me, it’s just not something she enjoys devoting a lot of mental space to. Now I know that I’m going to spend the rest of my life with her and I hope it’s a long, happy one! But if I’m suddenly not around one day or lack the mental capacity, I would like Christina to feel confident enough to manage important financial affairs independently.

I’ve seen a similar dynamic in plenty of other couples too. Quite often, one partner is the “chief financial officer” of the household and makes the majority of the decisions. While I’m not opposed to a spouse taking on this role, I do believe it’s highly beneficial for the other person to at least understand what’s being done and why. Further, they should be invited to provide their input – if nothing else, given the opportunity to say, “It’s up to you”.

So it was ultimately a two-part goal…

Learn how to weave healthy joint financial decision-making and expectations into our relationship early on.
Ensure that both of us understand, have the chance to be a part of, and can comfortably handle the most important money matters.

Where Did Each of Us Come From?

Our socioeconomic backgrounds are quite different. I’m the son of a teacher and a carpenter, whereas she’s the daughter of a cardiologist and a mother who raised her and her five siblings full-time. I went to public school, she went to private. I carried the financial responsibility of my education and she had a college fund to take care of that. I say this simply to help illustrate that we had very unique interactions with money from a young age. As a result, we now have stark differences in how we approach financial matters as adults. I tend to stress over expenses and consider a cost for far too long while Christina generally has no issues in that department. I’m naturally more of a saver. She’s more of a spender. Neither is right, neither is wrong – we’re just different.

All that to say… if WE can figure it out, YOU can too!

What’s Our Account Setup?

Some couples go all in on doing everything jointly. Others keep it fully separate. For us, we have things that we do together and shared hopes for the future. As individuals, we have our own preferences and unique goals. Our framework is structured to allow for money movement in both arenas.

For things we do together and use together, we’ll typically pay for those out of a shared account. For those things we do independent of the other, they come out of personal accounts. That way we can avoid any potential judgment on how the other spends their money. As long as we’re both putting the right amounts towards the things we need and want together (both for fun and necessary goals), we’re each free to spend our other personal dollars how we want.

Taking it Beyond the Accounts

The train can’t stop at simply setting up joint accounts. Opening a savings account together won’t automatically create magical money harmony. And in my mind – this is the MOST important aspect of the journey to comingle finances… It’s the process of having meaningful conversations about how to handle financial decisions together, about how you each interact with money individually, and what your future financial goals are – both those that are personal and shared. As I referenced earlier, conversations were also important to help share my financial acumen with Christina – so that she’d better understand the value of having appropriate cash savings in place, how to optimize various tax-advantaged accounts, where and why a brokerage account makes sense, even how to place trades, and so on…

I have to say, it was an especially proud partner/financial planner moment when Christina first told me she’d maxed out her Roth IRA and invested the money (without me doing it with her)!

How Did We Do This?

Money Dates!

I hear you… it doesn’t sound all that romantic to discuss finances on a date. But here’s the thing: I believe it is much easier to talk money at an agreed-upon and preset time when both parties are expecting it, rather than randomly when one person may be caught off guard. It’s helpful to protect the time too, or it may never happen. It’s easy to put things off if they’re not on our calendars. Further, making it a date can hopefully create a more enjoyable environment. Pour a glass of wine, crack open a beer, go to your favorite dinner spot… do something to set those positive vibes. Finally, limit the time. If one or both of you aren’t all that excited to have this kind of conversation at first, knowing that it will only go on for a short chunk of time might make it more agreeable.

Our approach? We decided to have one 30-minute Money Date one Sunday per month.

It’s worth mentioning that this was a very helpful method in our relationship. Part of why Christina doesn’t like to talk or think about money is that it can easily make her anxious to do so. Again, I have no issue talking about it. By putting these short time blocks on our calendar, she was way more receptive to the conversation – it was never a surprise and she knew it wouldn’t go longer than a half hour (we even cut the first few down to 15 minutes).

I want to be clear: I’m not saying this has to be the ONLY time you and your partner discuss finances. But it may be the easiest and most productive way to do so while giving it the prioritization it deserves.

The Result

As with other areas of our relationship, the work is never done. Nonetheless, I’m happy to report that – after about a year and a half – I feel great about where we are. There aren’t any issues or doubts about what our shared and individual financial expectations are. Money has not been a source of contention for us. And don’t just take my word for it! I did ask Christina what her feedback on our Money Dates and overall journey has been. She expressed that, while she was very hesitant at first and really didn’t want to have “talks about money”, it’s been extremely helpful. Now she’s far more open to discussing finances rather than pushing the topic aside.

So forget about that statistic! For us, money will be something we…

Work on together
Have clear expectations on
Understand and are comfortable managing
Discuss openly and honestly in a healthy way
Agree on for big picture planning and household goals – even though we may interact with it differently in certain aspects of our lives

Eddy Jurgielewicz, CFP® is a Partner and Lead Financial Planner at Upbeat Wealth, a fee-only firm based in New Orleans and serving clients virtually across the country. He specializes in providing straightforward financial guidance to ambitious young families as they navigate life’s many milestones.

Do you have questions about what we shared in this post, or anything else in general? Feel free to schedule a free consultation or drop us a line!

Sign up for our newsletter (at the bottom of this page) to stay up to speed on our Upbeat Insight.

Disclaimer: All content in this article is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only. None of the information is intended as investment, tax, accounting, or legal advice. Nor is it a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. We encourage you to consult with a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal professional for advice on your specific situation. Read our full disclaimer here.

cash flow planning comingling finances saving and spending

Too Much Cash?!

Risk #1: Inflation

Cash vs. Inflation, an Example

Risk #2: Longevity

What is the RIGHT Amount of Cash to Hold?

OK, Now What?

Frequently Asked Questions for Cash

Q1: How much cash is too much to keep in savings?

Q2: Why is holding too much cash a problem?

Q3: Is cash losing value because of inflation?

Q4: Where should I keep my emergency fund?

Q5: Should I invest money instead of leaving it in cash?

Q6: Is a high-yield savings account enough to beat inflation?

Why Buying or Leasing a Car Feels So Complicated

Key Terms You Need to Know Before You Buy a Car

MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price): As the name suggests, it’s what the manufacturer recommends you pay for the car.

Dealer Add-ons: Dealers sometimes add silly things like “paint protection,” which aren’t standard vehicle add-ons, to increase profit on a car.

Dealer Mark-Ups: Extra fee/profit added to vehicles in high demand with limited supply.

Sales Tax: State/Local Tax on Vehicle Price. Most states also allow you to deduct any trade-in value, lowering the amount you are subject to sales tax on.

APR (Annual Percentage Rate): When financing, the interest rate is separate from the APR, which combines the interest rate with any extra fees included in the loan.

Depreciation: Decline in a vehicle’s value over time, affecting resale value.

Key Terms You Need to Know Before Leasing a Car

Net Capitalized Cost: The price of the car that the lease payments are based on. Can include vehicle cost along with other fees not paid up front.

Residual Value: Set at the beginning of the lease by the manufacturer, it’s the estimated value of the car at the end of the lease. It’s also the price you have the option to buy the car for at the end of the lease. The actual market value at the end of the lease may be higher or lower.

Money Factor: the interest rate on a lease, but expressed as a small decimal rather than a percentage. To get the percentage, multiply the money factor by 2,400.

Mileage Allowance: Maximum miles allowed annually before incurring extra cost.

Buying vs Leasing: Which One Is Right for You?

When Buying Makes More Sense

Anticipate using the car for longer than the financing period, or at least 6+ years.

Drive the car more than the usual 10,000 to 15,000 miles per year common in leases, which can lead to higher mileage and wear-and-tear fees.

When Leasing Makes More Sense

Enjoy having a new car every 3 years.

Are uncertain whether you’ll want/have/need this car beyond the lease period.

Prefer less hassle/maintenance in your life.

Really just need a lower monthly payment because you have other financial priorities at the moment, or can’t afford a 20% down payment when buying a new or used car.

The Cheapest Way to Own a Car Long-Term

Hybrid vs Gas vs Electric: Which Is Most Cost-Effective?

Hybrid Break-Even Analysis

Are Electric Vehicles Worth It Financially?

Is the “Buy Used” Strategy Still Worth It?

How Leasing Can Actually Make You Money

Downpayments and Financing

Smart Car Shopping Tips to Save Money

Frequently Asked Questions About Shopping For Cars

Q1: Should I buy or lease a car?

You should buy a car if you plan to keep it for more than 5–6 years, drive high mileage, or want to minimize long-term costs. Leasing may be better if you prefer lower monthly payments, drive fewer miles, and like upgrading vehicles every few years.

Q2: Is leasing a car ever a good financial decision?

Yes, leasing can make sense if the residual value is lower than the car’s market value at lease-end, or if you prioritize cash flow and flexibility over long-term savings.

Q3: What is the cheapest way to own a car long-term?

The cheapest strategy is to buy a reliable car and keep it for several years after the loan is paid off. This avoids ongoing payments while minimizing depreciation costs.

Q4: How much should I put down on a car?

A 20% down payment is a common guideline to keep payments manageable. However, if interest rates are low (0–3%), it may make more sense to finance more and keep your cash invested or in savings.

Q5: Is buying a used car still a good strategy?

It can be, but the advantage has narrowed due to higher used car prices post-COVID. Buyers should carefully evaluate price differences, warranty coverage, and expected lifespan.

Q6: What is the biggest mistake when buying a car?

Focusing only on the monthly payment instead of the total cost of the car. Dealers can adjust loan terms to hit almost any monthly payment, often increasing the total cost significantly.

What is "enough"?

Enough is elusive

Is enough a number?

How do you know when you have enough?

If your money could talk, what story would you want it to tell?

So what is enough for me now?

The Key Financial Planning Decisions We Made When Expecting

A general word of advice...

Before I give context to each step, here’s the overview of exactly what we did:

First Trimester

Second Trimester

Third Trimester

Fourth Trimester

The First Trimester

Choose Your Provider and Where You Want to Give Birth

Review Your Health Insurance and Estimated Costs

Look Over Your Other Employee Benefits

Create New Savings Buckets and Cash Goals

Review Your Household Cash Flow

Assess Your Life Insurance Coverage & Increase if Needed

Map Out a Plan for Leave

Begin to Plan for Childcare and Other Support

The Second Trimester

Make and Share the Registry

Q1: How much should a couple spend on a wedding?
There is no “right” amount to spend on a wedding. Couples should base their budget on available cash, income stability, future goals, and what they value most—rather than national or state averages.

Q2: Is it okay to go into debt for a wedding?
Debt can make sense in limited situations, such as using a 0% promotional credit card with a clear payoff plan. High-interest debt without a realistic repayment strategy can create long-term financial stress early in a marriage.

Q3: Where should wedding savings be kept?
Wedding funds should be kept in cash or a high-yield savings account. Because weddings have a fixed date, investing this money exposes couples to unnecessary market risk.

Q4: Should couples pause retirement savings to pay for a wedding?
Temporarily pausing retirement contributions can be reasonable if there’s a plan to resume quickly. However, couples should account for the lost employer match and long-term opportunity cost.

Q5: How can families contribute without causing conflict?
Open conversations about expectations and boundaries are key. Allowing family members to “sponsor” specific wedding elements can help them feel involved without losing control of the overall plan.

Q6: Why do weddings almost always exceed the original budget?
Unexpected costs, upgrades, and emotional decision-making add up quickly. Couples should plan for wedding costs to be 1.5–2x their initial estimate.

Q7: What’s the biggest financial mistake couples make when planning a wedding?
Anchoring decisions to average wedding costs instead of their personal financial reality—often leading to overspending or unnecessary debt.