Marriages- Made in Heaven, Financed on Earth through Marriage Loans

Marriage, an occasion of fun and festivities, a time when relatives and friends come together to celebrate a joyous occasion in the lives of two individuals embarking on a lifelong journey. Marriages and weddings have always been a grand affair in India. We consider marriages to be a sacred union of two souls and so we leave no stone unturned in making them an event of a lifetime. We want to ensure that everything is perfect and the occasion stands out in the minds of all invitees.

If you are about to get married or if the happy occasion is coming up in the life of your child, we are sure you must be in a phase of hectic planning. First you have the choice of outsourcing the marriage to a wedding planner or organizing the entire thing yourself. While the former choice does involve less leg work, the important decisions still have to be taken. In either case you will still have to take a call on the number of guests, venue, decorations, food and entertainment. In short, you have to fix on a budget for the wedding.

It is really critical, this decision on a budget. While you want the occasion to be memorable, there is a constraint on how much you can spend as a lump sum. Many couples and parents baulk at spending a lot at once. Some do manage to spend a tidy sum and get the wedding of their dreams but forget to account for after-wedding expenses like a honeymoon or moving in together. Couples and parents fail to realize that budgeting for a wedding is not about spending for a 2 or 3 day event but about setting up a lifetime.

So when you plan ensure that you look at an optimum scenario. First, look at what it will cost to stage a wedding of your dreams with all the guests you want, ceremonies required, ideal venue and the best food and entertainment. Along with this, add costs of after parties, religious travel/ceremonies required etc. Next, calculate the cost of going on an ideal honeymoon to a destination of your choice according to a level of luxury you expect. Finally add the critical costs of moving in together which is something that escapes the notice of most couples and their parents. We are sure that all of these might be substantial and you would not want to compromise on either expense. The second scenario might be that you have the money to cover both but do not want spend all of it at a single go. What do you do?

Marriage loans which is a part of Personal Loans is the simple answer. All major banks and financial institutions are now happy to lend you a personal loan to cover expenses incurred for a marriage. So if you consider the entire expense to be X and you are willing to spend Y, you can still have an ideal wedding by borrowing X-Y from a bank. In fact it might make more sense to fund some of these expenses through a loan, even if you have the money, instead of spending all your cash in hand.

Who and how can I avail of such a loan? Well, any salaried individual working in a known organization with a minimum of 3 years’ service and Rs. 18,000 salary with age between 21-60 years can avail a marriage loan. Infact it is easier to go for a joint loan with your would be spouse or along with a parent. In the case of self-employed professionals, it includes all these along with ITR statements from the last 3 years with a minimum profit of 2 lakhs. If you are a parent and are now retired, you can still avail a personal/marriage loan against your pension, upto an age limit of 70 and an amount of 5 lakhs.

What are the most important factors I should think of before taking a marriage loan? It is really important that you consider these two factors before taking a marriage loan. One, your capacity to repay which means that you must be able to afford the EMIs. Now, it is easy to find out your EMI with nifty tools at your disposal. An EMI Calculator can help you find out the EMI for a specific loan amount and tenure if you enter your financial specifications. You can work around with the loan amount and tenure to find out the specific EMI you can afford. This can help you decide on a marriage/after-marriage budget and find out how much you can spend.

The second important factor is the rate of interest which depends on the bank you borrow from. You cannot assume that a specific bank which holds your account will give you the best offer in terms of principal, rate of interest and tenure. You must shop around and look at the terms offered by all the banks in the market. Another bank might give you a better deal based on the company you work for or your CIBIL score. So we advise you not to take any deal from a call center but check with an aggregator site like Cashkumar to not just compare banks but also get free telephonic consultation by loan experts as well as doorstep service to process documentation.

Finally it’s fair to say that matches are indeed made in heaven but they are solemnized on earth and money should never figure as the factor which decides how you celebrate it. This wedding season, take your time to budget for the wedding and your life after. And be sure that there is always help available if financial factors impede the union of you or your children.