You will build a wedding budget with a cash flow timeline and a monthly saving figure.
A wedding budget that only shows totals can look fine and still run out of money. The total can be right while the timing is wrong: a S$10,000 banquet deposit due a year before the day, when the savings account holds S$8,000. This exercise adds the dates, so you can see that every payment is covered when it falls due, not just on average.
You will need your cost list from lesson 3.1, your ang bao estimate from lesson 3.2, and any quotes or contracts that show when deposits are due. Allow about thirty minutes.
Start a new sheet with these columns: item, fixed or per guest, total cost, amount due, due month, and paid before or after the day.
Many items have two rows, one for the deposit and one for the balance. If you don't know a due date yet, ask the vendor, or use a cautious guess and mark it. For the banquet, find out when the deposit is due and when the balance must be paid, because lesson 3.2, Ang bao maths: what comes back and when, showed how much depends on that.
Number the months from today, so month 1 is next month. That makes it easy to line up with your savings.
Next, separate what is paid before the day. Total the amounts due before the wedding, and separately the amounts due after it. The before-the-day total is the cash you must have saved. The after-the-day total is what the ang bao can help with.
Take your cautious estimate and subtract it from the after-the-day total. If the result is negative, the ang bao should cover those bills with some left over, and the remainder is a bonus. If it is positive, that amount must also come from savings, and you should add it to the before-the-day cash.
The net cost of the wedding is the full budget minus the ang bao estimate. You will want that figure for conversations with family. For the savings plan, though, the figure that matters is the cash you need before the day.
Then plan the monthly saving against the dates. Start with what you have already saved. Add your planned monthly saving each month and subtract each payment in the month it falls due. If the running balance ever goes below zero, the plan fails in that month, even if the final total works.
Here are Mei and Daniel's payments, with the made-up figures from lessons 3.1 and 3.2 and the wedding in month 30.
Month 12: banquet deposit, S$10,000 Month 14: bridal package deposit and photographer deposit, S$3,000 Month 18: rings, S$4,000 Month 20: bridal package balance, S$4,000 Month 24: solemnisation and lunch, S$1,500 Month 27: invitations and favours, decor deposit, hair and makeup deposit, S$2,400 Month 30, before the day: photographer, decor and hair and makeup balances, transport, gatecrash and tea ceremony, S$6,300
Before the day they pay S$31,200. After the day, within a week, the banquet balance of S$43,955 is due. Their cautious ang bao estimate is S$45,200, which covers it and leaves S$1,245. The net cost is S$29,955.
In lesson 1.1 they planned S$800 a month on top of the S$6,000 already saved. Run that through the months: S$6,000 plus 30 payments of S$800 is S$30,000, and S$31,200 goes out before the day. In month 30 the running balance falls to minus S$1,200. The plan in lesson 1.1 was built on the net cost, and the cash needed before the day is higher.
To cover every payment, they need S$31,200 minus S$6,000, divided by 30 months, which is S$840 a month. Checking month by month, the balance never goes below zero at S$840, but it reaches exactly zero in month 30. That leaves no room for a vendor who adds a charge, so they choose S$850 a month, which leaves S$300 spare before the day.
The S$1,245 left after paying the banquet balance, and any ang bao beyond the estimate, goes to the next goal on their sheet.
Go back to your goals sheet from lesson 1.4, Build your goals sheet. Change the wedding row so the target is the cash needed before the day, the date is the wedding month, and the monthly figure is the one you just worked out. If your before-the-day cash is higher than the net cost, as Mei and Daniel's was, the monthly figure will rise. Better to find that out now than in month 30.
If the new monthly figure doesn't fit your budget, go back to lesson 3.3, Cut the budget without cutting what matters to you, before cutting anything else in your life. Moving one deposit later, or one line from before the day to after it, can be enough.
You have a sheet with every cost, its deposit and balance dates, totals before and after the day, a cautious ang bao figure, a net cost, and a month-by-month running balance that never drops below zero. The monthly saving figure sits in your goals sheet. The activity is to finish yours.
Complete the wedding budget and cash flow timeline and enter the monthly saving figure in your goals sheet.
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