Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail: Retirement Lessons from Wedding Planners
Peter Reagan

Most Americans put more effort into planning a wedding than planning their retirement. That short-term mindset leads to long-term problems. Here’s how to break the cycle, prepare the right way, and retire with confidence – not regret…A disturbing trend is becoming commonplace among Americans when it comes to one of the biggest events in most people’s lives: their wedding.

You may have heard the expression “Plan for the marriage, not just the wedding.”

If you haven’t, though, don’t feel bad. It appears that an extraordinary number of other people haven’t either. And from their actions, it’s clear that they haven’t considered the thinking behind that phrase.

Now, if you’re not familiar with the phrase and aren’t sure what it means – especially if you don’t understand whether it’s relevant to you – I’m here to explain...

What that means is that the wedding is an event and while it has symbolic importance, the marriage is the part that you live out well beyond the wedding.

Plan for the marriage, not just the wedding.

A wedding is a big deal! But usually it lasts a day or two, maybe a three-day weekend. A marriage, though, lasts for decades. The lesson here is to keep in mind the bigger picture, and plan long-term rather than focusing exclusively on the big event and merely hoping the future will take care of itself.

Here’s the thing, though, even if you have heard that expression, chances are that you aren’t living by the principle behind it. And neither are most Americans.

Most people borrow money for the event itself

I wish that I were kidding about that fact. I’m not, though. Ryan Ermey with CNBC writes,

About two-thirds of newlyweds, 67%, say they took on debt to fund their big day, according to a March 2025 survey of over 1,000 brides and grooms from LendingTree. 

Now, of course, some people will justify doing that… but the person saying that it’s okay to borrow money for the wedding in that article does work for a lending firm.

The thing is, with the wedding, even if you want a more lavish affair, you can choose to take the time to save up the money, plan more thoroughly (and possibly more cheaply, given enough time) to still get the luxury wedding without taking on debt.

To do that, though, you have to take more time up front. You can’t simply be impulsive and not have longer term consequences that you don’t like… such as lingering debt going into the marriage.

You may be asking at this point, though, what this has to do with retirement.

It’s a fair question. The answer?

Don’t plan for retirement like it’s an event!

Which is to say that, if they plan at all, it’s pretty minimal, and it comes with long-term difficulties hanging over into the retirement years.

It’s that same lack of planning.

Sure, they may worry about things a bit, and they probably should. An article from Equitable puts it this way:

And with Americans living longer than ever before, many retirees are concerned about making their money last, especially with ongoing worries about [economic] volatility, inflation and medical care costs.

Folks should be concerned about inflation, medical care costs, and economic factors. The problem, though, is that too many people worry without doing anything about it.

They watch the news and fret, paralyzed with fear. But they don't take any steps...

They just wait for things to happen to them.

And even the ones that do think about it too often have a “solution” that most of them don’t want, which is to postpone retirement. Jeffery B. Jones with Gallup writes,

American workers are retiring at later ages than those in the past three decades. In 1991, U.S. retirees, on average, reported that they retired at age 57. Now, the average reported retirement age is up to 61. Nonretirees' target retirement age has also increased, from 60 in 1995 to 66 today.

To be fair, part of what is driving this delay is to be blamed on Congress.

Later retirement ages are coming at a time when U.S. workers are not eligible for full Social Security retirement benefits until past age 65. In 1983, Congress increased the age at which people can receive full retirement benefits.

The reason that Congress pushed back those retirement ages, though, is the same reason that people borrow money for their weddings… or that most people rely only on Social Security in their retirement years.

People fail to plan. And, remember Yogi Berra’s wise words… 

Failing to plan is planning to fail

And even when they plan, they too often fail to act on their plan (which has the same effect as not planning at all).

But like your wedding, you probably have some idea when you will be retiring. Retirement is more than likely not going to be thrust on you out of the blue, unexpected.

And what that means is that you don’t have to be like the newlyweds carrying massive wedding debt hanging over their heads going into their marriage. You can go into retirement secure that your finances for your retirement years are in good shape. You can take time to plan for your retirement now.

And not just to plan, but to take action now.

And because no one has a crystal ball to predict exactly what will happen in the future and when, you would be wise to over prepare for your retirement by saving even more than you think that you’ll likely need.

After all, it’s better to have funds available in retirement and not need them than to be planning your life around what days the bread line is open because you don’t have the funds in your retirement.

How can you plan to succeed?

For retirement, it’s simple, really. You need to save, ideally more than you think you'll need. You should thoroughly diversify your savings with a variety of different assets. I'm a big fan of starting with inflation-resistant assets as the bedrock to build your retirement house on. Then you figure out when you'd like to retire (but include in your plan the possibility you'll need to retire before you want to...)

And after you have your financial foundation in place to build on, you would, then, look into ways to increase and multiply your capital. Pay close attention to which phase of retirement saving you're in! 

1. Accumulation
2. Preservation
3. Distribution

Here at Birch Gold, we are uniquely qualified to help you with the second phase of that process. Diversifying your retirement savings with safe haven assets with an eye toward wealth preservation. To ensure your purchasing power is stable, no matter what happens in the wider economy, or to the dollar itself. Learn more about the benefits of diversifying with physical precious metals.

 

Peter Reagan is a seasoned financial market strategist at Birch Gold Group with over 15 years of experience in the precious metals industry. He has been featured in several leading publications, including Newsmax and Zerohedge. At Birch Gold Group, Peter leverages his deep market insights to help educate customers on how they can diversify their savings into gold and other precious metals. His commitment to education has made him a trusted thought leader in the field. In addition to the Birch Gold website, you can follow Peter on LinkedIn.

 

 

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