How much should I save for my child's wedding?

There's no fixed number — it depends on your family's lifestyle and expectations. A practical approach is to pick today's realistic cost for a wedding you'd be comfortable hosting, then inflate it at 8-9% per year (weddings inflate faster than general CPI) to the year your child is likely to marry.

Which investment is best for a child's marriage goal?

For a goal 12+ years away, equity mutual funds via SIP are typically the core vehicle because they have time to ride out volatility and beat wedding-cost inflation. As the goal gets within 3-5 years, the plan should shift a growing portion into safer debt instruments to protect what's been built.

Is gold a good way to save for a child's wedding?

A small allocation to gold (5-15%) can make sense if jewellery is a certain part of the wedding budget, since it hedges the actual gold-price component of that spend. But gold alone, as the entire strategy, has historically grown slower than equity over long periods and shouldn't carry the full goal.

Planning for a Child's Marriage: A Practical Money Guide (2026)

By Bhrugu Thakkar · Real Value (ARN 24454) · September 2026 · 7 min read

Short answer: Estimate today's realistic wedding cost, inflate it at 8-9% a year (weddings run hotter than general inflation) to your child's likely marriage year, then invest in a mix that's mostly equity while the goal is far away and shifts to debt as the date nears.

Indian weddings are one of the few goals where families quietly overspend and under-plan at the same time. The date feels distant when your child is 5, and suddenly arrives when they're 23. The fix isn't a vague "I'll save something every month" — it's putting a number on the goal early enough for compounding to do most of the work.

Step 1: Size the goal honestly

Pick a realistic number for what a wedding costs in your family and city today — not what a magazine wedding costs, not the minimum either. A reasonable middle-class wedding in urban India today can run anywhere from ₹8 lakh to ₹25 lakh depending on region, family size, and expectations. Write down your number. Vague goals get vague savings.

Step 2: Inflate it — and inflate it correctly

Wedding costs (venues, catering, jewellery, clothing) have historically risen faster than general CPI, often 8-9% a year versus 5-6% general inflation. Don't use the general inflation number for this goal — it will leave you short.

Today's cost	Years to wedding	Future cost @ 8.5%
₹10 lakh	10	≈ ₹22.9 lakh
₹10 lakh	15	≈ ₹34.5 lakh
₹10 lakh	20	≈ ₹52 lakh

This is the number that should shock you into starting early, not the monthly SIP figure.

Step 3: Choose the investment mix by time horizon

15+ years away: Predominantly equity mutual funds via SIP. Time is your biggest asset here — let it absorb the volatility.
5-15 years away: A blended equity-debt mix, gradually shifting weight toward debt as the date approaches.
Under 5 years: Mostly debt funds, short-duration instruments, or FDs. This is not the time to be exposed to a market correction — a bad 18 months right before the wedding can derail the whole plan.

This glide path — start aggressive, end conservative — is the same logic used in child education planning, since both are long fixed-date goals with no flexibility to "wait out" a downturn.

Step 4: Should gold be part of it?

If jewellery is genuinely a meaningful chunk of your expected spend, a modest gold allocation (5-15% of the goal corpus) via gold ETFs or sovereign gold bonds can hedge that specific portion. But don't let gold be the entire strategy — over long periods equity has generally compounded faster, and the bulk of a wedding budget (venue, catering, travel) isn't gold-linked anyway.

Step 5: Automate and review, don't panic-save later

A SIP started when your child is a toddler needs to be a fraction of the SIP started when they're a teenager, for the same target corpus — because compounding had far less time to work. Review the goal every 2-3 years: has the target wedding cost realistically changed? Has your income grown enough to step up the SIP? Small annual increases (a step-up SIP) close most of the gap between an early modest start and a large future need.

A quick sanity check table

Years to goal	Rough monthly SIP for ₹30 lakh target*
20 years	≈ ₹4,300
15 years	≈ ₹7,700
10 years	≈ ₹14,800
5 years	≈ ₹35,500

*Illustrative, assuming ~11% annual return, for understanding the compounding effect only — not a guarantee.

The honest verdict

A child's wedding is a fixed-date, non-negotiable, emotionally loaded goal — exactly the kind of goal that punishes procrastination. The families who handle it calmly aren't the ones who earn the most; they're the ones who put a real number on it 15-20 years early and let a disciplined, gradually de-risked SIP do the heavy lifting instead of a frantic loan or asset sale in the final year.

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Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Read all scheme related documents carefully. Educational content, not personalised advice. Real Value — AMFI Registered Mutual Fund Distributor, ARN 24454.