Do we start paying now?

[The future Mrs.]

Hello! I have a question about scheduled payments for the reception hall. we will owe about $17,000 to the place, and i guess another 2,400 in tip to them (they require more than 20 percent!) our scheduled payments start next february. right now we have about $6,000 we could give to them, but i have it in a high interest savings account.

my question is, i get a little nervous about paying all of it between Feb-July 2009. should i start sending in payments now or let it sit in the savings account and accrue some interest?
Gina

[feb-bride]

That is up to you. I would probably divide $17,000 by the amount of months I have left until the wedding and send equal monthly payments.

[Heather]

I would put it in a high-interest ING Account - it's higher than most brick & mortar banks. Then, start paying when you're required. If you take it out of ING every month to make your payment (you'll have to give yourself a week or so ahead of time), then the rest of the money is still sitting there earning interest.

[The future Mrs.]

yah... we have the ING account. there is something so shady about not hving thousands of dollars accessible though. it makes me nervous!!!

[Heather]

I've used ING for years - and I manage a savings account for my Mom in there, too. The most I've waited for my money to be transferred to my bank account is 2 business days. If you plan ahead and use only that money to make that particular payment, you'll be good to go. And... the interest you'll gain per month should be worth that tiny bit of annoyance.

[The future Mrs.]

yeah, we need the money so i guess it will be worth it... as long as i don't touch it!

[starjumper]

woah woah, maybe its just the engineer in me, but 20% of 17000$ is about 3400$, not 2400$. i'm sure it's just a typo, but if it were me planning i would want someone to point that out, just in case...

-starjumper

[The future Mrs.]

oops. we dont really have a budget anymore anyways.

[Amanda_Davis]

I would never pay money to a venue before they need it. Obviously make sure you have it ready for when it's due (put it in a savings account).

There's no reason to - and it could only cause problems if they change something and you need to get the money back for whatever reason (I'm sure this won't happen - but what if the place burns down).

If you're worried about spending the money, try giving it to a responsible relative (parents?) to look after until you pay it to the venue.

Hey Amanda,
This thread is several months old and I haven't seen the original poster around for awhile (not that you would know that of course). Please don't pull up such old threads.