Current Events > CE, what do you think is an appropriate amount to spend on an engagement ring?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I know this is highly income dependent, but curious what CE things would be reasonable. And for guys who are engaged/married here, curious to hear your thoughts especially.

For anyone curious, a good source for current diamond prices is Blue Nile:
https://www.bluenile.com/diamond-search?track=DiamondSearchPR

You can play around with the 4 C's and see generally what a stone is currently going for.
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About tree fiddy
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i spent $10k on my wife's, I felt it was an appropriate amount for what I was looking for
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Romulox28 posted...

i spent $10k on my wife's

Do you remember the general specs of it?
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Aww you are getting married!
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Is Addy getting hitched?
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DragonGirlYuki posted...

Aww you are getting married!

Callixtus posted...

Is Addy getting hitched?

No, actually been looking at this area as an investment, and this question popped up.
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I think my wife's ring was around $3.5k. Canary diamond in a ring of sapphires(my birthstone). I don't think the canary was natural. I think it was treated yellow after the fact which is why it's on the cheaper side. You honestly can't tell a difference between that color and a natural color so she didn't care.
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0.

Edginess aside, I may be a special case.

1) I'm engaged to a dude, especially one who eschews jewelry so there's minimal societal and partner expectations for such
2) Said dude is currently in college full time, with the majority of his incoming coming from grants, loans, and my literal support

given the option between dropping $10k on:

a) student loan repayment
b) house/car down payment
c) ring
d) an (even more) badass wedding / honeymoon
e) general savings/investment

a ring is the absolute lowest in terms of both desirability and function. Couple hundred for a simple wedding band? I'm down for that.

The Admiral posted...

as an investment

Isn't the resale value of any given ring usually way lower than purchase price? When people buy rings they want them to be either "theirs" or a family heirloom of sorts.
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philsov posted...

0.

Edginess aside, I may be a special case.

No. You're not.

The "3 months salary" rule was literally there because women generally didn't work and if the husband died, the intent was to be able to sell the ring for money so she could have a little bit of wiggle room while they sorted things out.

These days, women are capable of working high paying jobs on their own and while some may or may not need men, no one needs to be able to vendor a ring worth 3 months salary in the event of a spouse dying.
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philsov posted...

Isn't the resale value of any given ring usually way lower than purchase price? When people buy rings they want them to be either "theirs" or a family heirloom of sorts.

Yeah, I'm not talking about buying actual rings for investment. The resale value is terrible.

From what I've read, the U.S. average engagement ring price is $5-6K depending on the source. And while fewer people are getting engaged, the ones that are seem to be spending more on rings as the prices have trended up.
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Always get what you can afford.
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My g/f and I decided long ago we would never spend more than $500 on rings. I couldn't imagine dating a woman who expected me to spend thousands of dollars on her for a one time purchase for something visual that had no real utility.
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The Admiral posted...

Romulox28 posted...

i spent $10k on my wife's

Do you remember the general specs of it?

it was a little over a karat, i think like 1.1 or something. round cut.

for GIA specs it was an excellent cut, i think VS1 or 2 for clarity (looks very good, there's one slight inclusion you'll only see if you loop the bottom of the diamond), and color was like G or something.

I remember color was the one area where I skimped because it was important to me that the diamond was over 1 karat and I felt that was the least noticeable area. you can only tell any difference in the color if you compare the diamond against another one on a white sheet of paper with good lighting anyway so i didnt think it mattered as much.

i also spent a lot more than most people on the band, i think like 1.5k, might have been more. i wanted a platinum band over white gold and there are little diamonds in it, so that all raised the price.

overall the entire thing was 10k after making a deal with the jewelry, and im sure they have some markup built into that price as well.

iirc you said you live in NYC right admiral? im from NJ so this cost is probably pretty representative of what the avg person spends in the area
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I don't anticipate ever getting married, but I couldn't fathom ever spending more than a couple hundred bucks on a ring. However nice of a ring one can get for a couple hundred bucks, that'd be my limit.
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I spent $5000 at a warehouse in san francisco cuz I'm not poor and go to shitty stores like TC
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2 months salary
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$5000, which is about what my wife and I save in a month, after taxes and all expenses. Spent far more on our honeymoon.

We spent about $5,500 on a ring from jamesallen.com which is a major competitor to bluenile. Mention to them you found them through pricescope and you get 5% off the diamond's price, FYI. Affiliate marketer power!

The diamond in question was J color (fuck color ratings, it's goddamn meaningless for solitaires!) in platinum, SI1, 1.05ct (you can save money going just below 1), ideal round cut. GIA certified.

Ideal round cut is pretty much the only thing worth a shit for diamonds. Inclusions are almost never visible, color blends with the setting almost always and will only matter if you stick it next to a bunch of other diamonds.

But cut makes the ring sparkle.
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JustMyOpinion posted...

I'm probably looking at ~10k. I've heard good things about blue nile btw. For that 10k it'd be one carat at the best cut blue nile has. For color and clarity I'd be going with at or close to the bare minimum they recommend.

is your fiance as sensitive as you?
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That_Happened posted...

My g/f and I decided long ago we would never spend more than $500 on rings. I couldn't imagine dating a woman who expected me to spend thousands of dollars on her for a one time purchase for something visual that had no real utility.

This.

My girlfriend doesn't like diamonds and isnt a fan of gaudy jewelry in general. I spent around $500 on her engagement ring, based on suggestions/recommendations she gave me, and she ended up loving it. Its rose gold with Aquamarine as the centerpiece, with a few small decorative diamonds around it to look like leaves surrounding a flower.

Honestly if you go to cool, small time sellers on like Etsy, you get a lot more bang for your buck. If you go straight to bullshit places like Zales and other big names, prepare to shell out.
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Unless you're really well off, no more than $1000. The money could otherwise be spent on much better things.
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All D, E, F diamonds are colorless, and even the ones slightly below that are very hard to tell without white paper or some comparison. I can't see any reason to ever buy a D, as there is a huge premium on those for something that impossible to notice.

Darkman makes a good point about the shape and setting off-setting a lower clarity. You can probably get away with SI or even I in that scenario and save a lot of money.
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Traditionally it's meant to be three month's salary. But a lot of traditions have no modern meaning or relavence.

I paid about 5k for my wife's ring, she picked it out.
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I paid $1300 for my wifes at an online custom jeweler. She wanted a smaller rock, so I was able to focus on getting absolute peak cut, clarity, and color, plus a pretty band.

Plus I got to design it. Made it special.
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Its fairly easy picking out a good bargain diamond ring for any price as long as you're smart. It's very straight forward. I've seen people here fuck it up.
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The Admiral posted...

All D, E, F diamonds are colorless, and even the ones slightly below that are very hard to tell without white paper or some comparison. I can't see any reason to ever buy a D, as there is a huge premium on those for something that impossible to notice.

Darkman makes a good point about the shape and setting off-setting a lower cut. You can probably get away with SI or even I in that scenario and save a lot of money.

everything above I is vaporware with one exception:

if you get an eternity band, you have to make special requests for the diamond color settings to match a J solitaire, which we did. otherwise they will typically be G-H and will make it look yellow.

but a human being that is looking at two rings in indentical platinum settings of I/J and D-G, table-up, NOT next to each other, is incapable of telling which is which.
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also i do find it kind of interesting in this topic that there are a lot of anti-diamond ring guys who dont really seem to have a grasp of how people buy engagement rings.

i get the impression they think you walk into a store and there are 100 diamond rings lined up, where ring 1 is $1k, ring 2 is $2k, etc, and you buy the one based on how much you want people to be impressed with your wealth.

in reality you buy the diamond & setting based on qualities that you want, and you pay more as these qualities get better, as materials change or things are customized, etc.
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also congrats motherfucker
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Whatever the couple thinks is a good number for an engagement ring. Its entirely dependent on them. If they can afford it and want it, more can be ok. If they cant afford it or dont care about having the prettiest engagement ring, then low price works for them.
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Like 500 bucks max. I don't expect either of us to have any interest in jewelry.
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Whatever you think the right amount is you should probably double it.
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tote_all posted...

Jesus fucking Christ it's the whole thing.

They're often (mostly?) bought separately, outside of large retail stores.
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tote_all posted...

The Admiral posted...

tote_all posted...

Jesus fucking Christ it's the whole thing.

They're often (mostly?) bought separately, outside of large retail stores.

It doesn't fucking matter, you give both things together.

how are you not getting this
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Isn't the stereotypical rule like a three month's salary
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Personally, I would spend less so we have money for other things. That said, maybe a month or two of income? 3 seems excessive.
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Here's a pic!


I completely forget the specs though. It was between 6 and 7k price wise. Felt like I was getting the best I could given my income without going overboard. Monthly payments were interest free if paid in full after 2 years.
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tote_all posted...

Mr_Biscuit posted...

I paid $1300 for my wifes at an online custom jeweler. She wanted a smaller rock, so I was able to focus on getting absolute peak cut, clarity, and color, plus a pretty twisted band I knew shed love.

Plus I got to design it. Made it special.

Like this guy.

You think this guy makes 433 dollars a month?

Exactly. And its a really nice ring! Jared wouldve sold me something similar for like twice that.

You dont have to be stupid and dick-measure how much money you can spend.
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NadYobWoc posted...

Personally, I would spend less so we have money for other things. That said, maybe a month or two of income? 3 seems excessive.

I also agree with this line of thinking
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Please dont waste stupid amounts of money on an engagement ring.
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