When you have decided to become engaged, there is a lot to do ahead of you. The first thing on the list is often to choose an engagement ring. Most people do get a ring with at least one diamond, but it doesn’t have to happen that way. Many people wonder, are all engagement rings diamonds? No, there are increasingly other stones being used for this ring, especially among people who don’t consider themselves to be traditional.
There are also artificial diamond engagement rings available. These have become popular because the stones are of increasingly high quality and often hard to tell from diamonds. Often, the best affordable diamond engagement rings use lab-created diamonds. They are indistinguishable from mined diamonds, and they don’t have the flaws that natural diamonds do. When you see the average price of a Tiffany engagement ring, you’ll see why so many people are choosing stones like cubic zirconium and lab-created diamonds. One carat of a diamond at Tiffany’s can run as much as $15,000, depending on its color and quality. If you want a very traditional ring, there is nothing wrong with a solitaire ring with a mined diamond. And if you aren’t, there are more options now than ever.
Buying an engagement ring is one of the most important purchases a man will make in his life. It’s also one of the most expensive. The accepted practice is that a man should spend two months’ salary on an engagement ring, which can be a lot of money. For someone making just $30,000 a year, that’s $5,000. With buying an engagement ring being such a large expense, it’s likely most people will have to take out a loan to do so.
Most stores that sell diamonds will be able to sell you an engagement ring. These types of stores can range from high-end jewelers to mom and pop jewelry shops to chain mall jewelers. Another place you can buy engagement rings is at a pawn shop that specializes in selling jewelry.
When you are looking for an engagement ring, there are some things you should know about quality. Typically, the more carats a diamond is, the better it is. But there also are considerations about cut and color. A diamond could be fewer carats and still be of a higher quality and cut. Another thing to consider is the material the band is made of. Most engagement rings have a gold band, and the higher carat count of the gold, the higher quality it is. 24-karat gold is the highest and is considered pure gold. On the other hand, 10-karat gold has about half the gold content. Other common materials for bands are silver and platinum.
Buying an engagement ring is a major financial undertaking, and many people take out a loan or get a line of credit to pay for it. That can cause financial problems in a world where people are already heavily in debt. The average U.S. household with debt carries nearly $130,000 in overall debt, with about $15,000 of that being credit card debt. Adding debt from an engagement ring to that level of debt can cause trouble. In addition, any loan or line of credit you get for the ring purchase is likely to carry a high interest rate, making it even harder to pay off.
While the engagement ring you buy is important and will be something your future spouse will wear hopefully forever, you want to be smart financially about the decision you make.
