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How much is the maximum (in amount or percentage of net worth) you would be comfortable tying up in jewelry?

A

AllAboardTheBlingTrain

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Apr 22, 2020
Messages
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We’re all jewelry aficionados here, and we really, really love our bling. But is there such a thing as TOO much bling?

I guess the question can be considered in two ways - considering your current financial position, or in a hypothetical future where you’re a billionaire. Is there an upper limit that you’d want to impose?

For me, I think having jewelry that is an absolute max of 5-7% of my net worth is something that I’m willing to do, no matter how much I love my bling. Even if I was a billionaire. Actually if I was a billionaire I would want my ideal dream jewelry collection to be even less than 5-7% of my net worth, thats WAY too much money for jewelry!!

How about you?
 
while some jewelry retains its value or even appreciates, i look at it as a disposable or depreciating purchase. i couldn't see spending more than say 2%...i think right now it is less than 1%
 
I, too, consider jewellery as disposable and do not consider them in my net worth evaluation.
 
Same. I tend to forget I have money "just sitting there" in the form of jewelry. Last time I had to consider how much my pieces were worth was when my DH and I were setting up our wills/a trust for our kiddo.
 
About 2% of net worth, maybe a little less than that.

DH and I don't think of jewelry as investment. It is disposable. So we purchase jewelry as fun additions to life, and keep it separate from other meaningful investments, aka stocks, real estate et al.
 
The valuation question is a little tricky, would that be based on purchase price or what you would expect the jewelry to sell for (market value)? I would ballpark my jewelry at 2-3% of my net worth based on purchase price. Personally, I have loaded up on jewelry more in the last 12 months, given the lack of access to/interest in my normal spendy hobbies: travel, fine wine/restaurants, designer clothes/shoes. But I would tackle this question differently since I look at my jewelry spending as a percentage of my disposable income, rather than my net worth. And I view my disposable income as 100% discretionary :)

If I were a billionaire, I think my percentage limit would actually be higher, so long as I had enough stashed in safe, diversified investments to maintain my standard of living indefinitely! What a fun question.
 
I’m currently around 1.5% of my net worth if we’re going by original purchase price.

Even that seems kind of high since I don’t look at it as something I can realistically sell for that much.
 
I worked in financial investment. I formulated, projected, and analyzed financial plans. Later I audited financial plans for their appropriateness to the investors needs and requirements.
As an investment category, jewellery like fine art or vintage cars would be recommended to be limited to 5% of assets. Jewellery isn’t an “investment” as such. Certainly some types of fine gems ie large unheated Burmese Rubies, large unheated Kashmir sapphires, large Russian Alexandrites, Imperial colour Jade, rare pattern Australian Black Opal and Arygle tender Pink diamonds can increase in value of over time as would numbered Cartier Pieces and jewellery by Lalique and Faberge. However it’s a risky investment and unlike cash or shares a proportion of the investment can’t be assessed as needed.
I view jewellery as an investment in my pleasure, happiness and joy. I prefer to buy preloved so I can be comfortable that the resale of the piece will not result in a significant loss.
 
Good Lord, I have no idea what % of my net worth my jewelry is. Sometimes I feel that I've spent WAY WAY too much on jewelry, but I absolutely adore every single piece and I have always sought out preloved and waited for sales, tax-free weekends, etc. I bought many of my nice pieces about 10 years ago. If I'm very lucky, I have another four decades to live, at least, so I hope that sheer length of time (half a century-odd) plus having been smart on prices might mean that they will increase in value over such a long period. I don't know why that matters since I'm planning to leave it all to my nieces. But maybe I'll liquidate some for them four decades from now.

I don't feel as guilty as I used to about my prior jewelry spending, though. There's a ton of cancer in my family, I'm very high risk for some types, and life is for living.

I feel I've reached a stage where I don't really want to buy any more jewelry. I have so much! But there are always exceptions, such as when Kiki McDonough had a sale recently and I bought a gorgeous white gold and diamond dragonfly necklace at 50% off.

I know this isn't an exact answer to your question about net worth, but it's related, because it boils down to questions about how comfortable you are with the amount you've spent on jewelry.
 
I've no idea as I never consider it as asset, nothing really worth $$$ in my collection would be sold (unless life or death scenario) as it's sentimental.
 
I am crappy at math So I can‘t do the calculation. But frankly, as I have purchased wisely, I do not think at the time of purchase that it would have been even one percent. If I was a billionaire it still would be less than a percent as my tastes have not changed but the carat size would go up, not the amount of pieces.
 
I take a totally different view.

If I invest in equities, for example, and just as I retire some imbecile like Donald Trump tweets the wrong thing or a pandemic starts the value of my equity portfolio drops by a third. Did I get any benefit or please from holding those shares? No. My father had a third wiped off his pension because he retired at just the wrong time.

I’ve been burned plenty by more standard investments like savings plans which have a painful punitive impact if you can’t continue to contribute the same monthly amount for whatever reason.

I’ve bought houses which were money pits because the tenants wouldn't leave or didn’t look after them. Or that I couldn’t rent out.

At the stage of life I am at now almost all my wealth is in three things: property, jewellery and cash deposits. In almost equal amounts. That’s it.

When I buy gemstones or other jewellery I buy savvy. I buy rare or high quality stones from as close to source as I can get. I buy second hand. I would say almost all of the cost of my jewellery collection would be realised in sale value if it was necessary to dispose of it.

So for me, north of 25% of my “net worth” is in jewellery. Estimated realisable value.

However that percentage will reduce greatly when my life circumstances change and I invest in additional property. I reckon I have another 15 years of peak earning (please god!) and I intend to transfer my spending / investment from jewellery to property from 2022 onwards.

Unlike holding a share certificate or a bond I actually get to enjoy my “savings”. Living where I do I also like the fact that I have a significant amount in assets which are small, portable and can just be scooped up and taken back to my home country in an emergency. I haven’t forgotten the Gulf war or the terrorist actions in KSA. If I had to get out of the Middle East in short order I wouldn’t be leaving much asset value stuck here.

And the intent is that my Jewrllery is all I will leave to my daughters in my will. They can keep or sell it as they wish. The rest of my money I’m spending on enjoying myself in my old age!
 
AllAboardTheBlingTrain said:
We’re all jewelry aficionados here, and we really, really love our bling. But is there such a thing as TOO much bling?

I guess the question can be considered in two ways - considering your current financial position, or in a hypothetical future where you’re a billionaire. Is there an upper limit that you’d want to impose?

For me, I think having jewelry that is an absolute max of 5-7% of my net worth is something that I’m willing to do, no matter how much I love my bling. Even if I was a billionaire. Actually if I was a billionaire I would want my ideal dream jewelry collection to be even less than 5-7% of my net worth, thats WAY too much money for jewelry!!

How about you?
Click to expand...

Very interesting topic! I've wondered the same.

I just did a rough calculation, adding up even the cheapo pieces I have like from Amazon or Berricle, and I took today's market closing prices for my portfolio...excluding the house...the percentage I've spent on jewelry is...

0.8% of my net worth.....

I'm a bit neurotic when it comes to spending money on luxury items. I'm also probably pretty frugal? Even with the above I feel pretty guilty and have lost some sleep over it for some reason.

I'd like to think that if I were a billionaire, then sky's the limit.
 
Thank you everyone so much for replying! I find it interesting how most people seem to be in this ballpark of around 1-2%.

I tend to not consider jewelry as a part of net worth either, so when doing this (rough) calculation I just divided the amount I spent on my jewelry (which I track in a spreadsheet because I’m a big one for tracking everything) by my net worth and it came to just under 5%. I can see myself being comfortable if it goes to 7%, and hopefully as I get older and earn more that percentage will But all of my jewelry, like some of you, has been bought through discretionary income and isn’t counted in the net worth calculation. I try to be sensible and careful in how I buy - estate sales or preloved or hard bargaining, and sometimes am gratified when people can’t believe how little I paid for something.

I really like how @Bron357 put it - that jewelry is an investment into my own happiness and joy, I absolutely believe that as well.

Also @Ionysis - I love your perspective and how much it stands out on this thread! And your collection is indeed, utterly spectacular.
 
I asked my DH and he laughted and said it was up to me. :lol:

@AllAboardTheBlingTrain Are you including everything like real estate?


ETA: did some quick math and it looks like I have about 2% tied up in jewelry but that includes real estate worth too.
 
AllAboardTheBlingTrain said:
hypothetical future where you’re a billionaire. Is there an upper limit that you’d want to impose?
Click to expand...

Interesting question. I never looked at it this way in terms of percentage of net worth. I just buy what we can easily afford. But to take your hypothetical and to impose a percentage on it I guess 5% sounds good. But I think if we were billionaires I would do the same as I am doing now and buy what I love as long as we can easily afford to do so.

It is important to us to give back to worthy causes and we always donate a percentage of our earnings to charities. That is always a given and anything else we buy is superfluous and not nearly as critical. So as long as we can donate what we donate to worthy causes and still afford luxuries like bling it's OK. But first and foremost come the charities.
 
I got my first #RealJob when I was 23. My parents had drilled “saving for a rainy day” into me, and I dutifully dumped whatever was left after living expenses straight into savings. Every Starbucks was a guilty indulgence. I took no vacations or getaways. It wasn’t a difficult life by any means, but I wasn’t living it up and enjoying my youth.

That was ten years ago. My takehome is much higher now. The money that I scrimped to save in my early twenties, it makes quite literally no difference to my current or my future. And I’ll be honest, I really wish I’d been a bit less uptight about saving, because a couple of weekends away with friends would have had much more impact on my then-happiness than what abstaining has afforded me now. If I’d bought some VCA turquoise - my ROI would be stratospheric compared to any investment plan out there :lol:

I say all of this... A bit tongue in cheek, for sure. Saving early develops good budgeting habits. There was no guarantee, back then, that I’d be where I am now. But I grew up thinking that “make responsible financial decisions” meant “buy nothing frivolous”, and it took many years to recalibrate what healthy spending and saving looks like - that buying something just because I want to isn’t cheating, or shameful, or rebellious.

My other half is quite conservative with money. I run (almost!) all my jewellery purchases through him because I don’t really trust that I have great judgement on what’s okay and what’s too much.
 
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missy said:
I asked my DH and he laughted and said it was up to me. :lol:

@AllAboardTheBlingTrain Are you including everything like real estate?


ETA: did some quick math and it looks like I have about 2% tied up in jewelry but that includes real estate worth too.
Click to expand...
That’s in line with most of the other posters here missy! Interesting how most people seems to independently hit upon the same limit/target.
 
yssie said:
I got my first #RealJob when I was 23. My parents had drilled “saving for a rainy day” into me, and I dutifully dumped whatever was left after living expenses straight into savings. Every Starbucks was a guilty indulgence. I took no vacations or getaways. It wasn’t a difficult life by any means, but I wasn’t living it up and enjoying my youth.

That was ten years ago. My takehome is much higher now. The money that I scrimped to save in my early twenties, it makes quite literally no difference to my current or my future. And I’ll be honest, I really wish I’d been a bit less uptight about saving, because a couple of weekends away with friends would have had much more impact on my then-happiness than what abstaining has afforded me now. If I’d bought some VCA turquoise - my ROI would be stratospheric compared to any investment plan out there :lol:

I say all of this... A bit tongue in cheek, for sure. Saving early develops good budgeting habits. There was no guarantee, back then, that I’d be where I am now. But I grew up thinking that “make responsible financial decisions” meant “buy nothing frivolous”, and it took many years to recalibrate what healthy spending and saving looks like - that buying something just because I want to isn’t cheating, or shameful, or rebellious.

My other half is quite conservative with money. I run (almost!) all my jewellery purchases through him because I don’t really trust that I have great judgement on what’s okay and what’s too much.
Click to expand...

Interesting post @yssie and really highlights how important it is to be balanced with saving and spending in equal measure!
 
We don't include furniture, jewelry, etc. in our net worth, only real estate and investments. Plus it would be way too scary to add up the value of my jewelry! Jewelry is bought with extra money we saved over time and is designated for luxuries, vacations, etc. We tried to live debt free other than a mortgage, so most luxuries came after saving for college for our kids, cars, emergency fund, and retirement funds. We are retired now and feel it was all worth it for the freedom we have now.
 
Elizabeth35 said:
Less than 1%. I don’t think I would spend any more if i was a billionaire.
Click to expand...

To be fair, 1% of a billion is a million, and I could get a stunning collection out of that amount of mileage :lol:


diamondseeker2006 said:
We don't include furniture, jewelry, etc. in our net worth, only real estate and investments. Plus it would be way too scary to add up the value of my jewelry! Jewelry is bought with extra money we saved over time and is designated for luxuries, vacations, etc. We tried to live debt free other than a mortgage, so most luxuries came after saving for college for our kids, cars, emergency fund, and retirement funds. We are retired now and feel it was all worth it for the freedom we have now.
Click to expand...

123ducklings said:
This is an interesting thread. I think about/spend on jewelry like @GliderPoss and @diamondseeker2006 described — more of a disposable income/entertainment type thing. The value in my mind is primarily sentimental because I don’t buy with a consideration for future resale.
Click to expand...
Oh I never actually thought about other depreciating assets like furniture, cars etc. I count art in that category as well as I don’t own any expensive/well known art. I consider jewelry more of a consumption good than an investment good so I don’t count it in my net worth calculation. But it was interesting to see how much money I’ve spent/been gifted on it over the years (though from disposable income). I tie Most of my purchases to occasions, so the sentimental value is priceless.
 
Pretty narrow range here -- which is interesting and a little surprising, tbh. Seems like it's generally in the "no big deal" range like < 2%. Maybe it's all confirmation bias! I thought it would be all over the place.
 
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