The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| (Going to) Weddings costs too much: Meet the refuseniks Posted: 30 Apr 2013 08:23 AM PDT  A couple gets married in Hong Kong. — Reuters file picNEW YORK, April 30 — If you were thinking of inviting Marissa Anwar to your wedding, you might want to save the postage. She is not interested. Nothing personal. It is just that the 29-year-old operations consultant from Waterloo, Ontario, is tapped out. Last year she attended six weddings —some of which actually had two ceremonies, because of different faiths involved — and was a bridesmaid three separate times. It added up to spending US$7,000 on everything from gifts to travel, from bridal showers to bachelorette parties. On top of the personal debt Anwar was trying to pay off, the mounting wedding costs made her feel like a hamster on a wheel. And that was just as a guest. So she made the decision: no mas. "It adds up really quickly," says Anwar, who has turned down about five invites since instituting her no-go policy. "Girls can be very extravagant with their weddings, but not everyone can afford to drop a few hundred dollars as a wedding guest or a member of the bridal party multiple times a year. It's just too much." Anwar is not alone in rejecting society's expectation that you tick the "yes" box on all those wedding invites. In an era when young adults are loaded with record student debt and jobs for new graduates seem scarce, many invitees cannot sustain the financial burden of attending multiple weddings in quick succession. In fact, according to the wedding site TheKnot.com, the average bridesmaid could be facing a bill for US$1,385 (RM4,214) when adding all potential costs. Add to the mix that more couples than ever are opting for destination events —almost a quarter of all weddings in 2012, up from 20 percent in 2008 — and the price of celebrating your friend's big day can be dear indeed. "Look at all the spending involved in being in the bridal party," says Anja Winikka, site director for TheKnot.com. "There is the dress, there are accessories, there are flights and hotels for out-of-town guests." "Then there is all the pre-wedding activity, like bridal showers, bachelorette parties, even engagement parties. It can very easily add up to US$1,000 or more for a single wedding." The financial burden can be especially heavy for those whose friends are all getting married at roughly the same time. In the United States, men are getting hitched at an average age of 28, and women at 26, according to Census data. For young graduates in their late 20s, that can mean getting swarmed with invitations just when they can least afford it. Hedge fund manager and author James Altucher has a simple method for dealing with those invitations: He turns them down. It does not matter who and it does not matter when. The answer is no. "If you say yes to one wedding, you have to say yes to them all," says New York City-based Altucher, 45, whose upcoming book "Choose Yourself" is about entrepreneurship in a rapidly changing world. "You should not rip everyone out of their lives, make them wear a whole new wardrobe, and fly to another location, just so they are forced to hang out with people they do not like and be totally uncomfortable for an evening. "If you added it all up, it would be tens of thousands of dollars -- and probably a whole year of your life," he says. Of course, not everyone thinks weddings are such horrific events. And friends do not tend to take such refusals lightly, especially for a day that is supremely important to them. "I have lost friends because of it," admits Altucher. "People do not get it. And there is no easy way to break it to them." So how can you put the brakes on out-of-control wedding costs and restore some sanity to your budget without damaging friendships? A few tips from the experts: - Be honest. If you are in financial straits and just cannot afford to attend a wedding or be a bridesmaid or groomsman, just admit that upfront. "Speak up as early as possible," says Winikka of TheKnot.com. "That way brides and grooms have enough time to deal with the situation. Maybe they will go with someone else in their wedding party — or maybe they will even offer to help out financially." - Get creative with the costs, suggests Elaine Swann, a San Diego-based etiquette expert. Instead of buying the happy couple a solo gift — which costs an average of US$79, or US$146 if you are a family member, according to TheKnot.com — go in on a present with other members of the wedding party. "Instead of purchasing everything straight retail, make something memorable and authentic, like putting together a CD of photos of the couple and the time you have spent together." Or instead of buying a seafoam taffeta monstrosity that will never see the light of day again, check out sites like LittleBorrowedDress.com, which allows you to rent couture for the big event and send it back afterward. - Decline being in the wedding party, but attend the wedding. The most punishing costs for wedding guests come with being a bridesmaid or groomsman. If you eliminate those specific expenses, like Las Vegas bachelor parties, then the costs of simply attending can be more affordable. This way you can still be a part of your friend's special day, without racking up a gigantic credit-card statement that will take ages to pay off. If you're asked to be in the wedding party, stall your answer until you get all the details of what is expected, says Swann. "If you look at your budget and you really cannot be a bridesmaid or a groomsman, offer to serve in another capacity, like being an usher or handling the guestbook." All of these little savings can help, unless you're someone like Altucher. "Weddings are the worst events imaginable," he says. "I don't want to subject myself to one boring event after another. Life is too short." — Reuters |
| New gene therapy trials aim to mend broken hearts Posted: 30 Apr 2013 04:15 AM PDT LONDON, April 30 — British scientists are stepping up clinical tests of gene therapy in a bid to help people with advanced heart failure pump blood more efficiently.
After more than 20 years of research, the ground-breaking method for fixing faulty genes is starting to deliver, with European authorities approving the first gene therapy for an rare metabolic disease last November. In the case of heart failure, the aim is to insert a gene called SERCA2a directly into heart cells using a modified virus, delivered via a catheter infusion. Lack of SERCA2a leads to ever weaker pumping in people with heart failure. Although drugs offer some relief, there is currently no way of restoring heart function and the prognosis for those with advanced disease is worse than for many cancers. One of the studies, led by scientists at Imperial College London, is part of a wider mid-stage Phase II project sponsored by Celladon that involves 200 patients worldwide, some of whom have already been treated in the United States and Denmark. The second trial, which is due to start in the summer, will test the same treatment in 24 British patients already fitted with mechanical heart pumps to see how the approach may help in this particular setting. It promises to be a long haul, with extensive Phase III studies still needed once results of the current mid-stage tests are received, which Celladon expects in the first half of 2015. Gene therapy has experienced a series of advances and setbacks over the decades. The most notable blow came in 1999 when an Arizona teenager died in a gene therapy experiment. More recent results, however, have been promising in fields ranging from immune system diseases to blindness. "It is a great example of the slow burn of good laboratory science translating into a potential clinical treatment," said Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, which is co-funding the second trial. Because gene therapy replaces or boosts the activity of a faulty gene, it offers the possibility of a one-time "fix" - and that creates an economic challenge. Any gene therapy is bound to be expensive, since a single dose could last a lifetime and the manufacturer will have just one shot at recouping its investment. But Alexander Lyon of Imperial College, lead investigator on both studies, said it could be a cost-effective solution in heart failure if it avoided the need for interventions such as heart transplants at 200,000 pounds (RM912,749) each. — Reuters |
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