FUCK DIAMONDS

As a relationship turns toward lasting commitment,
buying a diamond is treated as automatic.

Diamonds aren't valuable, special, or a good gift.

Diamonds are for never.

Do Better

You've been told a shiny rock with almost no resale value is the foundation of a life together.

It isn't a tradition, and it isn't worth much. It is the product of the most successful marketing campaign of the twentieth century: months of income, spent on a common stone.

Diamonds are unremarkable and wildly overpriced. If you want jewelry, do better than a diamond. If you don't, spend the money on the life you are actually trying to start.

DIAMONDS SUCK

Grow up on enough movies and ads and you will think diamonds have always been part of marriage, and therefore a wise buy for a young couple. They have not. The modern diamond engagement ring was popularized in the 1930s–40s by De Beers. The line “A Diamond Is Forever” is from 1947. It was written to stop you from reselling the stone.

Walk out of the store and you would be lucky to get half of retail back. Often much less. A modest ring plus the rest in an index fund would have done more for a household than a piece of carbon.

There is nothing romantic about starting a marriage in a hole. Jewelers and advertisers do not care if the purchase delays a house or savings. The stone needs the campaign because it cannot sell itself.

Learn more

Consider alternatives

A diamond is a slogan you can wear. These do more.

Other Stones

Moissanite, sapphire, and amethyst look better to many people and cost less. A jeweler can tell. Most guests cannot.

Experiences

Hobbies, a skill, a trip, a meal you will still talk about. Rocks gather dust.

Travel

Book the tickets. A winter somewhere warm beats a stone in a velvet box.

Invest

Diamonds do not pay dividends. Skills and savings do.

Music

A diamond sits there. An instrument is something you do together.

Family

If children are in the plan, a rock is not the down payment on that life.

House

Save toward the place you will actually live. Rent is the other way to light money on fire.

Books

A shelf of books you use is worth more than a stone you insure.

Diamond news

Lab diamonds showed the game. Big diamond companies added lab-grown stones to inventory, then watched prices fall anyway. If compressed carbon were rare and romantic, that would not have been possible. How the myth was built.

Better than diamonds

Read how the myth was built. Then buy something else.

Marketing Gifts