This Diamond Takes Forever

THIS DIAMOND TAKES FOREVER How Long Would It Take You To Afford Kim Kardashian's Engagement Ring? Kim Kardashian's recent engagement to New Jersey Nets star, Kris Humpries, has given the celebrity gossip magazines plenty of headline material-and the $2 million ring only adds fuel to the fire. Given the news, and with wedding season well underway, we thought we'd take a closer look at the conventional wisdom (or diamond industry marketing ploy) that suggests a groom should spend two month's salary on a diamond ring for his fiancée. We sampled a variety of occupations and figured out their ring budget and also calculated how many months of toil it would take each kind of worker to afford Kim's massive 20-carat, emerald-cut ring. LEGEND Mean Annual Salary Time it would take to = earn enough to buy Kim Kardashian's ring OCCUPATION Ring Budget (2 months wages) $73.490 $26,870 $19,810 $47.730 $24.560 $20,750 Commercial Security Cashier Firefighter Janitor Lifeguard Pilot Guard $3.302 $33.590 $7,955 | $41,630 $4,093 | $3458 | $67.720 $173.350 $12,248| $129,440 $4,478 $225,390 Registered Nurse Construction Flight Attendant CEO Lawyer Surgeon Laborer $28,892 $21,573 $37.565 $5,598 || $6,938|| $11,287 o yrs. 8 years, 10 months 10 yrs. 11 years, 6 months 11 years, 6 months 20 yrs. 27 years, 3 months 30 yrs. 29 years, 6 months 40 yrs. 41 years, 11 months 48 years 50 yrs. 60 yrs. 59 years, 6 months 70 yrs. 74 years, 5 months 80 yrs. 81 years, 5 months 90 yrs. ------ 96 years, 5 months 100 yrs. 100 years Had Kris Humpries stuck to the traditional ring spending guidelines, based on his 2010-2011 season salary of $3.2 million, he should have only spent around $533,000–a little more than a quarter of what Kim's ring is estimated to cost. Meanwhile, his better-paid future brother-in-law, Lamar Odom, was earning more than $8 million when he married Khloe Kardashian, who sports a ring estimated to cost $850,000- less than two month's wages at the rate he's earning. At least someone in the family knows how to stick to a budget! Sources: bls.gov | huffingtonpost.com | hoopshype.com > EARSs