Prepared for the Berinoh committee · July 2026

Gemach Hakehiloh:
growing a wedding loan as the community grows

Families save a small amount each month into a family pot and pay a small fee that builds the fund's reserves. When a wedding comes, the fund lends as much as it can afford that year while holding its capital and cash safety levels, and the loan grows toward the full amount as the fund matures. This page lets you change every rule of the scheme and watch what happens over the next fifty years or more.

One family's journey

The same pot does two jobs: it is the family's own savings, and at the end it closes the tail of the family's last loan.

Test the scheme yourself

Change anything here; the charts update as you type.

WHAT FAMILIES PAY

Monthly saving into the pot (£)

Monthly fee, never returned (£)

Eight parts of this build the fund's reserves, three cover running costs.

Pot cap, lifetime (£)

Saving stops once the pot reaches this.

THE LOAN AND HOW IT GROWS

Full loan, the ceiling (£)

Starting loan (£)

The loan begins here and only ever rises.

Raised each year by (£)

The step up, taken only in a year the fund can hold the higher level.

Repaid each month (% of the loan)

Raise this above 1% to grow the loan faster; more comes back to lend.

Or a fixed repayment (£ a month, 0 = use the %)

A flat amount per loan instead of a percentage.

Collective family cap

£1,200 a month, fixed

STARTING UP AND RESERVES

Lending begins after (years)

Years of collecting before the first loan.

Set-up costs (£ total)

Taken from the fees collected; the balance is the start-up capital.

Start-up fundraising (£ one-off)

Founding money raised at the outset; adds to the start-up capital so the fund can open at its floor.

Capital floor (% of member savings)

Liquidity reserve (% of member savings)

Interest on cash (% a year)

Fundraising (£ a year)

Covers the capital shortfall the fee leaves.

Fixed overhead (£ a year)

COMMUNITY AND RISK

Marriage age

Pilot joiners (% of seed a year)

Established families joining in the early years, held to the 18-year wait.

Member withdrawal (% a year)

Bad debt (% a year)

Close to newcomers after year

0 means the community keeps growing.

Where the scheme stands at the end of the period

The picture that matters

The loan starts small and grows toward the full amount as the fund matures. Everything else here is what makes that possible or puts it at risk.

What if the community stopped growing?

A committee should always ask this. Close the scheme to newcomers in the controls above and these figures answer it.

Year by year

One row for each year of the run.

What this model assumes

Families save from the month they enrol until their pot reaches its cap, and pay the fee for as long as they are members.
Of the fee, eight parts build the fund's reserves and three cover running costs.
A wedding is funded only if the family has been a member for eighteen years. The founding cohort, everyone on day one, is exempt.
The fund collects for a set number of years before it lends. Set-up costs come out of the fees collected in that time, and the balance is the fund's start-up capital.
The loan begins at the starting figure and is lifted one step a year, but only in a year the fund can hold the higher level, so it never falls.
Loans are repaid at one per cent of their own amount a month, and a family pays no more than the collective cap a month across all its loans.
The tail of a family's last loan is closed by its own pot rather than repaid in cash, and the fund keeps it.
Every female wedding starts a new saving household two years later, so the community grows by reproduction; established families also join for the first ten years.
Bad debt, withdrawals, overhead, fundraising and interest are steady expected amounts, not random draws, so the run is reproducible.
Growth is measured in units, one unit being one saving household. Whether the rates and thresholds set here are realistic is the committee's judgement, not the model's.
Every figure here follows from the rules set on this page.