Too many couples spend more time planning their wedding than their financial future. During the months leading up to your special day, spend time with your bride to discuss the long-term goals you share for financial freedom and security.

Get clear about your present financial status.
Instead of waiting for skeletons to tumble out of the closet, come clean about any mistakes from your past or blemishes on your credit report. Your bride shouldn’t have to wait until to try to close on a house before discovering that you never paid a huge department store bill.

Make a money timeline.
Talk about when you want to achieve some of the important milestones in your life together. When do you expect to be out of credit card debt? When will you buy your first house together? When will you have kids, and when will they be likely to start college?

Talk about your retirement now.
At what age do you want to stop working? Does your bride intend to stop working any sooner than that? Based on your goals, you can figure out how much to start saving for your retirement.

Discover how hard you’re prepared to work to reach those goals.
If you have a lot of credit card debt to get rid of, are you willing to work nights and weekends delivering pizza or answering telephones to start building wealth sooner? What traits and talents can you use to increase your income?

Agree on your tolerance for risk.
Are you willing to ride out unpredictable cycles in the stock market for the chance to retire sooner? Or will you make some sacrifices now and in the future for the benefit of a sure thing at retirement age? Decide whether you’re more comfortable stashing cash in a money market fund or investing in real estate.