Marriage thoughts have marred my mind...

Question

Anyone with experience in the married life, what are some areas I should consider improving or preparing before a proposal or after the wedding?

For example--preparing a financial foundation. Setting up a place to live, a budget for living expenses(clothes or groceries, utilities etc).

Thinking of marriage itself may have gunked up my mind. Hopefully only for the time being.

Does anyone have any helpy suggestions? A light on the kind of but not really so much dark path? Thank You?

Answer 1

I'm just starting down that "married" path (3 weeks tomorrow), and we're in the process of consolidating our finances.  Both of us already use Quicken, so we're starting a completely new file in Quicken for "us".  He's closing some accounts, I'm closing most of my accounts, and we're putting each other on every account (joint accounts).  Some people keep separate accounts, and then have one joint account they contribute to, but that doesn't matter to us.  

As for setting up a place to live, I suppose that depends where you are right now and where you want to go.  Can you afford to buy a house?  Is either person's place large enough for 2 people?  We were already living together for a year, and are waiting a little while to buy a house, so our choice was easy.  One recent couple we know had the groom renting an apartment for about a month, and the bride started moving her stuff in gradually (so it wouldn't be this huge change the next day) and then moved in after the honeymoon.  

I have lots of specific advice for finances, but you've only given us general information to go on.  Any further questions, you can ask me.