1. From the beginning, save 15–20 per cent of your income. This should be possible because, by combining households, your expenses should be considerably reduced. Your cash reserves should then be put in a mutual fund

2. Rather than simply keeping two chequebooks as you did before you were married, pool your money into one chequebook and one savings account or money market to gain higher interest

3. Alter plans, such as life insurance and retirement, to include your new spouse as beneficiary

4. Decide how to handle debts that were accumulated before the marriage, such as student loans

5. Work together on your budget and on ways to track expenditures

6. Discuss how each of you will handle money – is one of you a spender and the other a saver? Create some ground rules on how you will handle any differences

7. If both incomes are needed to pay expenses, be sure to have adequate life insurance

8. Be sure to let each other know where important documents are kept

9. Have only one combined credit or debit card

10. Make a list of future purchases that you would each like to make and prioritise them together. As a married couple, you should decide jointly on how to spend your money