Five steps to take before you get married

1. Agree upon and set a wedding budget.

If you haven't already, do a reality check on the costs of your wedding and honeymoon. Will you be left with debt or will your savings or family contributions cover the costs? If you will have debt, come up with a plan for paying it off quickly — start with six months as a goal. If you won't be able to do that, consider whether your budget is too high. There are some good books and websites out there to help you budget for a wedding. 

These wedding planning resources that might be helpful:

• The Knot: www.theknot.com
• Wedding Planning on a Budget: www.weddingplanningonabudget.com
• Anti-Bride guide: antibride.com

Avoid taking on credit card debt to pay for your wedding. You'll get stuck with a balance that you pay interest on, which means over time you'll pay more for the wedding than just the initial cost. Sometimes you have to use credit cards to make deposits and reservations — if you do, pay off your balance in full each month so that you're not stuck paying interest.

• See also: Budgeting

2. Talk about your assets and debt.

Figure out what you have and what you owe, combined into one big pot. Start with just the financial stuff like bank accounts, retirement savings, car loans, credit card debt, student loans, and mortgages. Is one of you marrying into debt? If one has adequate savings or a higher income, will that person immediately pay down the other's debt? What does the big picture look like — your combined income versus your combined debt?

• See also: Limiting your debt

3. Get your credit reports and compare your scores.

Get a credit report for each of you at:

• Annual Credit Report: www.annualcreditreport.com

It's a free site that allows anyone to get one free copy of his or her credit report per year. Compare the two — are your credit scores and histories similar? This can influence your future decisions about borrowing, especially when it comes time to apply for a mortgage.

• See also: Credit reports

4. Determine what accounts to combine.

Talk through what you want to combine and what you’d like to keep separate. Many couples see a benefit to keeping individual accounts, while others want to combine everything into joint accounts. There's no right or wrong answer. You may need to open at least one new joint account or add each other as signers to individual checking accounts and credit cards.

• See also: Banking

5. Plan ahead for tax changes.

Doing some "final year of being single" tax planning before you get married. Things like taxes and retirement contributions can change based on your marital status. If your household income jumps, for example, you might have to pay more taxes and you might not be able to contribute to a Roth IRA. When getting married, it's a good idea to meet with a CPA or other tax pro. 

• See also: Taxes

Six steps to take after you get married

Watch the Real Story of Sam and Veronica, a young couple managing finances for the first time as a married couple.

1. If there’s a name change, update your documents.

If one of you will be changing your name, figure out how you'll do that and whom you'll need to tell. You can request the name change on your marriage license, or petition for it later. You'll also need to have your name updated in all sorts of places: your driver's license, bank accounts, retirement accounts, job, tax returns, etc. Come up with a list of all the places where you'll need to submit a name change, and start calling around or look online for information about how to do it for each. 

To track whom to notify about a name change, use the checklist at:

• About.com: marriage.about.com/cs/namechange/qt/whotonotify.htm

2. Review your health insurance options and combine, if it makes sense.

If you're both working, you may both have the option of adding your spouse to your insurance. Figure out what gives you the best coverage at the lowest cost. 

• See also: Health insurance

3. Add your spouse as a beneficiary on any separate accounts.

Review your retirement accounts, life insurance policies, annuities, and anything else that you are keeping separate, but has a beneficiary named. Your beneficiary is the person who gets the money if something happens. If your accounts list your siblings or parents as the primary beneficiary, you may want to change it to your spouse. 

4. Combine your auto insurance policies.

Call your car insurance providers and have your spouse added to your policy. This might change the rates you pay.

• See also: Car insurance

5. Create or update your wills, trusts and powers of attorney.

If you have wills or trusts, meet with your attorney and have them updated. If you don't have anything, this is a good time to execute even the basic documents everyone should have.

• See also: Wills and estate planning

6. Update your property titles, if you have to.

If you live in a community property state like California, Texas or Washington, learn a little about what that means and whether you should re-title any of your assets as community assets. These states consider property you acquire and income you earn from your jobs after marriage to be divided equally among spouses, regardless of where it actually came from. 

This can affect your taxes, and there can be long-term benefits to re-titling the ownership of things like a home or investment account as "community property." It's a tricky topic, and the specifics vary by state, so talk it over with a CPA or attorney.

• See also: Taxes

Links we like

Here are a few online resources you may find useful:

• AICPA 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy couples topics:
  www.360financialliteracy.org/Life-Stages/Couples
• Kiplinger marriage and money 101:
  www.kiplinger.com/basics/archives/2002/05/story2o.html
• The Knot: www.theknot.com
• Wedding Planning on a Budget: www.weddingplanningonabudget.com
• Anti-Bride guide: antibride.com