You need to know everything. You both need to be comfortable with sharing everything. If you can't you are NOT ready to get married.

My Big Mama is my No. 1 financial role model. Much of my advice stems from what she taught me. She never made more than $13,000 a year, yet she paid off her home before she retired. She saved money from every paycheck. She taught me to be skeptical. It makes me cry to think that I'm a nationally syndicated personal finance columnist for one of the world's best newspapers and my core advice comes from my black grandmother who was a nurse's aide with just a high school education.

Having a separate fund for the things in life that happen, helps keep the emergency fund in tact in case you lose your job or income.

I just don't like people taking debt into retirement.

You are rich if you have enough to meet your most basic needs. You are rich if you have access to clean water, food, shelter, love, a roof over your head.You have to count your blessings to see that you are richer than you think.

I use a "Debt Dash" approach to paying off debt. I recommend people focus on paying off the debt with the lowest balance first. So if the primary has less debt you would focus on that.

You don't need to waste money on a fancy program or app to do a basic budget. I've been using a simple Excel spreadsheet since 2005 to track my monthly budget.