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 rule is when in doubt hire a professional. You could do it just this year and then you have direction to resume doing it yourself after the consultation. What you don't want is to do it wrong and be hit by a huge tax bill. Remember the old saying, "Don't be pennywise and pound foolish."

Kids can and are a blessing. But plenty of people without kids live and die just as happy.

You'll feel better when you get all that debt off your back.

I use my financial values to set my limitations. I have three children I want to put through college debt free. So that means I can't spend wildly or with disregard.

My grandmother's grandparents were slaves. My grandmother Big Mama would tell me about the stories she heard as a child growing up in the shadows of a North Carolina plantation. It's only been in my lifetime that blacks have had the right to vote, live in certain areas or hold certain jobs. It is with this black history that I write about the financial challenges African-Americans still have.

I'm not a fan of debt consolidation. In my experience, many people "clear" credit cards and other debt to get the one payment and never change what they need to change to prevent getting into debt again.