5 Steps to Starting a New Life Together as a Married Couple

Congratulations! You’ve officially jumped over the broom and are now a part of a married couple! Now that the wedding is over, the real party begins. After all, you’ll get to spend the rest of your life with your favorite human being on the planet. If you’d like to keep that honeymoon glow and create a solid foundation for a healthy marriage, consider these five steps as you start a new life together.

Decide on Your Goals as Individuals and as a Couple

It’s really wise to create short-term and long-term goals as a couple. If you’d like to go back to school and obtain another degree, these are conversations you need to have so that you can plan together. Marriage is about teamwork and supporting one another. Do all you can to make sure that happens.

Create Communication Guidelines

When you’re in a marriage, communication is one of the most important facets. It’s not always about what you say either. In many cases, it’s how you say it. Talk to one another about tone, context, and personal needs. If you prefer for your spouse to call you with news, let him know that you don’t like text messages because you can’t get the full context that way.

When you all have arguments, fight fair and look at one another. If you hit a wall and can’t figure out how to move past it, it’s okay to add a neutral party like a counselor or pastor to mediate. Avoid communicating with friends and family members about marital issues.

Create a Maintenance Regimen

Your spouse might not care about a clean house and you might. You might not care about the oil changes, but your spouse does. Create a routine for maintenance of the home, cars and other assets so that you’re on the same page.

Determine Your Financial Margin

Have conversations about when you’d like to start having children and when you’d like to start the home-buying process. If you two would like to invest in real estate, a single family homes for sale, businesses or the stock market, have the conversation. Decide what your savings, spending and investment plans will look like and create a budget that reflects that.

Make Time to Connect

Even with the busyness of life, make time for one another. Remain intimate on a regular basis. It’s also important to make sure you both go on date nights each week. Leave work, business, and other issues behind so that you can connect with one another.

Marriage has its ups and downs, but as long as you’re committed to one another, you’ll be able to weather it all. However, don’t skip the conversations surrounding these five steps. Even if some of the conversations are a little tough to have, breathe through it and face it. It’s better to deal with any potential struggles rather than sweep them under the rug. Face it while everything is wonderful and you’ll have an easier time facing anything from that point forward.