Planning for a wedding? Also plan your individual fiscal future

Over the past year, five of my great friends have gotten divorced, all after having one or more children. For some, it was a long and inevitable-seeming journey filled with separation and void of passion. For others, it was sudden and awful. In every case, their financial lives are largely in shambles, though several of them were working at least part-time when the event occurred.

In every case, we look back on their torn finances and wonder, what could I have done differently?

If you're getting married, I wouldn't suggest planning for an inevitable divorce, or re-examining your choice of mate. You're in love, it's likely you're blind to those possibilities now, and I totally get that. But what can you do to plan intelligently for your individual financial future (even if you stay together until you're 101)? Here are a couple of things I, too, would do differently: