Things you gotta do before getting married

And no, I'm not talking about wedding planning or who will be in charge of unloading the dishwasher (although those things are important, too).

1. Finances. Both people should get all their financial paperwork (ALL of it) and sit down. What's your cumulative savings? Debt? Earnings? Retirement savings? Open a joint checking and savings account, and change your automatic deposits. Discuss whether to open or create any joint credit cards. Figure out a household budget. Discuss significant assets (does anyone own a house? A car? Real estate? Pricey art or toys? Will these be jointly held after the marriage?). Discuss future significant purchases--house, car. Create a debt repayment plan, if necessary. Open a 401K or IRA, if necessary.
2. Get life and disability insurance.
3. Create wills, living wills, and advance health-care directives.
4. Merge all the household stuff. Will you have two of everything or will there be gaps? Figure out the best way to unload all the duplicates, and to get the things neither one of you has. Are you missing furniture, kitchen stuff? Do things need to be upgraded?
5. Add each other to your car insurance policies.
6. Consolidate household/renter's insurance and make sure you have enough to cover both people's possessions (especially electronics). Will you need earthquake or flood insurance?
7. Figure out tax implications. Will you be hit by the infamous marriage tax? Either way, you'll need to adjust your withholding.
8. Discuss future plans. Kids? Home ownership? Early retirement? How to spend the holidays? Travel? What will everything look like one year from now? Five years? Ten years? Pursuant to kids, how will you raise them? Will one person quit his/her job and stay home? Can you live on one salary? Will you move to a bigger house/apartment/different city? Will one person's career take precedence over the other's?
9. Make sure everyone has a current passport. (Just in case.)
10. Make copies of everything--all the financial paperwork and insurance policies, all the wills and legal paperwork, all your different account numbers and passwords, your driver's licenses, Social Security cards and passports, and backups of both your hard drives. Store one set somewhere outside your home--with your parents, in a bank safety deposit box, in a safe at work. That way if your house burns down, you've got copies of everything.

I'm happy to say we've done all these things.