The following is a guest post by Joslyn Ewart, the author of “Balancing Act: Wealth Management Straight Talk for Women“. If you’d like to submit a guest post on Money Q&A, please check out the site’s guest posting guidelines.

Financial transparency in marriage is either fairly straightforward because the couple is comfortable with one another’s financial attitudes and values, or it can become a couple’s worst nightmare because they do not understand their spouse, at all.

And like so many things in life, how to approach the experience of financial transparency effectively depends on a number of things, such as the financial wherewithal each spouse brings to the marriage, the money messages each spouse was taught, and the personal finance values of each partner.

For the purposes of the following perspective, our scenario will assume that the couple has learned to accept differences between them and values working together without one spouse controlling the other by assuming financial omnipotence in the relationship.

Within this framework, financial transparency can be established and nourished as follows:

• Conduct regular conversations about money, pinpointing needs and interests
• Identify financial resources–your income/expenses; what you own/owe
• Organize financial documents/information and update quarterly, as needed
• Be certain there is easy access to all financial materials
• Set achievable goals: goals for saving, spending, sharing, debt, family protection
• Determine a plan for achieving your goals; consider short and long-term needs
• Prioritize the steps you intend to take
• Decide how to monitor progress toward achieving your goals
• Fine-tune your planning, if needed

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The following is a guest post by Kenn Goldblatt, the author of, “The Pro Se Litigant’s Civil Litigation Handbook“. If you’d like to submit a guest post on Money Q&A, please check out the site’s guest posting guidelines.

The legal industry is the only activity I know where if you make a mistake, you pay. If your attorney makes a mistake, you pay. If your paralegal makes a mistake, you pay. Also, if the opposing attorney makes a mistake, you pay. And if the judge makes a mistake, you pay.

So understanding the civil litigation process can help you avoid expense-causing mistakes and help you keep your lawyer on track – or keep yourself on track if you opt to proceed pro se and represent yourself.

If the lottery worked the same way, the store clerk would tell you to go outside and buy your ticket from an agent. And, the agent would tell you that he or she would take your money. But, they wouldn’t guarantee that you would get a ticket – or get any money if you win.

Understanding the Civil Litigation Process

These days, more and more individuals are deciding for a variety of reasons to represent themselves. In fact, in state and federal courts across the United States, about five million individuals are handling their own civil cases of various sorts.

Whether or not they will be successful and prevail depends on a number of factors, not the least of which is understanding precisely how the civil litigation process works and how they can produce the documents they need to convince the judge that they should win.

Typically, judges loathe pro se litigants because they come to court believing what they learned in sixth grade – that if you just come to court and tell the truth, everything will be all right. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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