Your post should be a must-read for young couples before they tie the proverbial knot. The only thing I'd like to add: Have the same hobbies and pastimes, because if you don't, you'll move in different circles during the most valuable time you have for togetherness, your free time or spare time. My wife and I made it a point to NOT have different pastimes. We wanted to spend as much time together as possible. Today, 35 years later, we still have all the romance going (OK, maybe not with the rose-tinted glasses on) and we consider this to have been our most important decision to keep our marriage alive, well, and even stronger than it was when we left the registrar.