By Terri Orbuch PhD

Adapted from her book, “5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great”

Congratulations! You’ve survived one of the most difficult and stressful events in your relationship: the wedding.  Now the two of you are settling in for the long haul. If you’re like the vast majority of newlyweds, the next 6-12 months will be some of your happiest.  Relationship researchers call this “the honeymoon period,” and it’s characterized by a sense of newness and possibility.

But how can you keep that freshness and optimism going after the initial glow wears off?   Here are five post-wedding tips that have been shown to build and strengthen marriage bonds, derived from my landmark Early Years of Marriage (EYM) study:

Don’t hide anything when it comes to money.

When happy couples in the EYM study were asked if their spouses were completely open and honest about money, their answers differed significantly from those of the unhappy couples in the study.  Nearly 8 out of 10 happy couples said they “never” feel their spouse tells them things that aren’t completely true about money, compared with only 54% of the other couples.  The take-away: Money secrets and lies erode marital happiness.

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By Terri Orbuch PhD, The Love Doctorâ„¢

As a researcher and psychologist who’s been studying marriage and divorce for more than 25 years, I’m interested in the motivations of men who seem to “have it all” and then throw it all away, facing public humiliation in the aftermath and subjecting their families to the same.

Here are five ways to understand why men like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tiger Woods and John Edwards risk it all to have an affair:

1. The illusion of invulnerability. Often, powerful men have affairs because they think they won’t get caught.  And even if they do, they believe they won’t get in trouble because they have the resources to cover it up.  These men often don’t worry about the long-term effects of their actions on others, only the short-term gains for themselves.

…Want more explanations from Dr. Orbuch? Click here to read more.