We all have our fairy tale idea of what marriage should be like. We get married and dream of a lifetime of wedded bliss. We imagine what it's going to be like on our 50th anniversary. We can't imagine things ever going bad. All we know is that we just got married and we're madly in love. What could possibly go wrong?

Imagine our surprise and shock when things don't exactly work out as we planned.

The sad truth is, one out of every two marriages in the United States ends in divorce. Those are the stats. You can look them up if you want. They've been that way for a long time too. We're not going to try to explain why the stats or so bad or what happens to make people head straight for divorce court. What we are going to do is give you a few tips, some things to do, so that if you see that your marriage is not exactly smooth sailing you can slam on the brakes before you run into a stone wall head first.

The first thing you need to do when you see the signs that things are not running smoothly is to sit down and talk with your spouse. This included never going to bed angry. You must at least try to iron out your initial anger before you call it a night. That doesn't mean that you leave all your talks for the end of the day. Sometimes after a long day you're just too tired to get into things. So try to find time during the day or maybe even after dinner in the early evening to sit down and talk about your problems.

One of the main reasons couples have problems in their marriage is because of money. The sex only ends up suffering because of the other problems. When all else goes well, a couple's sex life is usually very rich and rewarding. So what do you do when you have money problems? Well, at lot of this comes down to the individual person and being willing to compromise. Money problems usually mean that somebody has to do without something. The problem most couples run into is that neither one wants to be the one to give up "their" piece of the pie. By sitting down with your spouse and working out compromises and trying to come up with solutions to their money problems, this can help ease the strain of your financial woes.

Obviously there are way more problems in a marriage than just money. There's drug and alcohol abuse, problems with annoying in-laws, problems with kids, etc. Regardless of what the problem is, ultimately if it goes untreated for long enough it becomes a serious problem. Once it reaches that point you need to seek professional guidance. This doesn't mean sitting down with your Aunt Bertha. It means going to a marriage councilor and discussing your problems with him or her. Many people are to ashamed to admit that they have problems in their marriage so they put this off. Don't. Seeking help is the first step to fixing what's wrong. After all, you've put a lot into your marriage. It deserves everything you can give it in order to save it.