The basic Benjamin Franklin advice about saving is even more true now than it was in the past when things didn't move so fast. Seductive ways to spend your money push at you from all sides. But, remember, you think for yourself. The High Cost of Experience Practice does make perfect. For a person intelligent enough to learn, a bad marriage should bring on the skills and perspective to create a good one.
Marriages take a great deal of emotional energy.
If the two people are in tune, that emotional energy can grow in a positive way. But if you're closeted with someone who pulls you in a direction you don't want to go in, you'll be spending all your time and energy just trying to get back to square one. The physical closeness you share will often mask your essential incompatibility. Every negative human emotion will come into play until one or both of you has the courage to realize that you made a mistake. There is nothing more emotionally damaging to the human psyche than to see hopes and expectations dashed.