At least she can laugh about it now. By the time they got around to discussing their finances, a month after Erika moved from Scottsdale, Ariz., to suburban Boston, it quickly became a contentious issue. Having been a single mom for six years, Erika had lived paycheck-to-paycheck and was very conservative. Dennis, however, was a big spender, though "he always managed to come up with the money, somehow," she added.

Then there was the question of spending on her daughter and his 13-year-old son from a previous marriage. She received child support, he did not. And there were debts from Dennis' divorce to contend with as well.

"I don't think I was as transparent as I should've been," Dennis said. "It wasn't intentional, but it just worked out that way, and it certainly caused some problems."

Second marriage can be more challenging. The partners are older, perhaps more set in their ways, and may have a dose of skepticism instilled in them from their failed first marriages. Bringing children into the new family also can create difficulties as everyone learns to live together.

But it's often money that creates the most difficulties.

"What starts as a conversation about finances really becomes a major debate about goals and priorities, and a lot of couples aren't prepared for that," said Susan Zimmerman, a financial adviser with Zimmerman Financial Group in Apple Valley, Minn. "It can become disillusioning when it's the second time around."

Zimmerman and her husband, Steve, jointly work with couples on planning finances and often find themselves counseling couples as they embark on their second marriages. Susan Zimmerman is a licensed marriage and family therapist, and both are chartered financial consultants.

Since money issues often bring out intense emotions, the Zimmermans said calm, rational communication is the key to a happy financial partnership. And that means more than just discussing who will pay which bills and whether there will be separate or joint checking.

The new couple will have to discuss how they see their future together and what their joint goals should be for themselves and their children. The goals won't be too different from those they may have set in their first marriages, but the means to those goals will change based on the attitudes and priorities of the new couple.

"How you handle things in this new unit is just going to be very different from how you handled things the first time around," Susan Zimmerman said. "You have to re-learn how to be a team again."