<prompt> Human: A little backstory: I 29 yo, 58Kyr received a very good financial education from my parents growing up, and have worked hard to stay debt free. I have invested well and developed a reasonable amount of savings, but I was married 2 months ago, and this past weekend, my spouse 26 yo, 41Kyr came clean about her debts to me.The situation: I had her consolidate all of her account informationlogins so that I could get a clear picture of what the damage was. She had 17,000 in credit card debt between 4 cards and still has 8,000 remaining in student loans. She was very embarrassed and apologetic, and said that she hadnt told me for the past few months because she was afraid of how I would react.I reacted well, did not get angry, and thanked her for not keeping this from me longer. I expressed that This is a financial emergency and went into Lets get this taken care of mode. I transferred 50 of my savings out to immediately pay off all of the credit cards. We cancelled all of them except for the one that shes had open for several years for the sake of maintaining her credit, but we shredded it so it cant be used again and will continue to monitor the account.I am now kind of giving her a crash course in credit cards, etc, and we are consolidating all of our finances in a way that makes them easier to manage. Ive made her an authorized user on one of my cards so that we can monitor spendingcashflow together.My questions for rpersonalfinance are these:1 Should I go ahead and just pay off the student loan as well?2 Should we just cancel the remaining credit card, or should I leave it open and just not use it ever again for the sake of her credit health? If this even makes sense.3 As of right now, we have worked out a repayment plan where she will be transferring 500 out of every paycheck into a new savings account that we created together. She will continue this until the balance of the savings account is 17,000. This will then be used for down-payment on our future home. Is having her on a plan like this too strict or wrong of me? Should I just brush this off to having been a lesson learned? 4 I am having a hard time mentally moving past the fact that it took me so long to save that 17K... I love and trust my wife, and I am committed to her. I know that paying off the debts was the best decision, but I cant help but dwell on the fact that I feel like I made it too easy and non-consequential for her. This feels like an unhealthy mindset. Any guidance for me?Any advice or suggestions here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.Edit: My update, and a thanks to personalfinanceAssistant: Im a little more traditional than a lot of PF, so keep that in mind with my advice. You should have discussed this before you were married. Thats on both of you, but its not something that can be changed now. Once youre married, youve combined every aspect of your lives. You dont make 58k, and she doesnt make 41k. You now have a household income of 99k. So now it doesnt matter who pays back the savings account, because its all household money. You sound like a guy who already has a budget figured out, rework that budget as a combined budget, and save whatever fits into the new budget. Human: I have read a lot of the replies in here, but had to start responding somewhere. Realizing that its OUR money is an important step that I need to understand in order to cope with this properly and move forward in the future. I needed to hear that.Thank you very much for your perspective here.  <response>: As some one who was a total spend thrift I married a wonderful man who, like you saves. We discussed our financial goals after we were married. My husband has never criticized me or made me feel like I was in trouble. He encouraged me in my pursuits and reminded me that I have only so much to attain those. Now Im a saver but I wouldnt be if my husband had given me consequences. You are not her father, you dont need to punish her. Love her and encourage her and teach her what you know with kindness. Pretty soon you will be debt free and saving. Congratulations to you both she sounds like a lucky girl to have someone who is concerned enough to ask for advice on her behalf. You must love her very much: 