Exactly 87 days from today I will be married. My then-boyfriend and I were on vacation with his family in December 2014 when he asked me to be his wife. What seemed like seconds after the engagement, we got questions from friends and family members left and right. “When’s the wedding date?” “Do you want kids?” “Will you two stay in New York after the wedding?” I knew they were just excited for us, but all I wanted to do was bask in the moment and enjoy being engaged. Despite the pressure from others to map out the next ten years of our lives together, those tough questions did get me thinking about my future differently than I had before.

Over the past year, I’ve reflected on what I have accomplished, what I still want to achieve and what both of those things mean in the context of marriage. I’ve graduated from college, traveled abroad, supported myself financially in New York City and have a growing career in the field of my passion. While my fiancé was my biggest cheerleader along the way, I had the luxury of focusing on the immediate future and could do what was right for my life and my career at that time. Since the engagement, that reality has shifted. Now, I spend weekends pouring over our wedding budget, discussing homeownership, day-to-day expenses and all sorts of other financially-minded topics.

My fiancé and I are Millennials, and we’re doing now what many of our peers, according to the Edelman study findings from a recent study conducted by Edelman’s Global Financial Services sector and Edelman’s Intelligence team, need to do even more of: plotting out our financial future. This past February, I had the chance to work alongside Edelman’s Global Financial Services Sector and Edelman Intelligence teams to reveal the sector’s first proprietary research on Money and Millennials. The study explored the role money and financial services play in the lives of Millennials – the mysterious group of 20-to-35 year olds that represent a quarter of the entire U.S. population at 83.1 million – and their beliefs and attitudes towards money.

While some of my Gen X colleagues have been pleasantly surprised by the study insights, I feel like the findings were lifted from pages in my personal diary. All Millennials aren’t 18 – 25-year-old college kids. Many of us have or are approaching or our 30’s with real life responsibilities that make budgeting and saving difficult. According to the study

  • 76 percent of U.S. Millennials think saving is the responsible thing to do, but 58 percent worry about it and only half feel in control of their money management,
  • 45 percent say they have the tools in place to help them manage their finances and
  • 55 percent say they only have enough to meet their day to day needs.

The research also revealed that many Millennials face tough challenges in achieving their financial goals. Many in this group are reaching key personal milestones, such as finishing college and getting married, faster than financial milestones, such as having enough savings and paying off debt. Like 3 out of 4 U.S. Millennials, I realize good money management is going to give my family a better, more secure life. Instead of being inactive and anxious about our finances, my future husband and I are taking the appropriate steps now to ensure ourselves of future financial stability.

So how does all of this tie back to my wedding? While money isn’t everything, we will not be in our “cozy” one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn forever. We want to buy a home, travel, and enjoy married life together. Getting married is exciting. But as more Millennials take the marital plunge, I would encourage them to make sure they’re matching that excitement with the responsibility it requires to set new families on a path to financial success. In the last year, I said “yes” to the dress and better financial management. Cheers to financial goals keeping pace with personal ones!

Amaris Noble is a manager with Edelman Global Marketing in New York.