Frank discussion with spouse about expectations/consequences?

I'm curious to see if anyone here - whether a BS, WS or even someone like me who is neither but is here to learn - ever had upfront discussions with your spouse about how things should go in the marriage? I'm Catholic, and before we got married we had to go through a marriage program with a sponsor couple where we had to discuss all sorts of things up front. We talked about family histories, how many kids we want, are we open to having kids, practicing the faith, discussions about finances, who's going to run the checkbook, etc. etc. Basically, it was a required program that if you wanted to get married in the church, you had to complete it. Who wants to do that when you're young and "in love"??? In hindsight, I think it put us on the right path, and if nothing else we actually thought about issues like this. Well, periodically my wife and I will also talk about what would happen if one of us would cheat on each other. Well, my wife told me that if I ever cheated on her, she was going to do her best to make my life a living hell and soak me for every penny she could get. I also told her that I would make her life a living hell to if she did it to me. I think it's very healthy to have a discussion like this, because it focuses on your expectations and reminds the other of consequences. For those of you who may have had to go through similar programs in the first paragraph and/or had the infidelity discussion mentioned in the 2nd paragraph, do you think it has strengthened your marriage? For those who have done this yet still had their marriage go down the tubes with infidelity, what went wrong in your opinion?

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