It's important to enter into a second marriage with a clear understanding of what your needs are. Men and women’s expectations can be very different, so be sure to talk openly and honestly about these needs BEFORE you get married the second time around.

According to many statistics the divorce rate for second marriages is higher than that of first marriages. Psychology Today stated that "a whopping 60% of second marriages fail." When considering an average of 10 years, 37% of second marriages have failed compared to 30% of first time marriages.

There are critical mistakes that often follow people when they marry for the second time. Many do not exercise the caution that is needed in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes the second time around. 

Here are some hard-core ways to make your second trip to the altar a success.

1. KNOW WHO YOU'RE MARRYING. Be absolutely sure that your beliefs about money, finances, expectations of love, affection and sex, household chores, social beliefs and discipline of children are in sync with your partner's beliefs. Remove the rose-coloured glasses and be sure that you're thinking with your logical side and not being blinded by the romance of getting married.

Don't avoid discussing differences in your beliefs with your partner in order not to spoil the mood. If you do, there's a really good possibility that you'll be on the fast track to a divorce lawyer.

2. Make a CHECKLIST OF ISSUES that made your last marriage fail. Whether it was money problems, lack of intimacy, jealousy, or disagreeing on discipline for the kids; write them down. Use it as a template for opening the doors of conversation about what you both believe are core needs for the both of you.

Be brutally honest with yourself - divorce is seldom caused by one partner alone and seldom only one issue. A clash of two opposite value systems is shown to cause a variety of problems in a marriage; infidelity, over-sensitivity, lack of communication, differences in raising children, lack of intimacy, excessive fighting. The list goes on and on.

Better to put all the issues on the table for discussion before you get married than to find out too late that your second marriage is going to join the rising divorce statistics.

3. DO NOT RUSH INTO A WEDDING just because you're either blindly in love or astonished that you managed to find someone so wonderful. Much research has shown that second marriage divorce greatly increases if you've been in a relationship with a person for less than a year. It's easy to say that the stats don't apply to you because your relationship is different. Again, remove the blinders and look at the facts.

Both men and women want to connect with someone, even marry, no matter how much turmoil or misery they lived through with their last marriage. It is the human element to feel the urge to connect on an emotional level. Loneliness, romance, fear of being alone; these are all powerful driving forces that may lead someone to marry too quickly without seeing the path clearly. A clear head with some hard-core logical thought will go a long way to avoiding the failure of your second marriage.