I remember when Nick and Vanessa Lachey first got together. It was after they met on the set of the music video for the song he wrote about his divorce from Jessica Simpson. It was so cliché and I admit that I was skeptical that it would last. They have definitely proven me wrong! Nick and Vanessa have been married since July 2011 and have three kids, Camden, 12, Brooklyn, 10, and Phoenix, eight. They also work together as co-hosts of Love Is Blind. Nick just popped up on this week’s episode of SoFi’s financial podcast, Richer Lives. During his appearance, he had some advice for a successful marriage: ”Don’t bring your work home with you.”

Nick and Vanessa Lachey have been happily married for nearly 14 years — and it’s likely thanks in part to following what Nick calls the couple’s “golden rule.”

In an appearance on Richer Lives, SoFi’s branded financial podcast, Nick, 51, revealed the lesson he and Vanessa, 44, keep close to heart.

“The best thing you can do is not bring your work home with you. Which is tricky when you work with your spouse,” Nick said on the episode, which premiered on Tuesday, May 27. “I think we do a really good job of doing that, for the most part, but it’s not easy working with your spouse sometimes.”

The couple, who have been together since 2006 and married since 2011, have hosted the Netflix hit Love Is Blind together for the past five years.

“Sometimes you show up for work and there’s an argument at home that you brought with you to work and you don’t want that to bleed over. And sometimes there’s arguments at work that bleed over,” he explained. “You don’t want that, so, you know, it’s kind of good to compartmentalize and recognize that you’re here doing a job. Yes, you’re a married couple, and we’ve been together almost 20 years now, so I think that’s our golden rule, is don’t bring work home, don’t bring home to work. Try and keep it as separate as you can.”

In an interview with BRIDES in February, Nick and Vanessa revealed another secret to keeping their relationship strong: dedicating a day of the week to being intimate.

“He’s like, ‘What, schedule a sex day?'” Vanessa said of Nick’s reaction. “It sounds weird when you say that, so we decided: Wednesday — hump day.”

Though the NCIS: Hawai’i star admitted they have fallen out of the routine after moving back to Los Angeles from Hawaii in August, Vanessa said she hoped to get back into it soon.

“I don’t want the time that we have for intimacy and connection to be taken over by logistics, but that’s our life,” she added. “I think we’re coming into an age of having to have a hump day and a logistics day.”

The couple also talked about the benefits of couples counseling, with Nick noting that it’s normal to have disagreements after nearly two decades together.

“Anything that’s worth having takes work,” he said. “To me, that’s a cornerstone of life, and marriage is no different. There’s no shame in that. There’s no perfect person. There’s just your person.”

[From People]

I would bet good money that not taking your work home with you was a hard lesson that Nick learned after he and Jessica filmed Newlyweds. There were probably no lines drawn during that time period to separate their professional and personal lives. He’s said as much. I get what he means in terms of, “If you have a bad day at the office, leave it there.” I don’t think he’s saying not to talk to your partner about a problem; he means don’t take whatever happened at work out on your loved ones at home. It’s solid advice and should be a golden rule in all relationships.

I read Nick and Vanessa’s interview back in February when they talked about scheduling sexy times, and I really appreciated their honesty. They’re not the first couple to admit to doing that and they won’t be the last. No judgment here! You gotta do what you gotta do to stay connected as a couple. For a couple that has managed to stay pretty private, we do have some insight into their marriage: scheduled sex and keeping work sh-t at work. Good for them.

photos courtesy of Netflix and credit: Greg Gayne/Netflix