<prompt> Human: My SO and I are moving in together. Was planning out a budget planned to start with a 503020 and as I was combining our income in a spreadsheet I realized, Ive been budgeting as if our incomes are going to the same place when we both still have our own bank accounts with no joint account.So what is the best way to handle this? Should we get a joint account that we direct deposit our expenses rent, etc to while still maintaining our separate bank accounts? If thats the plan, should we just split expenses down the middle for the time being? My income varies a bit, but if the trend of the last 6 months continues Ill make about 3,000 more a year than my SO. My SO has some debt I will start helping them pay once we live together, so Id say that probably helps even out the slight pay discrepancy for fairness sakes, although I dont foresee an argument of whats fair being a real issue between us.For clarity, we certainly plan to spend our lives together. Weve talked about the futuregetting marriedetc. but dont feel an urgency to do it ASAP. I suppose having a joint bank account before marriage just seems like an odd thing to do and some would likely say a bad idea, but with me already helping with my SOs debt and whatnot, it feels like maybe thats the easier option?EDIT: Crazy how stress can cloud your thought process. Having a joint account where we each put our half of the expenses in and keeping the rest separate seems like the best solution to me.Thank you everyone for the insight. Im sorry I cant respond to everyone, but know that I have read your advice and personal stories. And anyone coming to the post now, keep them coming! Can never get too many well thought out answers and personal stories to draw from.  <response>: Before my wife and I were married, she kept her bank account, I kept my bank account, and we set up a joint bank account separately for shared expenses. We both put in a little cushion and then, every month we would put in our share of the shared expenses rentmortgage, bills, utilities, etc. I had a decent amount of student loan debt and my SO made more money than me. The way we handled that was that I put in around 20 of the bills and put the difference, 30, into my loans. Every time I paid off a loan or a certain amount of my total loans, I would put in a higher percentage into the shared account until they were paid off.I think we did that more for the psychological aspect. At the end of the day, she was paying off more of the loan because I was paying less in bills, but it made me feel like I was paying it off because it was in my bank account.It really depends on your relationship though. My SO and I dated for a long time and lived together for a long time before we were married. So we knew we were together for the long haul. You dont have to be married to share expenses and make financial commitments. 