<prompt> Human: My husband and I have generally kept our finances separate with the exception of a joint savings account and are curious about the merits of combining to all joint accounts i.e. savings, checking, credit or other variations that people have found useful. Thanks!Edit: For any joint account we deposit equal percentages of our paychecks, which has worked for us. We are curious to hear from individuals who have joint accounts and what they benefits have been from their perspectives.First time poster, please delete if not appropriate.Assistant: This question comes about fairly often, in one form or another. It seems to generally fall to what sort of relationship you want as opposed to financial issues per se. x200B;What is the purpose of maintaining separate accounts? So you can each have money you spend without needing the others permission? To make sure the partner who makes more money isnt being taken advantage of? Because you dont trust your partner with your money? To make sure a financial disaster for one of you doesnt too seriously impact the other? Thats one type of marriage, and I think its hard to argue one form of marriage is inherently better than another. I think a lot of happy people live this way.x200B;A different sort of marriage views these things differently. What I earn belongs to the marriage, just as does what my wife earns. And we spend money with a view of how it best serves the marriage. Her wants and my wants are important, and we value each other being happy, so spending money on personal pleasures is part of our budget. We each have full access to all the money and we trust each other to be good stewards of the money as well as the marriage. It involves talking a lot about our values and our goals and what we want to spend money on, but it never involves asking permission. Theres just no separation in our money, as there is no separation in our children.Human: That is a very interesting perspective. Thank you for sharing and posing such helpful questions. We are still relative newlyweds and having these conversations will undoubtedly be useful.If it isnt too bold of me to ask, has that set up ever caused stress between you and your wife? For example, one partys personal pleasures being consistently more expensive than the others  <response>: thats part of the discussion that you would need to have. Ultimately, a joint or individual account is a tool, not a solution. You can have a joint account and still keep track of individual spending to insure parity.Lets say you have similar income and unequal spending habits, you keep separate accounts but spend every dime you earn, the other person does not. Where does that lead? Eventually your means will diverge and possibly create animosity. The saver has to subsidize the spender, or else leave them behind. One wants to go to Bora Bora, the other can only afford Syracuse.I would suggest there needs to be some balance in spending behavior, or diligance to ensure the personal budget is properly sized to purely selfish expenses. All together expenses come out of the joint account.x200B;Also, life events tend to throw a monkey wrench in the best laid plans. Kids is a big one, not uncommon to have extended employment gaps for one person. 