<prompt> Human: Hello,I am recently married and my wife and I are going to open a joint bank account for things that involve both of us. House payments, Utilities, Groceries, Trips, etc.. I figure the best way to fund this account is to pull a certain percentage of our paychecks into the new account. Is this common practice? One thing that concerns me is that my wife makes about twice as much as I do so her contributions would be that much more. While we are married now and most big purchases will be ours I am a tad nervous she will feel the account is hers more than mine simply because she would be contributing more.We are planning to keep our separate bank accounts because that just seems smart. Any banks you recommend? I am leaning towards a credit union instead of a big bank but Im not sure that matters.Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!  <response>: The key to a joint checking account is communication. Agree beforehand what purchases are considered joint and once the money is in there, you both have to let go and agree its just our money, not his or hers. When we first started, our individual paychecks went into our personal accounts, then we each transferred an agreed amount each month to cover all the joint purchases.My spouse and I went through every phase: when we were both making the same, when I was making more, and then when he was making more. When we earned the same, we each put the same amount in the pot. When it was different, we each did a percentage. We considered personal bills like out student loans separately at first, because I had bigger payments than he did. Then we started making big purchases together house, cars, kids. We decided together it was stupid to pay separate loans because we werent paying down the highest interest loan down the fastest. Now though we still have separate accounts, we do the opposite. We both put all our money in the joint first, then we each take out a small amount of play money for our own accounts. Then in the joint account, we pay all our bills, and any extra goes toward the highest interest rate loans first. This method ended up being a lot smarter, because weve paid off all loans that were killing us 8 student loans and now all our loans are 5 or under. I think as time has passed and as our marriage has evolved, it does become easier to go from mine and yours to ours. The play accounts are present, but to be honest we rarely think about them or use them like individual accounts. We have a healthy communication about money, so now we both think of all the money being in one pot. 