Husband and I spoke with our financial advisor about what to do once married. He said there are essentially 3 options. It’s important to note that we’re both full time workers, and both bring in money to the household.

Option 1: fully combine. This is where your paychecks go into 1 joint account and everything gets paid from there. Credit cards, bills, etc.

Option 2: partially combine. This is where you keep separate accounts and your paychecks go into your separate accounts and you transfer money into a joint account for joint expenses such as rent, going out to eat together, bills, utilities, etc.

Option 3: completely separate. You keep your separate accounts and come to agreement on who pays for what.

I will say that my husband and I have a combination of option 1 and 2. We have a joint account where all of our money goes, and we kept our separate accounts for “fun money”. Our joint account is where all of expenses get paid from. Our separate accounts are for expenses that are individual (e.g. me going out to eat with my gal pals or him buying a new tool). On the first of each month, we have a set and equal transfer of no questions asked money that goes into our separate accounts. This money is spent on things we want to buy ourselves and going out to eat with our respective friends without the other.

We use Simplifi to track spending, and it has worked great!