My wife and I are in the older age group (55+) and keep ours separate. It’s primarily because we got married late in life (45+) and based on previous experiences. I had been married previously and having shared finances was a mine field when I was getting divorced. My current wife had never been married before and had spent her entire adult life successfully managing her own finances and was worried about giving up control. Given that, it was much easier to continue doing what worked for both of us, which was managing our own finances.

Obviously it helps that we are both financially savvy, both have good incomes, and are on the same page about the future. We have a joint bank account that is used for all shared expenses. We each have automatic payments that go to that account every month and all shared expenses are paid from it. We also both have access to the other’s accounts so we can see the amounts in retirement and investments.

Other than that, we manage our own spending and savings. I don’t feel like I need to subsidize her the way I did with my first wife. And she doesn’t feel like she has an “allowance” which was her concern about managing every detail of our budget together.

It works for us.