DH and I have separate accounts where our paychecks are deposited into. We also have a joint account and joint credit card where joint purchases are made out of. We sit down every year and put together a budget - mortgage, gas, insurance, groceries, utilities, retirement savings/investments, vacation savings, car payments/repairs, student loan repayments, etc....everything that is a joint expense. We budget investment and retirement savings contributions as part of this, and we agree how much we should be doing every year based on a financial plan put together for us by our financial planner. We revisit this on a yearly basis to make sure that we are on track, which is important on years where returns on investment are not what they normally would be. Every 2 weeks (on payday), each of us puts in 1/4 of the monthly joint amount to cover these expenses. Whatever is left over is our spending money, to use however each of us wants, no questions asked. During times when one or the other of us has earned much more or less than the other, we have simply adjusted the percentage of the joint expenses each of us would cover.
How I sold it to my husband (whose parents had a single joint account, and who thought this was the reasonable way to go) is that I need some privacy. I really don't want to be having conversations with him about how much my fancy shampoo costs, or how much I spend at Sephora, or on new clothes/bras/underwear, nor do I want to have to ask for permission to spend my own money on things that he is unlikely to value. Similarly, I don't want to nag/judge him about any purchases he might want to make that I might think are silly. So I have a personal credit card (as does he) as well as a personal bank account (as does he), and the only thing he and I have to negotiate on is the *real* stuff (i.e., our joint budget). But both of us have always worked, so this works for us. If I didn't work, I imagine that we'd move to a traditional joint account system and I'd have to get frugal on my shampoo taste pretty fast...
My bank lets me open/close accounts online. Maybe yours will too.
How I sold it to my husband (whose parents had a single joint account, and who thought this was the reasonable way to go) is that I need some privacy. I really don't want to be having conversations with him about how much my fancy shampoo costs, or how much I spend at Sephora, or on new clothes/bras/underwear, nor do I want to have to ask for permission to spend my own money on things that he is unlikely to value. Similarly, I don't want to nag/judge him about any purchases he might want to make that I might think are silly. So I have a personal credit card (as does he) as well as a personal bank account (as does he), and the only thing he and I have to negotiate on is the *real* stuff (i.e., our joint budget). But both of us have always worked, so this works for us. If I didn't work, I imagine that we'd move to a traditional joint account system and I'd have to get frugal on my shampoo taste pretty fast...
My bank lets me open/close accounts online. Maybe yours will too.