re: Married baws - how do y'all handle finances

Everything combined for us.

I handle all transactions (bills/payments/investments), but I don't make financial decisions without us discussing it together. Every month we review our budget for the coming month, discuss savings goals, big purchases, trips, or any other major things that we expect to happen. Because we both know how much we want to save/pay down debt, we know exactly how much 'play' money we have every month. If anything comes up outside of our plan (like if she wants to go clothes shopping or I want to do some work on my boat), we let each other know and make sure we're not going to dip into money we have set aside for other goals.

We've been married 3 years, and she's finally starting to see the value in managing personal finances so intentionally. When you tell your money where to go every month and set yearly goals (ours is to pay down her medical school student loans asap & start saving for a house), its much easier to have the daily/weekly conversations about money.