It seems like it's common practice that once you get married, you immediately combine your checking accounts. However, my wife Lauryn and I have been married for over 2 years and I still ask for her half of the rent on the 1st of every month. There's no particular reason why we've kept our finances separate, we just haven't felt the need to combine. Lately though, we've been discussing taking the big step to a joint account.
As I explained in the video above, I have a lot of personal expense that aren't necessarily a problem, but I just find the idea of my wife seeing every single little thing I decide to spend my money on a little... invasive.
We are in the very early stages of buying a house, and it's because of this that I think it might make sense to start budgeting as a team. What do you think, is it totally necessary for couples to do so, or does keeping things separate work for you?