My partner and I are getting married next year after 6+ years together (have lived together for over half of those years).We're both financially responsible, aligned on our goals, and don't really scrutinize each other's hobbies or personal spending. We've always managed money pretty independently, but we're getting tired of constantly Venmoing each other for shared expenses. I know some comments may say wait until marriage, but call my naive... I don't think we need to wait.
I'm leaning toward going almost completely joint: paychecks, checking, savings, bills, goals, etc. We'd keep our existing credit cards since we're both into optimizing rewards and add each other as authorized users where appropriate. We'd probably leave a card or two separate for things like surprise gifts.
Our budget already tracks spending as Mine, Yours, or Ours, so we'd still have visibility into personal spending without physically separating the money. As long as we're meeting our savings goals and neither person is being unreasonable, I don't really care if one of us spends more personally in a particular month. There is a disparity in income as one makes about 35% more... but it really hasn't led to any issues.
For couples who are financially aligned and merged finances, what worked for you? Did going fully joint create any problems you didn't anticipate? If you kept separate accounts, what practical purpose do they serve?
Most importantly, how do we go about selecting checking and savings accounts and migrate money over without missing auto payments (loans, utility bills, etc.)?
I'm mainly trying to optimize for simplicity, transparency, autonomy, and less financial friction.