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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I posted earlier (married 31 years, joint finances). Much of this discussion has focused on spending and how people decide how much to spend. In my opinion, saving is equally as important as spending. How much do you intend to save for your kids' college education (assuming you have kids)? How much money will you need to retire? How much of that should be in retirement accounts and how much should be outside of retirement accounts (there are tax implications for each choice). How much will you need to help your parents when they get older (financially and otherwise)? How much money do you need in emergency savings in case one of you unexpectedly cannot work (either because you lost your job or because you had a medical or other issue)?

In my experience, the saving decisions should drive the spending decisions. The amount of money you need to save helps determine how much house you can afford, what type of car you can drive, how often you replace your cars, how much money you spend on clothes, etc. You may not be able to save as much as you want in the early years of your marriage, but if that is the case it means that you need to keep your spending low.

I see finances as a partnership and these things as joint decisions based on joint income. I am curious how people who keep their income separate from their spouse's income address the issue of savings: how much you need to save, who will save it, and where it will be saved (retirement account, 529 college savings plan, bank account, mutual fund, etc.).

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OP here.  Just wanted to say thank you for this post, there's a lot of really thoughtful questions in here and honestly, regardless of whether we keep joint finances or not, we don't have any answers for many of them other than we both contribute like 12-15K each per year to our 401k and our strategy as a couple in our pre-married time was to live a modest lifestyle (we keep cars for 10 years, go out to eat at like Ruby Tuesdays level place like two or three times a month, pack lunch for work, etc.), try to save as much as possible and have no credit card or student loan debt.  The budget is a whole separate issue and we've started talking about it and running specific numbers to see what will work.

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