Never understood the separate account thing for married people. We have always had a joint acount and always will. I discuss all pinball purchases with my wife and there have been times when she has suggested we can't afford it and i am fine with that. She spends all her time looking after our 4 young kids, i spend a lot of time working. So if we had separate accounts, hers would have $0 as she has no income. Plus by having a joint account, linked to the home loan, any $$$ in there offsets the interest paid, if we had separate accounts, this wouldn't be possible with our bank at least. So more interest saved = more avaialble for luxury spending.