Separate vs Joint Accounts

Instead of transferring money back and forward, why not have one account that is "our" money that both of you spend from?

That doesn't sound like split finances. You're just using multiple bank accounts.

It’s not perfect, but I’m a strong believer in separate checking accounts at the same bankFor large items we’ll transfer back and forth as needed and one person makes the payment.My partner and I have very different spending habits, and seeing that line-by-line would cause daily friction.Having them separated gives us both discretion and autonomy.

Have several bank accounts. Keep the bare minimum in your day to day account, and higher sums in the other ones.

My wife and I could never do the one bank account. The coordination would take too much mental energy. We are both on all of our accounts. But we spend out of our own accounts.

Cash, separate personal accounts. This is not a hard problem.

All of our accounts are actually joint. But she has the accounts she's primary on and uses, and I have the ones I pay the bills out of. Trying to manage finances while multiple people spend money out of one account and there are auto-pays for bills from the same account is simply too taxing for me to deal with.

Do you not have a personal bank account that your significant other doesn't audit?

A reminder that we should have multiple bank accounts and spread our paycheck direct-deposits among them.

Having two accounts, one to store your money, and one that you move money into for payments as needed would offer the same protection.