Week 5’s case studies show this depends on your goals. Ask yourselves: “Are we protecting our future, or just avoiding hard conversations?” Many couples in the course found a hybrid approach works best – keeping joint accounts for bills while allowing personal “no-guilt” spending money. One couple even set up what they called “Financial Firewalls” (a Week 5 strategy) where they’d automatically transfer a set amount to separate accounts each month. The materials walk you through setting this up without creating emotional distance.