News flash -- no two people are exactly alike in there spending habits. Set up a number line, with spending on one side and saving on the other. You won't find a lot of people "smack dab in the middle." Between you and your spouse, one of you will tend to spend more than the other. That's OK -- and don't forget it! In the financial arena, mutual respect is not only advisable, it's essential!

Should you have just one joint bank account? Not necessarily. Definitely not if your spending habits are radically different. And that's not just a money issue. It wasn't too long ago that most wives were under complete financial domination by their husbands. Many didn't even have "allowances" to work with. Instead, they begged and cajoled their husbands for money to buy groceries or put a new slip cover on the sofa. Horror stories abound where clever wives invented new charities or school functions as excuses to reclaim household maintenance funds lost playing mahjong. Even today, disgruntled husbands pull funds from their wife's last paycheck out of the bank, run off, and leave her -- and their baby -- with no funds to pay this month's rent. Bottom line -- if one spouse prefers to keep the bank accounts separate, then do so. Later, when your life together is better established, you can always revisit the issue.

Take a hard look at your joint responsibilities -- things like rent, utilities, telephone, Internet, cable TV, etc. If your incomes differ greatly, simply splitting the total down the middle might not be the best solution. Instead, have each spouse contribute an equal percentage of individual income. But don't lapse into a regime where the spouse with the larger income "outranks" the smaller in household decisions. Again, mutual respect is essential.

Yes, saving is important, but a few indulgences must be allowed. For some, the occasional trip to the mall has therapeutic value. For others, periodic trips to ethnic restaurants take the edge off a bad day at work. Napoleon Hill, the grand-daddy of self-help gurus, talks about nourishing a healthy ego. If her spa or his golf clubs add a silver lining to the inevitably dark cloud of traditional work life, so much the better.