Research showing that married couples that pool their money are happier doesn’t surprise McArdle:
These effects seem to peter out at some very high level — if you keep 5 percent of your income to yourself in order to have a little bit of discretionary spending, it won’t make you any less happy than you’d be if you pool 100 percent. But people who pool 80 percent are happier than those who pool 70 percent, and so on. People who keep it all to themselves are the least happy. …
[I]f you don’t pool the money, then you have to spend a lot of time arguing about the money. You have to decide how the expenses are split. Among other things, this tends to emphasize any earnings disparity between the two of you. It also provides rich fodder for fights over who should have to pay for what because I didn’t even want to go to Napa and get acid reflux drinking wine all week, I wanted to go to Nova Scotia, and I’m definitely not kicking in 50 percent for a stupid deluxe winery tour so I can meet the owner and have him make me feel bad about my taste in wine.
The Dish 