Having a baby pushed my husband and me to rethink how we handle money. Rebecca Strong

Maybe it's because I'm an only child raised by a single mother, but I've always valued independence.

I walked down the aisle alone . I'll happily go out to dinner or a movie by myself. When faced with a problem, my instinct is to wrestle with it myself rather than ask for help. (I'm working on that one.)

And when my husband and I got married, I was adamant about keeping our finances separate.

For years, this arrangement worked beautifully. But after we had a baby in the summer of last year, I began to wonder whether the financial independence I'd clung to was actually working against us.

Keeping our finances separate gave me a sense of freedom

We opened a joint account after buying a house, but continued to keep most of our money in separate accounts.…