Pros And Cons Of Getting A Roommate

Plenty of people leave shared housing behind forever after college.  I was not one of them.  For several years, I lived in a few places with different roommates:  some good, some not so good.  The last 2 roommates have been people I didn’t know so well before letting them move in, which can obviously cause problems.  It’s hard to judge how well you’ll do living with somebody if you don’t know them very well.  On the other hand, sharing a 2 bedroom apartment or renting out a spare bedroom in your condo (in my case) is the frugal choice.  I charged my last roommate $450 per month, including utilities.  Even allowing that my electric and gas bill was higher than it would have been, I was still netting at least $400 extra per month.  That’s enough to almost fully fund an IRA every month.  The alternative would be to turn my spare bedroom into a home office and take the deduction, which I calculate would come to about $100 per month in tax savings.  Clearly, the financials clearly point towards getting a new roommate, but I’m not so sure.  I really don’t need the money, but having an extra $400 per month to invest would help me reach my financial goals that much easier.  I’ve compiled a list of the pros and cons of having a roommate.

 Pros Of Having A Roommate

• Extra Booze Money!
• Split the work on household chores like cleaning, doing the dishes, etc
• Somebody to feed the dog while you’re gone
• Automatic drinking buddy

Cons Of Having A Roommate

• Lack of privacy
• Your roommate may not keep the common areas as clean as you’d like
• Some roommates are annoying
• It’s a pain tracking down late rent every month if your roommate is unreliable
• Noise

I’m leaning towards just turning the spare bedroom into an office and maybe brewing beer in the corner.  Actually, add that to the cons column:  you can’t brew beer in the house if you have a roommate. 

What would you do in my situation?