How Old Is Too Old To Have Roommates?

Having a roommate is a really sensible choice especially in an urban setting since it is not only economically feasible but also helps in dealing with the housing problem in most urban areas. However, there comes a time in life when one feels that they are too old to have roommates and opt to live alone.

How old is too old to have roommates? Well, although most people place the limit at the late twenties to the early thirties, when all is said and done, there really is no specific age limit past which a person is too old to have a roommate. If you are completely comfortable with having a roommate and it is advantageous to you, then age should not be an issue. It all depends on your individual life circumstances, including:

Location
Financial status
Relationship status
Societal factors
Family
Personal preferences

In most cases as you advance in age, the circumstances around you also change. You develop different preferences and societal expectations of you also increase as you advance in age and get new responsibilities. It is these factors along with other similar triggers that make you and the people around you to feel that you are too old to be having a roommate. In this article, we are going to take a deeper look at the factors that play a role in making you and the society as a whole think that you are too old to be having a roommate.

Table of Contents

Factors of Having a Roommate

1. Location

Your location plays a big role in influencing your view about having a roommate in a particular age bracket. In big and heavily populated cities where the prices of real estate are off the charts, it is obviously wiser to have a roommate, especially if you are a student, a low income employee, or even a middle income employee with huge student loans to pay. This is because the cost of living in these areas, say New York, for instance, is too high.

Furthermore, a huge fraction of the population in these cities have roommates, so people start feeling too old to be having roommates at a much later age compared to people living in much smaller towns with low populations, low real estate prices and low costs of living.

2. Financial status

Most people have roommates because their financial status cannot support them living alone. A lot of people do not make enough money to enable them to pay rent comfortably while living alone. It is therefore simple logic to have a roommate in such a situation, since you’ll be able to split rent among other costs such as electricity, water and gas bills, and food. This will help in saving a lot of money which can then be used for other purposes such as saving up for your own apartment in the future. Once you are financially stable, getting your own place will come naturally as you finally become able to support yourself living alone.

3. Relationship status

Having a roommate when you are both single or in the early stages of a romantic relationship often comes with no pressures since you have no major obligations to your partner. However, as your relationship becomes more serious, you and your significant other need to find a place where you can start living together. You can either move to her place, your place, or a neutral place. Having a roommate will be out of question since you will definitely want your privacy. At this stage, it is common to start feeling too old to be having a roommate, especially when you are ready to take things to the next stage and start living with your significant other.

4. Societal factors

The society you live in also plays a major role in influencing your perception on what age you consider to be too old to be having a roommate. In certain societies, people tend to get married much earlier compared to other settings. In a rural or small town setting, for instance, most people tend to get married by their mid to late twenties, while in urban settings most people tend to get married in mid to late thirties.

Therefore, in a rural setting, the societal pressure and social stigma experienced when you still have a roommate at say, 34 years, is more intense than in an urban society. You will therefore feel too old to be having a roommate much earlier if you are living in such a place.

5. Family

If you start your own family, for example, if you find yourself in a situation where you get a child, you will definitely not want to raise the child together with your roommate. As a new parent you will definitely want to raise your child in the best environment possible. Because of having more obligations and responsibilities, you are more likely to start thinking about moving out and living the roommate life behind you.

6. Personal preference

Often, the decision of whether or not to have a roommate usually comes down to one thing: personal choice. If you enjoy having a roommate, and you and your roommate enjoy living together and you do not want to change that, then by all means, keep living together for as long as you want to. Plus, if you are more of the social type who enjoys other people’s company, you’ll probably prefer living with a roommate even when you can afford to live alone. There is no written set of rules or a guide book that everyone absolutely has to follow, so if you want to have a roommate at any age, then go right ahead and do it.