<prompt> Human: This post has way too much personal info, so Im using a throwaway. Im a new grad student in Berkeley, and Im going to be renting a house with 4 other grad students. I have a pretty generous stipend from the university, so Im not worried about running out of money or anything. Im just looking for some tipsadvicebest practices to use when renting a house with others. We were thinking of setting up a joint account for all of us, into which we could each separately funnel funds, and from which we would pay rent automatically each month. Also, to be used for random shared expenses. Is this a good idea? Any other tipsadvice that you may have, please share. Thanks a lot! P.S. Also, given that I have a generous stipend that I will certainly not be using all of, what would be a good way to use the money? Would it be better to start some investments, or should I spend spend spend to build some credit history? Edit: Ok, starting to seem like a joint bank account is a bad idea. Another question: my stipend is not considered income from work, so I wont be filling out a W2 and I am ineligible for a Roth IRA account. What are my alternatives to start saving wisely?  <response>: Stupid idea. When a bill is due, just keep track of who pays which bill and square it away at the end of each month. What if one person decided to zero out the account? Then what? 