Run out of money real quick

[Sink41 0]

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Images of just one of my many failing cities, I dont seem to be able to handle money very well and always run out.

What i do when i start is build a small firefighter, small police, small clinic, small elementary and also college, surround that with mainly medium residential with a small amount of medium commercial mixed in. Then i build roads to another section where i have medium industry and occasionally farm. I build water towers/aquifiers 12 spaces apart then build tubes out, so i can cover maximum area. I purify water near inductrial and dont build water sources near industrial. I power residential with wind turbines and industrial with any normal power station, dont usually putting powerlines connecting them. I reduce health budget a bit, and school budget a bit more. I also try to build rail/road/boat links to outside and sometimes build small airport aswell. So far my efforts at mass transport havnt been very succesfull.

Anyway, any tips as to how to improve my playing style? I am always spending more than i am making back, my main problem.

[Peorth 17]

Simply put, you're building utilities far too early for your city to support them.

Tips on exercising fiscal restraint:

- Remove the mindset of placing utilities to please every whim of your sims. Your job as a newbie mayor is first to earn money and not to please your citizens.  Later on as your city grows in wealth and size, you can splurge on your sims. Just don't do it early on.

- Ignore your advisors. They will prompt you to place things far too early. Just take note of their critical (red) messages and ignore the rest.

- Coal power is the cheapest and most efficient power source. Don't be afraid to build them because of pollution, just place the plants far away from your residential and commercial areas.

- Don't build a fire station until your first fire breaks out.

- You can leave your city unwatered for a long time. Just remember that R§§§'s and more advanced employment facilities (I-HT, Co§§§, etc.) need water to grow.

- Police is the least needed of all the utilities. Never build police until your city is large and/or crime is becoming a problem. Remember that educating your sims lowers the crime rate.

- Prioritize education and healthcare over other utilities.

- Build your educational facilities according to city age. A young city will mostly have young sims and will benefit from an elementary school most. Later on build a high school, then a college.  Add libraries/museums as the budget allows. Building educational facilities not appropriate to a city's age will only cause them to be underused and act as a money pit.

- Always adjust the funding sliders of your utilities so that you have just a little reserve capacity. However, never lower funding for water (unless you want busted pipes all over your city). Lowering funding for fire and police is counterproductive too; if you can't support them at their default funding, better not build them at all.

- Never forget to add parks and other recreational facilities. They improve desirability and attract R§§ and R§§§ sims., which pay more taxes. Parks will more than pay for their maintainance costs in the long run.

- Use buses for your first mass transport system since it's cheap and efficient. Only add mass transport systems that your budget can support.

- Build the higher-capacity utilities as the game allows. They are more efficient and can serve more sims per simoleon (more bang-for-buck). For example, I never build clinics because hospitals are far more efficient. The initial cost of building a hospital is higher but in the long run it pays off since you save money in using one over a clinic or bunch of clinics.

- Cluster your zones so that they fall within the effect radius of utilities. For example, educational facilities should be placed in the middle of R zones so they can act on the sims within those zones. Conversely, putting a school in a middle of a commercial zone is an absolute waste of money.

- Build neighbor cities to help spur growth. Distribute your play time between them for maximum effect.

- Place tollbooths on areas of heavy traffic, such as neighbor connections. They can provide a nice source of income.

[simmax 0]

You spend way too much!

You don't need firefighters, police stations, colleges and high schools from the very beginning. These civic buildings can wait (and you never need fire stations - just build one when there's a fire, and bulldoze it later).

You should replace clinics by large hospitals : they're much cheaper if you reduce their budget to fit your needs.

You don't need water purification plants if you don't have dirty industry.

You don't need an airport, it's useless when you start.

You should connect residential and industrial areas with power lines : one fully used power plant is cheaper than 2 half-used ones.

You should replace windmills by natural gas power plants - cheaper, and little pollution - which can also be used in industrial areas.

And finally, the only mass transit you can build at the beginning are bus stops, and railroads. Subways, etc. lead you to bankruptcy.

It might look that I'm giving you orders - but these tips should really help, as I see that you don't lose thousands of simoleons, but only hundreds.

EDIT : I posted at the same time as Peorth - and I give about the same advice, although less detailed!

[gabor2609 0]

I agree with the previous posts yuo're expending way much money in utilities too early in the game, I also think u should build the Hospital instead of the clinic in the long run it's cheaper, build the firestation until the industrial zone it's dense enough until then a fire won`t break, build the big elementary school until you you have 3000 at least, invest in education and recreation...

[Sink41 0]

thanks guys, your tips are really useful!