Money help

[SimAddict777 0]

OK, i have had SC4 for a very long time, but just now i stopped using the money cheat

(dont make fun)

OK, so i read the making money tutorial again, and i started another city, and it was going pretty good. i have over 7,000 people in it right now. OK, i did everything the tutorial said:

- i dont have a fire station or police station yet

- lowering funds to have capacity meet how many students/patients there are in the school/hospital

- I am always changing taxes, but never over 10%

So.....at some points i was (amazingly) making more than i was giving in expences. But, i could never get it WAY over what i was spending (unfortunately) so, everything was good, then suddenly my RCI graph started going down, and the taxes were only about 9.6%!! So, the city was moving nowhere. Then, i fell behind like 4,000 simoleans becuase of the stupid airport (which i demolished) and the landfill *sigh*

I really need help.  

[SSJDon 0]

In my experience, every time i've tried changing taxes has resulted in my whole demand chart getting screwed up, you really have to know alot about manipulating taxes to make it work. If you are trying to force one praticular group out, like dirty industry then your demands are going to get very bad. I have a city of about 28,000-30,000 population right now, i am making about 1.5-2000 profit per month, and i have not touched taxes at all since i started, all my demands are good. The tutorial you read im assuming is the one about making easy money but that revolves around making a suburb, which is harder to do than a regular city. With suburbs you will never profit much because you don't have a large population and your demands will never be big. When my city was in suburb stage i had a hard time getting things to develop and getting money, when i started upgrading to medium density, i found money alot easier to make and my demands started to skyrocket. With medium density+ you just have to keep a very close eye on your education and health funding levels, always make sure your not over funding or under funding. Always make use of mass transit as well. I tried following the making money tutorial using it on 3 cities, all failed. I suggest you just make 1 city with all 3 zones in it before you try more advanced things. Use your graphs and charts, they help alot.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Generally speaking, the way to more income is more Sims.  Personal taxes seem to be what generate the most revenue.  When I need more revenue to balance the books I add more low density R.

Taxes can be handly, but large swings in taxes can skew your city.  I use a standard starting point:

R(8.6,8.8,9.0), C(8.4,8.4,8.8,8.8,9)

For a standard industrial city I use I(7.0,9.0,9.0,7.0) for openers.  Then, I change the I-D up 20 basis points (0.2) for each year past, and up the I-M by 10 basis points for each year past.

If you reach a point where you need a big shot of income and are willing to lose your I-D, you can up the tax rate to 20.0%.  This gives you a nice income injection if you have a good I-D park at the time, and they slowly bail out and abandon.  They are usually replaced by I-M.  If you control pollution carefully and hit the I-M the same way, your industrial park will eventually become I-HT.  This is a long haul, as much as 100 Sim-years or more.

[Cob92 360]

When I have a large section of dirty industry in my city, I'll hike taxes all the way to max. The buildings never abandon and are essentially free money.

[tungston 19]

That's one thing about dirty industry, if you let them in, you aren't going to get rid of them by raising the taxes to 20%.

[SimAddict777 0]

great! thanks everybody! such great advice!