Evening out my expenses?

[TipStylez 0]

Ok, another $%&^! help question. As my city grows, i always lose money because of monthly expenses to mainance stuff or pay for things like school funds, police funds, ect... But my monthly incom is never evend up or higher then that expenses. I try to hire taxes but i dont want to go over 9.0 because that migh cause the sims to leave. Is 9.0 high? Any tips to what i should build or do to even it out so i can make money. Thanks -Q

[paperboy15 4]

The key is to skimp on providing city services early on until you can afford them. When you first start, you can probably do with just a power plant and an elementary school, plus roads connecting your zones. From there add services as you can afford them.

[rubberduck 3]

What is the population of said city?  If it is realtively low, say 10,000, you don't need to have your funding all the way up...you can lower it somewhat (but not too much!) and that may help decrease some spending. Also, no, 9.0 is not that high. What are your monthly expenses and income?  If you post the pop. and expense/income, someone around here might be able to help you out...


Hope this helps...

[TipStylez 0]

^I cant give you all that info because i decided to get a fresh start. So any tips on what i should build first? Im just asking for a small walkthrough to a sucessfull city =]

[paperboy15 4]

If you want a walkthrough I recommend the official guide or the one from IGN.

[rubberduck 3]

There are also about a hundred threads around here about it. The Omnibus may have a guide...if not, try searching for it on the left...

[locolobo85 0]

Don't overlook the fact that you can click on your services such as firestation, medical clinic, school, power plant, etc and set the funding for your current needs.  Schools and medical clinics give you the student/patient capacity and current # of students/patients along with school bus and ambulance coverage (the circles on your city map).  You can gauge the power plant on the % of usage.  I usually don't mess aournd with police and fire.  However, as stated above, a police station is overkill in a small growing community. 

[mrbisonm 1,620]

Here is what I usually and generally do when starting a new City.

Taxes are RCI$=9.6,RCI$$=9.8,RCI$$$=10.2 in the beginning and then can played around with later. I usually go up to 12% whenever needed.

Powerplant is down to the minimum funding, usually costing me 125 $. The second thing I install is the firestation (usually at 1000 Pop)-(don't play around with the funding too much, these sims are difficult and it isn't long they start striking.) When R is stopping to grow I add Water, only the tower though, less expensive then the pump. You may need 2 of them later.(keep them away from industrials and farms).

5000 Pop and usually you will have around 800 $ profit everymonth. Stop building and overspending, just do it at a certain pace and slowly add Medical at first (keep the funding just a little bit over the minimum), then add the schools, start with elementary (still check the funding every year or so and keep it just above minimum) and at last plopp a Police station, when you can afford it.

Another thing, keep your hands off Landmarks in the beginning and parks use only the less expensive ones and only when needed or when you can afford it.

I usually do this evertime when I start a City and I have brought some Cities up to 3.5 Millions this way.

It's easy, not complicated at all, but it needs patience, a lot of it. If you want to have a City fast, then use cheats.

mrbisonm

[simmax 0]

You can also build more parks. It might seem weird, but parks attract wealthy sims and profitbale businesses, that pay more taxes. At the end of the day, you'll earn more tax revenue than what you spend to maintain the parks. More (somewhat boring) details here.

[newyorkstate 6]

Dont build what you dont need such as water, fire, police, and skim down your school/clinic services. Build lots of zones, dont bother landmarks or ordiances. Also, if you build indsutry, tax 'em. Even if you tax 'em to 15% early in the game, they still come.

[winonanick 0]

Use wind power, expensive yes, but more on demand. You can have a city of couple thousand with 2 or 3, for a 150 bucks per month, cheaper and cleaner than the alternatives. I usually go with a school, a clinic, tinkered to just above capacity. In addition I have water towers and a small firestation. I take my taxes to about 7-8 across the board, but taxed progressively. Play on slow speed, build moderatly responding to demand. This will encourage enough demand to eventually be out of debt by about 5,000 sims.

In my experience low pollution from power, adequate services, and low taxes encourages decent growth to allow you to balance your budget.

[simmax 0]

Originally posted by: newyorkstate Dont build what you dont need such as water,fire, police, and skim down your school/clinic services.quote>

I actually think that you should have water, at least in residential/commercial areas which use less water than industry. Why? Because without water, no wealth, and without wealth, no money!