What's the best way to not bleed money?

[SeattlePoliceman]

I'm pretty inexperienced with my Bannerlord finances, so I'm wondering if you guys could help me out here. I have one town and two villages that I own. The amount of money they generate seems to be all over the place, as sometimes I will gain 50-400 denars per day, while other times I'm losing 50-400 denars per day.

I will say my prosperity is rather low but my garrison is also pretty small. Any advice for generating constant gains rather than these weird fluctuations?

[flyingscot1066]

Multiple revenue streams. If you are not at war, caravans can turn a profit. The right workshops in the right towns can turn a very nice profit. I think my 3 shops right now are earning approx 700/day between them.
You said you have one town and two villages. by that I assume it's a single town and its two attached villages?
Review your town's governor's perks because they make a HUGE difference in your finances.
Put a cap on your town's garrison payroll.
Either patrol your land and clear out any bandits and especially hideouts, or assign a companion to patrol it for you.
Manage your own party's payroll. Nothing wrong with having as many troops as you can fit, but if they're all tier 6 you are gonna have problems. I'm actually enjoying running a full party of captured and conscripted bandits (high roguery also increases battle loot).
Aserai Footmen (tier 3) are very tough for their tier, have spears for dealing with cavalry, big shields, and they use maces so you capture a lot of prisoners.

[Barick]

Build up as many workshops as you can and gaining another fief or two would be good for constant income every day. As prosperity slowly goes up you will get more and more from the fiefs.

Most of my income comes from battles with other lords, I make around 10k a battle from loot and more on prisoners.

If money is tight for you and you are not battling some of the tough factions that have been at peace for a while (So they top tier troops.), you could always use t3-4 units and not need to pay as much daily income.

Do you have a second party or caravans? If the income changing daily it might be related to a party hiring troops or the caravans under you doing stuff.

[Rocksummit]

I was having the same problem at that time when you only own one town. Once you get 2+ settlements I think it becomes less of an issue with good governors. Maxed out workshops is a must and maxed companions and filled out with caravas unless their in your party. Having one companion as an external party is great but also helps drain your finances. I was going minus for a long time and now that I'm pass that Im making around 5000 gold per turn.
I'de suggest smelting all weapons and using the ore to smith 2h swords that sell for around 1800 a piece (with ♥♥♥♥♥ smithing) that can help buffer up some cash. Selling looted stuff also help you keep afloat. It's not so bad to go minus as long as you have a buffer and can cover it with selling.

[Vertibird]

A good quartermaster is a big help. He has skills to reduce army wages etc. His last skill is brokenly op which greatly reduces wages and food consumption.
Who is the best quartermaster? Your brother of course! Give hım 10 intelligence and 5 focus on steward at the start of the game and he is the best.

[Kimmaz]

I think its smart to get tribute payments from 2-3 other kingdoms. You can get 2-3k each day easy. much better than workshops.

https://i.imgur.com/VQ1erjk.png

[Kul The Swordsman]

Some workshop types do those weird stuff, just look for something that earns more stable income if you insist earning money from workshops; wools(?) from khuzait workshops were once the stable ones, havent tried it recently though.

For more income; not trading, not hiring caravans; it is the crafting that earns good money. Just go for crafting 2handed swords with highest tiers with a blade part having most damage(sometimes damage is more important than having higher tier for blade); and micro configure those swords to have as least weight as possible (just keep your blade length at max and customize other parts) to min/max your profit when selling those. For materials; buy every pugios(melee weps) you see in imperial cities and smelt them; they are giving tons of good crafting materials. You will be sitting on millions after 3-4 hours of grinding.

[Aspire]

I hate to say it, but the most lucrative method is through smithing. Most of the time I can work on it on the side, smelting captured weapons and taking the smithing jobs in each town. Eventually, you will make very good money smithing weapons (not for jobs - the free build) and sell them in the market. Usually the best return is a two-handed sword with the best parts. The blade has the most influence on the sale price, but that will be a balance with the materials you have on hand. You might go with blades that aren't the best (tier 4 or 5 instead of 6) so that you have more materials on hand. You'll find yourself exhausting the local market denar supply with resale and having to either wait a few days or move to the next town over to finish resale. This method will also boost your smithing skill quickly.

I'd recommend taking the steel maker perks, and any perk that makes improves sale price of smithed weapons (halving the trade penalty).

Another thing about the steel maker perk is that one of them allows you to improve relations with a noble, if you're doing a smiithing order for that noble. This is handy if you have poor relations with them and they won't talk to you otherwise, but it takes some patience to wait for/find a job for a noble in the clan with whom you want to improve relations.

[SeattlePoliceman]

Appreciate the advice from everyone. The situation has actually gotten way worse somehow. I'm doing nothing but losing money now (around -1000 denars per day) and I have no idea how to resolve this. My city also has really high corruption despite all of the thugs being dealt with.

[Pvtchaos]

My character sucks at smithing, skill 30 and creates crappy weapons at best.
But still these crappy Polearms sell for a whopping 5K denars a piece. Quick easy money.

Also make sure your town is prosperous, sell them the raw goods they need, hire an extra caravan and keep your area safe.

[Clovis Sangrail]

Plain and simple -- Don't build armies you cannot afford.

Or as Mr. Mikawber put it -- Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty-one pounds, result misery.

[SilentDeath777]

Check each garrison under the fiefs, be it castles or cities. You would have to set each one away from infinite money payment. The same goes for the Parties.

[Killer29687]

legit i lose 7k a day, 3 cities... manage by smithing, really annoying that cities dont generate enough... also pay tribute to my faction is like 4-5 but that money never comes to me sniffle... highest paying workshops are like 400 max

[Killer29687]

Originally posted by flyingscot1066:

Multiple revenue streams. If you are not at war, caravans can turn a profit. The right workshops in the right towns can turn a very nice profit. I think my 3 shops right now are earning approx 700/day between them.
You said you have one town and two villages. by that I assume it's a single town and its two attached villages?
Review your town's governor's perks because they make a HUGE difference in your finances.
Put a cap on your town's garrison payroll.
Either patrol your land and clear out any bandits and especially hideouts, or assign a companion to patrol it for you.
Manage your own party's payroll. Nothing wrong with having as many troops as you can fit, but if they're all tier 6 you are gonna have problems. I'm actually enjoying running a full party of captured and conscripted bandits (high roguery also increases battle loot).
Aserai Footmen (tier 3) are very tough for their tier, have spears for dealing with cavalry, big shields, and they use maces so you capture a lot of prisoners.

what the hell? what cities/product? idk if the stuff you can find on reddit is still good considering all these new updates

[Ju87gstukas]

Be a happy mercenary or at least have a city as a fief, castles are not economically healthy.

[lar unuruur]

my castles are doing quite fine. income is around 500/600. same culture governor(children of brother and my own are very good governors). do not take fiefs from different culture, gift them , do whatever to get rid of them if do not have governor of right culture and perks. they are only unneeded burden.
fairgrounds are most important building to get up. loyalty is the key to crime and all else later.
garrison should be increased gradually to not starve fiefdom.
quests should be solved.

workshops are nice and dandy, but not enough at all. as mentioned earlier, try get tributes from other kingdoms. for that, best way is to bleed other kingdoms manpower down. NOT taking all fiefs from them you can, but make them weak. then they pay a lot. caravans are bs.

and smithing is left by devs for a reason. they know well, how unfinished economy is, especially late game. inflation goes through the roof. banditry is unchecked all over the map, half map is starving, not producing goods. smithing allows player to sustain all this at least moneywise. but smithing can be skipped if one wants. but why? to prove something? to who? and what? game is not finished, many tools not working still.