Do you have lots of money or hover around $0 most of the time?

[Oddible]

I'm curious about people's economies. Do you find you're often in surplus or are you normally just a bit above and below zero? I seem to start buying as soon as I have money so I'm always negative until the next ship comes in.

[Reapers Ark]

In the beginning phase of the game im piss poor 24/7. At some point after I¨ve built some plantations and ranches the ships start raking money in. But i am usually fcked in terms of money in the beginning and then suddenly money is no longer an issue.

[Bored Peon]

Sometimes it depends on the map. Some maps are much harder to have a good economy.

It also has to do with what gets shoved onto you in the scenarios. Some of the scenarios have horrible starting economies like Concrete Beach, Baseball, and Better Red than Dead.

The big thing is do not expand too fast, you plop down too many buildings and you can be bankrupt before they pay off.

Ways to not be broke:
1. Make sure everyone is paying rent, shacks dont pay rent.
2. Use your media, library and radio station have a advertisement work mode that generates money.
3. Do not overlook ranches, ranches provide a real easy profit.
4. Make sure goods are reaching port in a timely fashion, if you get backed up a bit it is going to cause fluxuations in your outgoing freighters.
5. Diplomatic financial aid, you get like 15k when you ask, requires embassy.
6. State loan for 50k
7. Put all broker ministers in the Ministry and trade the swiss for normal cash.

[Lilltiger]

You should be quite close to going even evry month as long as you have room to expand. Like right now in my game I just entered the modern era in 1936, earning around $600'0000 a year and expenses at $400'000. I have like $150k in cash, and my harbors have all always about 50-100k on them (have 5 or 6 of them).
But my population is growing so fast that I have to spend all money on expanding the jobs. I have 3k poop now groing with about 30-100 pops a month. I do not have any constroctors at all, i just quick build evrything.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Lilltiger:

I do not have any constroctors at all, i just quick build evrything.

You have one. You always start with one and it can not be demolished if it is the last one.

I think the OP is reffering to the mission maps and not sandbox. If you are constantly broke in sandbox then you are REALLY doing something wrong.

[Oddible]

Yeah on Better Red than Dead I shut down immigration because the population was just growing too fast to keep up with the jobs and housing.

[mrxak]

Building housing at all is a waste of money until you need to win an election. Invest your money into money-making buildings only. Trying to make all the people like you is a mistake.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by mrxak:

Building housing at all is a waste of money until you need to win an election.

That is completely wrong. Collecting rents is nothing but profit and it is what keeps your income from sinking into bankruptcy between freighters.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1713866141

That is not even a year into the game. It also paid itself off what you spent in 8-9 months.

[mrxak]

You're talking about a tiny bit of profit compared to a huge bunch of profit from building a bunch of production structures. Which do you think is better?

I'm not saying housing is worthless, it's just worth less.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by mrxak:

Which do you think is better?

Like I said (and you totally ignored) the rents you collect is what keeps you from nose diving into bankruptcy between freighters. Without that income all your budgets for all those industries can easily bankrupt you between freighters.

Your rents do not run out of resources, they do not run out of people with required education, they do not cause major shifts in faction relations, and most do not require power.

The quality of a worker's housing also affects how long they need to rest.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by mrxak:

Which do you think is better?

Like I said (and you totally ignored) the rents you collect is what keeps you from nose diving into bankruptcy between freighters. Without that income all your budgets for all those industries can easily bankrupt you between freighters.

Your rents do not run out of resources, they do not run out of people with required education, they do not cause major shifts in faction relations, do not rqeuire goods being hauled, and most do not require power.

The quality of a worker's housing also affects how long they need to rest.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

The quality of a worker's housing also affects how long they need to rest.

^This is probably the biggest over looked factor for a lot of people. Your citizens do not generate any production if they are not at work. The quicker you satisfy their needs the quicker they get back to work. So not only does housing siphon some of your workers pay back to you as rent which floats you between freighters, it compounds the value of your production cycles by sending your workers back to work faster.

Your workers get paid the same monthly wage whether they are actually at work or not so the faster and longer you can keep them working the more value you get out of them.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Your citizens do not generate any production if they are not at work. The quicker you satisfy their needs the quicker they get back to work.

That is probably the biggest overlooked thing in general.

World War era, put all you big entertainment and hospital together, then make a bus lines to them, Cold war era use metros. I used to blow buses off until I started actually using them, yeah they cost money, but you make way more getting your people back to work faster, rather than losing six months because they walked to and from.

Instead of cranking up the wages at your production facilities it is way cheaper to crank up your entertainment, healthcare, and churches.

Save your raising production wages for things like when you still are not getting enough planks to fill your shipyards, or logs to fill your lumber mills.

The main point is rent is an alternate economy that keeps you from becoming bankrupt between freighters. Without alternate economy liek that it is really easy to end up bankrupt between freighters on harder maps.