Thread by @SimCityLimits

Should we talk about taxes? 💵💸

A few people have asked about my tax strategy to grow and keep Mortimer happy, so I'll drop it here in this 🧵... (1/11)

First, let's see how SimCity budgets work at a basic level

You collect taxes from 🟢Residential, 🔵Commerical and 🟡Industrial zones.

The more zones, the bigger the tax base you have to collect from. And denser zones have more people, meaning more income potential 💸 (2/11)

I say income 💰potential💰 because you can also set the tax rates for each zone type. 7% is the game default, but I find Sims are willing to pay more, dramatically changing cashflow.

Live into the differences between these two budgets below... 👀 (3/11)

The default budget (↙️) has us running at a slight $1,000 defecit - the city loses money each year. Not great! But raising taxes (↘️) has us turning a handsome profit of $27,000 a year. Nice! (4/11)

For the first decades of a city, I'd suggest speedrunning population with moderately high taxes.

If your Sims aren't complaining, they will happily pay to live in your city! Only dial back the tax rates once complaints start to flood in. 🤑🤑 🤑 (5/11)

Next, let's look at expenditures - another area where it's easy to get into financial trouble!

Anything that has ongoing costs fall into here, and is outlined in your budget... (6/11)

My expendatures #hottake is to slowly expand your services in the early years - having your schools and hospitals rated as "C" is okay! 👍

Each service building has a monthly cost, and having perfect grades early on comes at the cost of growing your financial well-being. (7/11)

What about loans? These can be great for growth of very early cities, but have LOTS of strings attached to them.

You'll always end up repaying 150% of the loan amount thanks to interest. (8/11)

If you're turning a small profit and want to use loan money to zone more to get even more taxes, this could be fine, since loans are paid over 10 years.

My suggestion is to only have 1-3 loans out at a time even if you're "approved" for more from the loans budget window. (9/11)

Here's SimCity Limits circa 1944 with healthy cashflow and great services since I focused early on growth that can now support schools/healthcare/police...

Within 10 years, I'll satisfy all resident needs and have more money than I know what the do with... (10/11)

👉 To close out, finances in SimCity can be easy if you start with this model... (11/11)

💰 Raise taxes until Sims complain
🏃‍♂️ Focus early on population growth
🦈 Use loans wisely but beware of interest
🏛️ Basic "C" grade services are fine early on

Do you budget well in your cities? 🌃

Let me know what you think and if there's other SimCity topics you want to know more about! 😀

And here’s the original thread if you wanted to share for #engagement 😜