Money and Assets

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murloc
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Money and Assets

Post by murloc » June 25th, 2019, 4:20 am

Hi everyone,

So I know that when Sims come into money they can purchase nicer homes and assets such as shares. However, say we have Sim A who has worked all his life, accumulated wealth and then his son Sim B inherits it when he dies, however Sim B is a busker who makes hardly any income. Eventually all that wealth will be sapped by property and income tax as well as tax from tax collector mod (I am ruthless), so when the household funds inevitably become 0, can Sim B move from the larger house or sell his family assets? I've never seen this happen so was wondering if it's possible. Just sick of seeing Sims in mansions with 0 simoleons whilst there are wealthy sims with upwards 300,000 living in tiny 10x10 lots, it feels less "real" having to manually relocate them.

Thanks,

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igazor
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Money and Assets

Post by igazor » June 25th, 2019, 6:44 am

Point of Order first, if I may. SP's Income Tax doesn't drain wealth, it drains income. It doesn't work like in the real world where we might get an income tax bill over a year later by which time we might have already spent the income not yet taxed, it happens at the time of payout.

If a sim household's liabilities exceed their assets and they keep going into debt in order to pay bills, daily fees, and meet other commitments, then they are living beyond their means. We can see this before it happens even if we aren't keeping a very close eye on their finances by running an SP > Household > Accounting Report on them occasionally; I look at the overall net gains and losses first and then the various categories for explanations as to what is happening with their finances. When things become dire, SP will trigger a Poverty or Downsizing Move through which they will move into more modest accommodations if those are available in town or they may move in with friends (if they have any with room to spare who can stand to be around them) to save on expenses. This process could be interfered with if the lot they are living on is marked as Ancestral, unless there are other surviving blood relatives to move into it.

I don't think the mod sees these households as in trouble financially until their cash balances totally drain though, and it wouldn't be taking the Tax Collector mod's charges into account as some kind of ongoing commitment like it does bills to be paid. If they end up bankrupt, which is a pretty severe economic condition whereby they will likely never recover from debt on their own and they by then have no real property assets to sell, then SP may push an emigration scenario on them through which they will move out of town and out of your game -- but that type of emigration by way of Debt Ratio settings has to be allowed before that will happen.

If an inactive household is clearly (to me) never going to be able to keep their heads above water by living on a dwindling lump of inherited cash plus real estate/investment dividends and meager or no career income, plus other things they may do to earn money along the way like creating or collecting stuff to sell at consignment, then I have no qualms about stepping in and downsize moving them myself to free up the nicer residential lot for others who can actually afford to live on it. Or perhaps moving other sims with higher earning potential in with them. It's either that or build more and nicer housing in town for the rich households stuck on 10x10s, but of course we have the limitations of town map space to contend with before we can do that. :)

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murloc
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Money and Assets

Post by murloc » June 25th, 2019, 7:21 am

Thanks for the reply. I don't think I've ever experienced a Sim downsizing before. There is a plethora of affordable housing on my neighbourhood however I have never seen a Sim downsize or move in with relatives. Could there be anything else that might interfere with that? None of my homes are marked as ancestral so I'm not sure why this isn't occuring.

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igazor
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Money and Assets

Post by igazor » June 25th, 2019, 7:40 am

A sim living on a §1 million mansion may not be interested in jumping all the way down to a §20,000 starter home even if it technically meets their basic needs (a roof, fridge, and enough beds) unless they really have no other choice for survival. That example is admittedly a bit extreme, but do you have anything in between for them to downsize into?

Other than that, I don't know or have access to the formulas SP uses to detect a household is in financial trouble. If they still have a let's say §75,000 cash balance, even if that's down from millions and their cash flow is decidedly negative, that may be enough for SP to deem them to still be okay for a while. In that case it's only we players who can look at such a household and see whether they realistically have the potential to improve things on their own or not. Having or not having (or wishing to have) a truly viable career through which they may progress into higher income levels over time might not be something the mod can really assess. And sometimes things are close enough regarding income vs. bills that all we really have to do is swoop in and downgrade their appliances, art work, and furniture (maybe cars) and get rid of some hot tubs for them to lower the financial stress of property taxes a bit. These are not things the mod can do nor can sims do them for themselves. They might learn to marry well (and often), if that helps them out though. :)

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