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How do bills work?

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My sim lives in a small house but she pays 3,700 on bills each time. She literally has to work all week to pay the bills. Why are the bills so high and how are they calculated? What can I do to make them cheaper?

Comments

  • elanorbretonelanorbreton Posts: 14,518 Member
    There was an answer on this in the Q&A from a simguru:
    1. We intentionally made bills higher than past games in order to give more of a pushback. There was a lot of sentiment that Sims 3 was too easy, so one of the ways we opted to make 4 more challenging was to up bills. The bill calculation is actually a little more advanced in 4 as well. We actually calculate bills kind of like tax brackets. The first 20k worth of stuff in your house is billed at a %, then the next 10k a higher percent, then the next 20 an even higher percent, and so on and so forth. This allows us to have bills be pretty light at the beginning of the game when you have very little income, but ramp up much faster as you build a bigger house because your income should also be significantly higher.

    2. Bills have a new feature in Sims 4 where if you cannot pay for something, especially services like a pizza delivery, then the charge gets added to your bills. This can increase your bills for a single week.

    3. There are a few issues that are causing bills to be higher than intended right now. The main one is certain build objects like windows are getting counted twice in your bills. This is something I would very much like to see fixed.

  • JoxerTM22JoxerTM22 Posts: 5,323 Member
    Shazlowx wrote: »
    My sim lives in a small house but she pays 3,700 on bills each time. She literally has to work all week to pay the bills. Why are the bills so high and how are they calculated? What can I do to make them cheaper?
    Because of new ingame economy system.

    You want to keep expensive stuff in your house?
    Well, you have two options:
    - make sure your sims are not lazy as every career makes them filthy rich in no time or
    - use cheats

    Your question "why are bills so high" is misplaced. The correct question would be "why Sims 4 doesn't encourage having lazy sims".
  • AvivLAvivL Posts: 128 Member
    what about loan money from other with carisma . every load is about 500 .
    is that add to the bills to ?
  • ShazlowxShazlowx Posts: 24 Member
    > @AvivL said:
    > what about loan money from other with carisma . every load is about 500 .
    > is that add to the bills to ?

    Other people give you money?

    Really? Is this what you're saying?
  • TerrylinTerrylin Posts: 4,846 Member
    Bills are based on how high priced items you have in your house. So if you buy top of the line products for your sims right off they will work their fannies off to enjoy them! :p
    When starting stay small with a good grade bed so they get rested and go to work in better condition. Working their way up to the nicer things. As in real life! ;)
    Bills also include anything in the family inventory.
  • AvivLAvivL Posts: 128 Member
    yes if ur carisma is high u can ask for a loan , i did it many times and its give 500 each time ,
    but the tricky question if u need to pay back with ur bills
  • PiperbirdPiperbird Posts: 4,161 Member
    You don't even really have to have a good job. My Sim is in the writer career, which barely pays anything. However, my Sim is always collecting from frog logs, dig sites, harvesting, and fishing. Spend your Sim days off collecting and you can sell them for a lot. My Sim quickly made 70 grand and moved into a nicer home.
    Visit me in the gallery! CC-free builds under origin name Piperbird!
    06-01-15_5-18nbspPM_zps8s8jcirw.png
  • LokiSimsiesLokiSimsies Posts: 1,912 Member
    They don't. It's broken, lol.

    My poor Astronaut has a crazy high bill because he has to have some stuff on his lot for his job, the game is charging him out the wazoo for these things.

    Which is why I use the mod.

    If you give your Sim the painter aspiration and then have them complete that and get them the reward that increases the value of these things? Your Sim will make a ton of money in just a few hours of painting. If you don't want to use mods to get the bills more reasonable. It's faster than collecting, IMO.
  • ContessaClaidieContessaClaidie Posts: 263 Member
    edited September 2014
    My new and improved house has 30,000 in bills :D
    i had a 5 floor mansion in Sims 2 barely paid over a 1000 in bills :D
    “Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” - Albert Einstein
    I own all Sims 1 to 4 + Expansion, Stuff Packs but if I had to pick a favorite it would be Sims 2
    4.5 Ghz Processor, 32 Gb of Ram, 3x Geforce GTX Titan Z Extreme Edition, 1 TB SSD
  • AvivLAvivL Posts: 128 Member
    yea but painting is to easy to get money especially when u sell each masterpiece for 8-12k
  • I actually quite like it for some families. It depends on which family I'm playing. If I'm playing a family the difficult way from the beginning with no cheats, it's kind of interesting to see the struggle rather than 'oh we don't need to worry about bills lol' which is not exactly realistic.
  • AvivLAvivL Posts: 128 Member
    try to make an evil mother and raise 7 children and pay the bills :)
  • RudiaroseRudiarose Posts: 891 Member
    This addon will help with bills. Make sure to not unzip the files just drop the whole zip file into the mods folder.

    http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=534681
  • ContessaClaidieContessaClaidie Posts: 263 Member
    edited September 2014
    well with the saving from rich aspiration as long as you got millions of similions even 40,000 wouldn't dent your piggy bank :D unlike a majority of this so called Legacy players I don't money cheat or cheat at all just makes the whole game pointless if you avoid the challanges
    “Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” - Albert Einstein
    I own all Sims 1 to 4 + Expansion, Stuff Packs but if I had to pick a favorite it would be Sims 2
    4.5 Ghz Processor, 32 Gb of Ram, 3x Geforce GTX Titan Z Extreme Edition, 1 TB SSD
  • ianxziianxzi Posts: 723 Member
    There was an answer on this in the Q&A from a simguru:
    1. We intentionally made bills higher than past games in order to give more of a pushback. There was a lot of sentiment that Sims 3 was too easy, so one of the ways we opted to make 4 more challenging was to up bills. The bill calculation is actually a little more advanced in 4 as well. We actually calculate bills kind of like tax brackets. The first 20k worth of stuff in your house is billed at a %, then the next 10k a higher percent, then the next 20 an even higher percent, and so on and so forth. This allows us to have bills be pretty light at the beginning of the game when you have very little income, but ramp up much faster as you build a bigger house because your income should also be significantly higher.

    2. Bills have a new feature in Sims 4 where if you cannot pay for something, especially services like a pizza delivery, then the charge gets added to your bills. This can increase your bills for a single week.

    3. There are a few issues that are causing bills to be higher than intended right now. The main one is certain build objects like windows are getting counted twice in your bills. This is something I would very much like to see fixed.

    Lame.gif
    original.gif
  • PiperbirdPiperbird Posts: 4,161 Member
    Well, I took a screenshot, but I can't figure out how to post it :(
    And it was just a picture without the text for some reason.
    But anyway, I build my Sims a nice, two story house with all the best appliances and electronics, and she has the rocket ship and observatory, and her bills are only $2,557 each time. She has almost 60K saved back up again after building the house. I do not use cheats, most of that money came from writing books and selling collectibles. That doesn't seem like very much. Is it higher for other people?
    Visit me in the gallery! CC-free builds under origin name Piperbird!
    06-01-15_5-18nbspPM_zps8s8jcirw.png
  • ContessaClaidieContessaClaidie Posts: 263 Member
    i make all my money from little jobs my Sims have 7.2 million simlions and they live in a 3 floor mansion due to their piggy bank the interest from the rich aspiration is enough to pay any bill :D
    “Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” - Albert Einstein
    I own all Sims 1 to 4 + Expansion, Stuff Packs but if I had to pick a favorite it would be Sims 2
    4.5 Ghz Processor, 32 Gb of Ram, 3x Geforce GTX Titan Z Extreme Edition, 1 TB SSD
  • Klaw01Klaw01 Posts: 117 Member
    I like the new bill system, expand and acquire top of the line items as your career dictates.

    Example you don't expect many "dishwashers" to have top of line appliances, high end art work, etc.

    If you CAS and build a basic starter for cheap, then use the leftover money for high end you will have a problem quickly.

    Sims in 4 doesn't have an incentive to be lazy, you want nice items and housing you work for it or cheat the system.
  • crua9crua9 Posts: 43 Member
    > @elanorbreton said:
    > There was an answer on this in the Q&A from a simguru:
    > SimGuruHolms wrote:
    >
    > 1. We intentionally made bills higher than past games in order to give more of a pushback. There was a lot of sentiment that Sims 3 was too easy, so one of the ways we opted to make 4 more challenging was to up bills. The bill calculation is actually a little more advanced in 4 as well. We actually calculate bills kind of like tax brackets. The first 20k worth of stuff in your house is billed at a %, then the next 10k a higher percent, then the next 20 an even higher percent, and so on and so forth. This allows us to have bills be pretty light at the beginning of the game when you have very little income, but ramp up much faster as you build a bigger house because your income should also be significantly higher.
    >
    > 2. Bills have a new feature in Sims 4 where if you cannot pay for something, especially services like a pizza delivery, then the charge gets added to your bills. This can increase your bills for a single week.
    >
    > 3. There are a few issues that are causing bills to be higher than intended right now. The main one is certain build objects like windows are getting counted twice in your bills. This is something I would very much like to see fixed.



    So basically if you have all your a crap ton of paintings that have a great value to them but no lights and what not. But almost no lights, water being used, etc. You will get billed a crap ton.
    That's stupid.

    It should be based on anything that takes power, water, etc. Based on how much something is used, is based on how much the bill will be like in the real world.
  • 5782341b77vl5782341b77vl Posts: 9,149 Member
    ... and THAT is why Sims4 is not realistic! In real life, you're not billed for having a nice furniture (couch, beds, etc.) or things in your pockets, but for plumbing (water & sewer) and electrical appliances only. You could add in a (Propane) Gas bill if the stove is a gas stove.

    While I can see how a bigger lot/house may have more property taxes than a smaller one, I fail to see how my type of furniture would add to the house's value!

    Bills should be by how many appliances you have - not furniture! A stereo uses my electricity - not my couch! A shower uses the water - not my bed! The toilet uses sewer - not the space rocks I'm carrying. The stove uses the propane - not the paintings on my walls!

    If y'all want Sims4 to be more realistic, y'all need to get it together, EA!
    ...AND WASH YOUR DING-DANG HANDS!
  • icmnfrshicmnfrsh Posts: 18,789 Member
    ... and THAT is why Sims4 is not realistic! In real life, you're not billed for having a nice furniture (couch, beds, etc.) or things in your pockets, but for plumbing (water & sewer) and electrical appliances only. You could add in a (Propane) Gas bill if the stove is a gas stove.

    While I can see how a bigger lot/house may have more property taxes than a smaller one, I fail to see how my type of furniture would add to the house's value!

    Bills should be by how many appliances you have - not furniture! A stereo uses my electricity - not my couch! A shower uses the water - not my bed! The toilet uses sewer - not the space rocks I'm carrying. The stove uses the propane - not the paintings on my walls!

    If y'all want Sims4 to be more realistic, y'all need to get it together, EA!

    That's how it's always been, though. Ever since the first game. They just made the tax computation MUCH higher this time.
    Don't manhandle the urchin. He's not for sale. FIND YOUR OWN! - Xenon the Antiquarian, Dragon Age II

    Race Against the Clock: Can your elder sim turn back the clock before their time runs out?
  • PinkFloydRulzPinkFloydRulz Posts: 2 New Member
    One month my bills are 25k, next month they are 100k. Nothing new but a cat.
  • NindigoNindigo Posts: 2,764 Member
    Does the trick of using autolight still work? Just wondering...


    Origin ID: Nindigo79

    A smile is the prettiest thing you can wear
    Time enjoyed is never time wasted

  • PinkPaws66PinkPaws66 Posts: 755 Member
    @PinkFloydRulz that cat must be running up the credit card bills! 😁
  • pegasusventricepegasusventrice Posts: 56 Member
    My new and improved house has 30,000 in bills :D
    i had a 5 floor mansion in Sims 2 barely paid over a 1000 in bills :D

    Ooh I would love to see your 5 floor mansion. Is it on the gallery?
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