Finances

Finances are a little more complex for my Sims now! With mods, my sims now require loans for opening businesses and set up their bills for the services they need.

*Mods I Use*

• SNB & SNB Bills ~ This is an incredibly detailed banking mod for Sims 4. With this, I’ve created a bank in Magnolia Promenade for my sims to attend to open bank accounts, take out loans and make payments. They can also transfer money to other accounts. Additionally, they can set up their bills in a detailed way to pay for their services.
• SimCity Loans ~ Used in conjunction with the Bank, this allows my sims to take out loans of varying amounts. Sims make regular payments on the loans to gradually pay them back. Ellie is currently using this system after taking out a loan to open World United.
• ATM Cards ~ LittleMsSam updated Zooroo’s mod and added a credit function to the cards. This can also be used with the Bank.
• Allowance Mod ~ Allows for children and teens to receive an allowance twice a week.
• In Your Safe Piggy Bank ~ Ravasheen created some working piggy banks, which can be owned by an individual sim and store their money.
• University Costs More ~ Zero did a small group of mods to increase the cost of University, thus making it a little harder for your Sims financially.

*Banks & Bank Accounts*

When a sim wants to open their first bank account, they’ll go to the bank in Magnolia Promenade.

I take finances very seriously in the game. Nearly all of my sims have their own personal bank accounts, as well as their family funds. Each working Sim then has a percentage of their income go into their personal accounts; the rest goes into their family funds.
I vary this depending on the Sim. For example, Rohan’s working part-time while at Uni; since he’s living at the dorms with several other Sims, all his earnings go into his personal account. That way, I can guarantee he’ll take all his earnings with him when he graduates and moves out.

However, with Jared and Andrea, they’re both working full time with jobs that pay well. Right now, they’re both contributing 70% of their pay to the family funds and 30% to their personal accounts. To me, this simulates the couple having a joint account but still having their own individual savings accounts. So the bulk of their income goes to the family funds and this is what buys furniture and pays the bills. As their earnings are both fairly similar (Jared earns §264 an hour and works for 8 hours a day, four days a week and Andrea earns §205 an hour and works for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week), they contribute exactly the same. If one of them had lower earnings, I’d have them contribute slightly less.

*Loans: Student Loans, Business Loans & Mortgages*

I recently started using Zero’s University Costs More mods to up the cost of the classes, which also ups the student loans a sim needs to take out. I can almost hear my Uni students crying when they look at the bank balance vs loan balance! Now obviously, upping the student loans means my poor students will be in debt up to their little simmy eyeballs when they get out of Uni. So they’ll be starting out in rented apartments when they graduate, either in San Myshuno or Evergreen Harbour.

Once they earn a little more, they can move out of the apartments and into their first home. This is how Hollie, Ethan and Ellie all started out and what Andrea and Jared have recently done. However, not everyone will have the cash ready to buy a house, so that’s where I use the SimCity Loans mod to simulate mortgages.

Ethan and Hollie have recently taken out a loan, or mortgage, to move into their new home. This means that they’ll be paying that off for quite a while yet!

*Child Support & Alimony*
Child support is automatically paid by any parent who does not live with their child or children and is paid to the parent who does. Right now, Daniel Clancy pays child support to Cristina for Willow.

Sims have a narrow window of opportunity to request Alimony. They need to apply as soon as they divorce their spouse. Once done, at their next billing cycle they will receive a direct deposit based on how they set up this agreement. These payments stop when a Sim marries another or 4 billing cycles have passed.

*Welfare & Benefits*
If applicable, some families will be entitled to the Wel-Fund 4 Families benefit.
To qualify, the household must have:

• A residential lot valued less than §40,000 or rent less than §800
• Cannot own a business
• Unemployed, part-time employment, or full-time employment making less than §1,050/week
• Unmarried
• Does not receive Child Support

This can be a huge help to newly-divorced families or single teens caring for siblings.