Yeah I had this happen to me too. My couple retired around the same time. The husband was a retired Fire chief and had almost $10,000 a day for his pension, and his wife was a retired Lead of the Free World and made maybe $700 for her pension. Someone please explain to me how Fire Chief makes more than a President. I found it kind of funny

Yeah it's messed up. Gonna try messing with the XML and see what I can do.

I think its very telling about our attitude to Sims and pensions in general when we complain that they are receiving TOO MUCH money. Why are you complaining? Just let your Sims flaunt their cash without worrying about whether it'll actually happen in real life.

Time to make a quick pension.package file.

Is this a feature you'll be putting into Awesomemod?

The XML file that needs to be changed is:

ActiveCareer_0x01d3a534e091a5ca

Just change this line:

<kPensionIncomePerDayMultiplier value="6">
<!--Multiplier used to calculate the retirement stipend. This number is multiplied by the average earnings-per-day achieved over the lifetime of the career.-->

From 6 to whatever value seems more reasonable, like 0.5, as Pescado mentioned.

Don't edit the original of course, make a new file and import.

Lucky you.

When my sim called on the phone to retire, she wound up with 0 dollars a day, working from 12PM-12PM at Town Hall. Yes, that comes up if you GO to town hall to retire, but she didn't.

And the glitch isn't unique to her. -.-

Because we like a challenge in our games? Like someone said on here, it would definately upset the balance of a Legacy and make it almost too easy if the Founder becomes a Millionaire before they die, let alone the later generations. Same with pretty much any challenge. Want lots of money with minimal effort? Just get one person working as a Firefighter, get them retired, you're set for life.

The only problem with your argument is that people do get rich in real life. If you wanted them to stay poor and struggling then you make sure they stay in low-paid jobs their entire life. Don't go complaining just because a successfull sim in the top of their career gets a high pension - 2 + 2 does equal 4 you know.

Sorry to be stupid but I can't find the file to edit. The XML editing tutorial says to go to '\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\Gameplay\', but the file there doesn't contain the information you've mentioned.

But if you go to work they get promoted in the end, even without having all the skills. It's just too easy to do well in the game. And with the new profession (example fireman) all you have to do is go do the job to get promoted as the bar fills up. So if you want a family to struggle you basically have to make sure you go with bad needs to work, not have any of the ambitions professions and not earn any skill. Which is quite boring if you think about it. Then all you could do with the family was mess up their needs.

If you play a sim family where both parents have a job, mid career ladder ones that in real life would have average pay, you get too much money. I don't want my whole neighbourhood to be rich. I want a challenge and balance.

Some people get rich in real life. If all of us got rich and promoted at the same scale that sims do then rich would be a person who has billions instead of millions as millions would be the norm. There has to always be someone at the bottom of the ladder.

Top of the career = More money. Yea that's fine. But then the way you acquire the top career should change.

well, a rock stars fame and money would vary, depending on different factors.

i think it's appropriate for a respectable firefighter to earn more, even if that isn't so in reality.

Here's how I solve "the money issue":

Start out on an empty lot or in a very modest one or two bedroom home. Everything should be the cheapest money can buy. As the Sim progresses, spend the money as you can:

1) buy the most expensive toilet/shower/paintings/curtains/stove/fridge/etc - whatever it is, make sure the upgrade almost wipes out the amount of new money you just made

2) Have a lot of children and don't count any money that the children make as "family funds". I shove all children-found/made stuff into their inventories to take with them when they move. If they write books, I keep track of their royalty payments.

3) Rather than selling gems/paintings/sculptures, etc, use them to decorate the Sim's home. This cuts down on "extra" funds and I think adds a nice touch when the house is passed on to the next generation.

4) Buy the best camera/vacation stuff/music boxes/etc. The little "extras" can cost a lot if you buy the good stuff.

I dunno, maybe it's just me but I don't have Sims with lots of money. By starting out modestly, they are forced to work their way up and often use up their funds as their families grow. As elders, I enjoy seeing the nice, fat pack of money they have because it will only benefit the next generation. My only hitch to this is, of course, those Sims who already live in big mansions like Agnes Crumplebottom and the Goths. They do rack up the cash annoyingly fast but hey, they're rich, so they make the rich folk in the town!

Illegal extorition from OTJ accidents into his 401K?

The problem with your argument is that you're focusing on the wrong thing.

No one argues that sims get rich from actual work. The argument is that sims shouldn't get ridiculously wealthy from a pension. Pensions are meant to support people who no longer work. Typically they're just enough to live off of with maybe a couple extra bucks at the end of the day to splurge on a hot fudge sundae. Well, ok. Maybe more than that. But hopefully you get the picture.

Again. Getting rich from actual paychecks is one thing. Getting rich from pension pay is a whole other ball of beeswax.

Yeah, it doesn't make any sense at all. Unless you were putting the vast majority of your income into your pension fund it would not be SIX TIMES your daily income (not that anyone in real life has daily income, haha!)

Ranissa, that sounds like a good plan. That's how I like to have it: the first generation may be well-off by the end of his/her life, but it won't be until around the third generation that the family is truly wealthy.

It's not actually 6x their daily income, since the pension is paid only once a week. See the above. The actual value is about 6/7ths of your previous income. Which is still very high.

It sounds like someone is thinking of the broken beyond belief social security system in the U.S. and not actual pension funds which, if managed correctly, can be astronomically wonderful. All it takes is a few good investments, careful saving and a decent salary before retirement.

You're right on both accounts. But it still doesn't just 'happen' like it does. You still need to plan ahead.

Something you would never hear irl.

Ha, totally. But in a game where you can get as much money as you want by entering a code, there is only going to be challenge and building up to goals if you're not getting loads of money for nothing.

By the way, can anyone help me locate the file I need to edit in order to change the amount you get for pensions and the like?

Pensions can actually be high amounts of money. It all depends on how much you pay in and who your pension is with. Just look at some of the Bank of England's ex-employees.

As for the challenge argument - you've already had your challenging aspect of the game. Getting your Sim that high up in the career ladder. Do you people turn down every reward offered?

Don't even go there. I'm willing to bet that those who get that sort of retirement package are the Top Ten or so. Don't even THINK that all bank workers are getting that sort of money. Same with bonuses.



Excuse us for actually wanting a bit of challenge throughout a Sim's entire lifetime. To be honest, I find it easy to get a Sim promoted. If I want diversity and struggle in my game, I have to actually stop Sims from getting jobs or doing anything that brings in money. I played an 8-sim family once, and ended up after two weeks with over 200,000 simoleons. I just lost interest at that point because it was too easy.

By the way, Game = Game, Real Life = Real Life.

This has already been addressed earlier. Underlined for effect.



Again, this really has nothing to do with the topic. It's expected that wealth will come from active participation in jobs and/or professions. That's not in debate here.

The debate is the ludicrous amount of pension money received post-job. While there is no argument that -if- you had your sims put money aside, they -could- live a life of wealth and luxury based on those investments.

However those investments were neither made nor do they exist.

It's clear that it was an oversight. Ambitions was released with quite a bit of errors and oversights like this. Thankfully we have people like Pescado with his Awesomemod and Twallan with his debugger to fix most of them. In addition to people like Blaise Parker who can show what line of code can be changed to be a bit more realistic to your taste.

Don't insult my intelligence, I'm aware not everyone in a bank is on the same payscale. I'm not an imbecile. But you've just proven my point. The top 10 get high amounts in pension... sort of like someone in the top of a career? Like, firefighter perhaps?





Another contradicting point. Yes, a game is a game, and not real life. In real life, a retired chief won't get that much money. But this is a GAME. Therefore they do. And it's your problem if you don't like your Sims making a lot of money, it doesn't mean it's a problem in the game or that others who think it's a good balance are wrong.

Sorry I'm bumping this but...I just retired as a firefighter and the game wants to give me 162k a month for it..what the fuck? My entire house isn't even worth 50k atm

Anyone can help a total n00b who never modded a thing in his life in a way to fix this? it's surely a gamebreaking bug.

Worst case scenario I'll just kick myself out of the family =/