Inflated Currency Prices

This game seems to be a marathon, not a race. It seems you level up quickly at first, but as the game goes on, with only one hardward store, etc. , it takes a while to get the parts you need. I've stopped adding houses and try to just level up what I have for now and keep the Sims happy to earn extra taxes.

Someone posted in another thread about bulldozing housing and building new houses to make money quicker. You might look at that thread and try it out if you think it might work. I am debating doing that. If I find the thread later, I'll edit this post and link it. 

This topic might be better moved to the general section. However in the mean time.... early levels are a bit of a shock. Because you are introduced to the infrastructure almost all at once. So you are having to spend simoleons faster than they are earned. More so if you go overzealous and try and expand and upgrade as fast as the stuff becomes available. It appears this is a common mistake with us new players. There is an element of realism in that there has to be planning to go along with what you do and when. Use all available income options. There are coin offers that show up frequent enough on non resident buildings to sell stuff to. I find this a pretty good way to get simoleons outside of the daily tax income. Also selling stuff to other players is possible but 50/50 problematic because it is hard to know what to sell and when and how much to sell it for since you only get a glimpse of all the stuff that most likely is up for sale.