Is it too easy to get rich in TS4?

Promotions in jobs seem to come in no time and there are objects to help "recycle" money such as the one trash bin where you get money back for throwing out items. There's also the money tree reward I recently learned about, which you can make money very easily with. I have kept myself from using these since I prefer the game to be more realistic and personally I don't like spending much money on a big house since the amount of room intimidates me a bit.