Problem solved by EA Support but you will not be able to recover previously saved games. This worked for me and I am now able to create, play and save and then go back and play again later. Here's what you do:
Repair game thru Origin, then check for updates thru Origin (right click on the game in your library and those options will come up) be sure that you do not have the game running when doing this.
Then go to Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/
Then go into the "cache" folder and delete all the cache files.
Then go to "Saves" folder and delete all the files.
Then go into the "scratch" folder within the "saves" folder and delete all the files which have the words "savegame" in it.
Then launch the game and create a new game and save it, exit the game, then relaunch the game, the saved game should be there.
