Courtesy of BayouBlonde

BayouBlonde's Quick Tips to a Healthy & Wealthy Beginning in VF

How Your Little People Get Paid:
It is important to understand how your little people are paid. Your little people earn money in two ways: money from work and bank interest. Their income from work comes from two sources: their salary and the work cycle. The salary amount is expressed in a daily figure, but is actually paid out every hour throughout the day. Whenever your little person completes a cycle of "Working on Career" they earn 1% of their daily salary. It's almost like earning a bonus, in addition to to progressing towards their next pay raise.
Bank interest is 10% per day. However, it is also paid out every hour throughout the day, just like their salary. The best way to earn the most money is through bank interest. The income they receive from it will usually be much greater than their salary or combined salaries. The hard thing is getting it there to begin with, especially in the first generation, and especially when you have no clue what is a waste of money and what is actually helpful. Hopefully these tips will help you with that.

Choose a Good Career:
Good careers are not those that start with a high beginning salary. Good careers are those that END with a high MASTER salary. Several of us have worked hard gathering information on careers and salaries so that you don't have to suffer. See this thread for more information, especially this post and this post.

Train Your Little People Well:
Teach them to work and to do things that increase their health. Ignore the other, nonproductive things that are cute, but don't really mean anything. Remember that working too much is actually bad for their health and happiness. Working out, quick work outs, stretching, exercising outdoors are all health improving behaviors and are a good break from work. The treadmill is an excellent health booster for later in the game, when you are able to afford it. They will live longer, which means they will draw that high master salary longer and draw bank interest longer, and make more money longer. Use the green glove to praise them when they are showing an action line that you want to train. The red glove causes a decrease in happiness and (in general) should not be used. Don't be afraid to pick them up and drag them back to a productive task. It's your job to train them to be the little people you want them to be.

Upgrades / Improvements:
The first and cheapest is the bathroom. Use it for the scales. Train them to check their weight. It's healthy. The heater might be, but they'll fool with it enough on their own so don't bother praising for it.

Second is the Air Purifier. As the description says, it will help to decrease illnesses. It is not too expensive and I recommend you purchase it as soon as you are able to.

Sheets, hammock and paintings can all be obtained through events, so don't bother wasting money on them. You'll get them eventually, even if it's 5th generation before you do.

Other than the bathroom and air purifier, the next thing you should spend money on is the workroom upgrade that will help them get promotions and raises faster, thereby helping them to earn money faster. It's ok if you don't do this until second generation. They are expensive. That's why it's nice to have hubby and wife work in the same room, if possible (only one workroom to upgrade.)

Other Purchases:
Watch the variable section of the store and buy repair items and fruits, antibacterial hand gel and candies when available and you can afford them. Fruits and antibacterial hand gel you will need to restore health quickly should your little people get sick, especially the adults (kids have a long time to get well on their own.) Repair items don't come available too often, so you'll want to grab them when you see them. Candies are optional, but are wonderful for quickly training them to exercise or work or to restore happiness levels.

Food:
Make sure they eat MEALS, not snacks. They do not need to be completely full - if the fed bar is completely full it means they are OVER stuffed. I've never noticed any real health benefit from organics, though they seem a bit happier and might live about two years longer. There isn't much difference in their health if you just buy only grains until you can afford all food groups. You will get emails asking for different kinds of groceries though.

Children:
The more children you have, the more careers you have to choose from for your next generation, but the more mouths you have to feed for this one. Children are also nice to have around for cleaning up wrappers, socks, weeds and when they are older they can do the cooking as well. It's also nice to have a fast moving kid around when your couple is elderly and moving sloooowly.

Collectibles:
One last thing, in the very beginning, don't worry so much about cleaning right away, but DO worry about collectibles! Grab every collectible you see! They are a fast source of cash for someone just starting out. Every duplicate collectible you get is sold online for cash. You do not need to go to the computer or the even the house to get credit for them. As soon as your little person stands up with them, they are counted. In fact, if you need to go through the tutorial to learn the basics, do so, then delete that family and start over without the tutorial; because you probably just missed a half dozen collectibles while completing it.

Hopefully that will get you started nicely.
~BB