For every post out here where folks are like "omg, how do I get more money?" there's someone else out here who posts that they have my playing experience and have tons of gold and nothing left to spend it on.

I'd like to get feedback on both sides.

Are you the sort of player who is always broke? For whom there is just never enough gold to get you the next greatest or coolest thing and who has to always pay attention to every earning opportunity for just a few more septims?

Hopefully this thread is for you.

If you're the sort of player who always has piles and bags and chests of gold, how are you doing this?

What advice can you give to the players, and believe me they're out there in vast numbers, who cannot seem to keep a few hundred septims together long enough even to buy a house?

I'll be honest and tell you I've given this answer a bunch of times in those threads about not being able to make money.

I go to dungeons and I loot it all, and by all, I do mean checking every wall that looks like it might move, looting every urn every sleeping draugr every nook and cranny of shelf, table, bowl and floor space scoured for loose gems, gold and fun things to sell. I prioritize this, too... even from the start I do not pick up blades that are heavy or heavy armor that is too heavy when it's just not space and gold effective. I pay attention to gold, gems and lightweight items (heck... 1 conjurer's robe weighs 1 and sells for 120g and the heavy armor that weighs 30 is only gonna sell for 60g.)

I don't buy anything I don't have to buy. I go get it. If I want to level my enchanting and don't have any soul gems then I hit up a Dwemer ruin and I loot it all. If I need new armor and I'm not a smith, I go and target locations with things to kill that will have my armor type. If I'm a smith then I go mining.

I don't focus on any profession I'm not going to use. I've found that alchemy is really less effective for me because I loot everything anyway, so I come up with tons of potions. Alchemy is a great way to make cash and until you've spent enough perks in it I found it not to be as useful to me as just a way to make cash. Enchanting always helps me and always makes me cash, and I've found the same is true of blacksmithing, though I don't spend perks in it.

The maximum gold on any one character at any time was my level 50 Spellsword, and she had over 200,000 before I started going and getting her houses. She retired with over 110,000 still on her. I have a level 24 who is right on her heels with 140,000 already and two houses.

Making money in this game isn't my problem... it's finding ways to spend it. I tried once to get Silda to pick up some extra cash and she did, but at one gold at a time on the ground... yeah... it's a pain. Next time I think I'll reverse pickpocket her.

How do you do it? What do you do to have mountains of cash in Tamriel?

Different playstyles, I prefer to only loot things that make sense to me and occasionaly use trainers so my money is usually rather short. I had a character where I looted everything and I could easily buy breezehome and its upgrades when it became available, now however I just take what makes sense and money is really tight. I prefer it that way too

I have had no problems at all gaining and becoming rich(I almost wish I could get that rich in real life). I am approaching more than 100,000 septim. I started out the game making money from smithing weapons and jewelery and later on enchanting them for a hefty sum. I own four houses and I still have so much septim. Making money is no problem at all in this game.

I'm probasbly the richest wood elf in the history of my particular game in Skyrim.

The time I'm poor - paying for training.
The time I'm rich - maxxed alchemy, a few perks in speech, looting items over 1k value from chests.

I'm fairly poor myself. Kind of reflects my real life too. I never seem to manage to get mounds of money. I have more stuff to sell but no merchants with money so I'm sitting on wealth just no way to capitalize on it.

I'm currently lvl 50 and have around 350,000 gold.

I used to loot everything with more than 1:10 weight/price ratio, then switched to 1:20 sometime around lvl 40. I use Lydia to pick up stuff I can't carry, so there's never a weight issue.

I then spend as long as needed travelling between shops and different cities selling everything I have looted.

Apart from loot, I also collect ingredients and make expensive potions (regardless of their effects) and sell them. Same with leather/metal; I collect them and make armour/weapons to sell. I also smith jewelery and put expensive enchants on them to make them more valuable before I sell.

The selling used to get quite tedius as merchants ran out of gold too quickly, and merchants only buy selected item types.

Then I invested a total of 4 perks into speech (up till the investor perk) and now all merchants have more money and I can sell anything to anyone. This really gave a boost to my revenues.

I think inventory management is the key to making more money. Look at weight/price ratios when looting and be selective. Dump all your unused gear at home so that you don't fill up too quickly, and take advantage of your professions to make an extra bit on the side.

I can't claim to have buckets of money, but only because I've never put the ridiculous amount of cash I have in a bucket.

I'm currently at 1.15m cash and about 350-400k in items. So much money from tomb raiding, then sealed the deal with alchemy. When I can take a deathbell and a salt pile and get almost 1.3k from mixing them together, money is no longer an issue. I hope they release some DLC that lets you buy and customize your own fortresses or something where you could put a lot of money down for.

Put the enchantment banish on iron daggers, simple as that. Now I'm making banish/paralyze daggers with enchantment at 100. 2000 each dagger? Yes please.

That would be too much to hope for. I guess we can still dream that the developers listen to what the fans want as I have heard this remark many times. Here's hoping fot he best.

After my first character I quit taking the perks to get higher sale prices and totally skipped the fact that by investing I'd be able to stop taking world tours that make the Kajiit caravans look slow and lazy in order to sell my wares.

mmm... perhaps a good investment for characters who are trying to limit the "time in game" clocks... Awesome. thanks!

I usually am nearly broke for the first 15 levels or so, but once I get going and the dungeons get to a higher level, the loot inside will increase in value, and from that point I'm only getting richer and richer.

I'll happily buy Mzulft and rebuild it... mmm... Dragonborn "keep" holders? Looks like a buildup to DLC that lets us make a bid for the throne. heh... oh wait... in my head I already am... Sky Haven Temple as my personal hold... high on a peak where so few can reach me... Ulfric dead... the Emperor and his whole family line dead... yep... I'd love to fix up my fortress of doom...

It's not yours, it's Delphine's.

I find myself with usually between 10-20K and that's fine for my current character. He is the Harbinger of the Companions and so has a very comfortable quarters, has no interest in a spouse or a house. I don't loot everything, I never let myself get over-encumbered and I never leave a (major) city with any more than the bare essentials, so I often end up dumping stuff or giving stuff away. I use money for training and occasionally buying health potions if I find I've used a lot and haven't been finding enough to keep up. Money is just not a priority for my current character.

I'm on my first playthrough and money was definitely tight for me early on. I really had to skimp on training and buying anything in order to a accrue enough cash to buy my two homes and pay for the really nice items you randomly find on merchants. Peerless bracers of smithing, etc. My tipping point on cash occurred once I completed 2-3 special missions for the thieves guild and the fence's cash on hand went to 3K and 4k. Up until then, I just didn't have the patience to sell one 1K potion, wait 48 hours, sell one 1K potion, wait 48 hours, for 30+ potions. I prefer to play a game rather than milk a game for wealth. I think this would be much less of an issue on lower difficulties (I played first time on master) as you could get away without pimping your equipment as much and you could afford the perks to put into speech, of which I have none on my level 55 thief/assassin.

For me, that skill tree is all about convenience for the player. On master, convenience is about not having to redo the same boss battle 18 times in order to survive. For that, I use combat oriented perks... not speech.

it wasn't Delphine's blood that opened the door but it will be hers that wets the floor.

How do you make money, DisLeader?

On post number nine of this thread I said that I sell banish iron daggers. They are worth like 800 at the very least when your speech is low and enchantment skill is low.

/e Also get the merchant perk in speech. I sell daggers to everyone when I buy anything from them, to make back and take all their gold so my gold never goes down at all.

was just limiting the number of places where we're discussing blades lore...

On my level 44 character that I'm playing right now, I've bought all 5 houses and decorated all of them fully. Most of the money came through enchanting and alchemy, some came from smithing; the rest via regular loot. The only thing I need money for is for buying glass and ebony arrows. I hate using anything less, especially considering the health damage an ebony arrow does with the 3X sneak attack. One shot, one kill.

On low levels just begin enchanting everything you can. Collect daggers and petty soul gems and you can average around 200 septims per. I collected around 30 daggers by level 5 and even more petty gems. It sends your enchanting skill up as well as your leveling. Turn Undead is the way to go early on when you only have a couple of enchantment capabilities (in terms of weapon enchantments. Disenchant a Sneak item, begin collecting boots, and you'll never have to worry about money again. The only rough part of enchanting is finding enough soul gems.

Also, just taking the Dwarven and Elven armor perks on the smithing tree is all you really need to make boatloads of cash. Don't bother with making armor, make bows and greatswords. Then enchant them with a common, lesser, or even petty gem to net 300-400 per item.

There's lots of ways to make as much as you need in Skyrim.

As for those complaining about running out of stuff to buy; there is a limit to everything. Maybe the ability to buy or create Vegas style casinos will be in a mod someday.

Crafting will skyrocket your gold to unreasonable heights.

If you don't want to focus on crafting, grab a giant's toe and wheat then make a potion out of them for a quick buck. Another valuable combination I like is Fire Salts+Moon Sugar+Snowberries. Can't remember what they make off the top of my head but its good money when you sell them.

I like hoarding money, even though I have no use for it, so I clean out the ingredients from every alchemy vendor when I visit a hold and harvest everything in sight. Every so often I'll put on my fortify alchemy 116% set and make a ton of potions and use the merchant killing exploit in Riverwood to boost my gold.

For a slower process, find a weapon with a banish enchantment on it and then enchant your spare weapons with Banish. Even using petty soul gems, its a pretty decent markup.

Currently lvl 76, just over 1mil gold.

Another tip for people low on money: save up giant toes (just raid their camps, there's plenty around Whiterun), then hit the alchemy table. Giant toes make every potion in which they are compatible worth around 500% more. Combine them with Blue butterfly wings, blue mountain flowers and wheat, and watch not only your alchemy level rise, but also your bank account.

I've currently got about $450,000. And I own every house and all the best enchanted jewelry I could buy. Money is pretty much useless after level 15 or so.

I just looted everything from every dungeon I did until I got to around $50,000. From there I was never in need of money again. Killing bears and lions get you alot of leather for smithing and upgrading fur, hide, or leather armor and gear. You can make or upgrade all kinds of leather stuff, then sell it. You kill 3 birds with one stone. Level your smithing by smithing. Level your speech by selling stuff. And make gold out of stuff you got for free.

Plus I had a haggling necklace and the Volsung Dragon Priest mask to get better prices for the stuff I sell and cheaper prices for the stuff I buy. And if you play as an Imperial, you automatically find more gold than other races.

I never use alchemy other than to make money and build my level quick. If you find the right potions to make you can get a few hundred a piece for them and all it cost you is ingredients. Make a ton and then sell them. The only problem is that you can only sell them to specific people like alchemy shops or general stores until you get the fences from doing the Thieves Guild.

Doing the Thieves Guild jobs brings in alot of money too. Or doing thane jobs etc. Working for people always pays money. Chopping wood, mining etc. Don't stockpile stuff that you don't intend to ever use. Sell it and use the money to make even more money.

I only recall being poor at really low levels. Generally by the time I hit level 10, I no longer have any money troubles.

On my current character, which is level 27, I have around 28K gold, and own both Honeyside and Breezehome, with full upgrades. Interestingly, I haven't looted anything but gold and valuable items- small stuff mostly; no armor or weapons unless it was particularly valuable. I also haven't done any crafting at all. I am doing the Thieve's Guild and Dark Brotherhood quest lines (but haven't completed either, so no 20k payout yet), and in Skyrim, crime really does pay.

No real trouble gaining money, nothing to spend it on
Despite this I still collect every kettle and cast iron pot in a fort and haul them out
Sometime I'm going to properly anolyze a few hauls and see what proportion of worth is provided by different value to weight ratios. I suspect that I could leave most of the junk behind and be almost as well off. Not that I could bring myself to do that