I know what everybody has said now...get cottages and have a religion with temples and you can solve most of your money troubles...well, I do that, and it is always stuck at (-1/Turn), or even (-4/Turn), I have very little units, only have at the most 3 cities, all of them within 4-5 spaces of capital to cut down Maitenance costs, and yet nothing seems to work at all. Can anyone tell my why in the heck this is happening to me? :(

What is your science slider at? Sounds to me like you are keeping it at 100% which is impractical in most cases. When running a cottage economy, I usually have my slider around 70%. I play on noble also.

I suggest lowering your science slider to 80% or 90% and hopefully that will solve your money problems!

Do you build a shrine? Then that is your problem.

Get a religion, spread it to your cities and to your neighbors. Get a great prophet, build the shrine, and see your gold go up a lot. That'll make it spread some more, and you'll be good. Build the Wall Street in that, make sure you do. Also, build markets/grocers and the bank to all your big producing $$$ as soon as you can.

I've only once had a 100% scientific research on Prince. Happened a while ago. Had 2 religions. Crazy what it could do. I was +80 per turn. Still, I didn't build enough cottages, so that sucked.


And you also have to WORK your cottages, meaning, place the circle thing on it. Cottage > Hamlet > Village > Town. Having 25-40 towns is good.

Can anyone tell my why in the heck this is happening to me?

I'm guessing that the domestic and financial advisors could tell you, if you were to consult with them.

Are the citizens from your cities actually working the cottages? They have to be assigned to those tiles for to both collect the commerce from the cottages, and for the cottages to grow. Also remember that the commerce from cottages will be low at first but grow over time. Also, cottages are more lucrative when on a tile next to a river.

I also find that once the early game is over, I need markets (and, later, grocers and banks) in my best commerce cities to multiply the commerce and make the most of it.