If it's not the tax man then who the hell is taking all my money!

Have you ever looked at your finances on ikariam and wondered where all your hard earned gold is going?

Heres a basic breakdown:

1. Workers cost money (all that slave labour down the mines and at the forests does actually cost some)

2. Researchers (I know they get to play with crystal all day AND they get paid!)

3. Don't forget your military, they do like to be paid for putting their butts on the line for you!

On the plus side though guys, spies don't cost any upkeep!

Another general point that i've taken from a website:

Units on missions or being relocated from one city to another cost twice the upkeep.

If you have several colonies, the amount of upkeep shown in the income overview is divided between your towns dependent on the percentages of the total amount of citizens per town you have, not on the amount of stationed troops and ships. As cities don't have their own gold reserves and all costs are paid out of your gold coffer, this of course only makes your bookkeeping harder to read, rather than offering any insights into where your real costs per city come from.

Finally for a little extra info check out:

http://ikariam.wikia.com/wiki/Upkeep

I do not believe workers technically cost money -- you just do not earn the 3 gold/hour that they would be paying in taxes as citizens.

Thats how much they cost, 3 gold. It may not be an upkeep like your military (so to speak), but its the same thing. He isn't in the city having a joyful time, hes costing you 3 gold. For then your spending 3 gold on each guy not in your city. Same for the researchers.

A regular citizen produced 3 gold an hour

A scientist costs 6 gold an hour, for a 9 gold difference between a scientist and a citizen

A worker produces/costs 0 gold/hour, for a 3 gold difference between a worker and a citizen

But you don't have to pay them. It's basically the same math in the end.

Rutherford wrote:

A regular citizen produced 3 gold an hour

A scientist costs 6 gold an hour, for a 9 gold difference between a scientist and a citizen

A worker produces/costs 0 gold/hour, for a 3 gold difference between a worker and a citizen

But you don't have to pay them. It's basically the same math in the end.

Scientists aren't ALWAYS 6 gold for an hour. Once you get the Letter Chute technology, each scientist becomes 5 gold an hour, for an effective cost of 8 gold an hour, so there is a way to make them cost less, and if you hire a lot of scientists, then that helps a lot. (My immediate savings upon completion I believe was over 300 gold.)