Saving for the expansion

Been getting a lot of replies and emails from you guys over the last 2 days, I'm very overwhelmed and have to say thanks to all of you for helping me out so much. I'm trying to reply to each one, but apologies if it takes a little time.

I thought I'd have a nice light hearted post to follow some of the more serious ones. I'm interested to know what you guys are thinking in terms of the expansion, where you want to spend your money and what not. Do you want to have a base amount of money going in? Personally I've set my goal to have 13k gold going into the expansion, which I feel is a nice amount to get my main anything I want on release. This is an overly self indulgent amount, but I'd rather put in some work now and not have to think about money later; I just want to level in peace. I only have one level 70 to think about, so I'm lucky I don't have to worry too much about treating one character and leaving the others behind. I'll be able to level professions and buy rep items with relative ease. Overall I'm looking at my costs like this

- I want to get my engineering up to the cap as soon as I can. This will probably be a large money sink, but not too bad thanks to my mining. I'm guessing 1-3k gold.
- If I can buy reputation items from the auction house, I always will, because grinding them on my own is a bore. I'm guessing 2-4k gold on these items.
- Unrevealed gold sink; Burning Crusade had the 6k to spend on flying, and Wrath's most likely going to add passenger mounts & maybe even faster ones. One thing we do know is that there will not be a massive 5000g gold sink as previously, but smaller ones, so expect maybe four or five gold sinks costing 1-3k each. It's possible some of the siege weapons and vehicles for PvP might cost money.
- My level 36 druid who I primarily use as a disenchanter will have to level to 50 so she can step up her skills to disenchant level 71-80 items. I will probably spend a bit leveling the enchanting skill, but overall I have a huge stockpile of materials, so costs might be manageable.
- The Death Knight could end up costing a bit. I'll be training inscription and herbalism, and if I manage to level it up, a few mount training skills. This is more long term (6 months into the expansion) so I'm not too worried about these costs.

For most players I think 5000g will be a reasonable amount of money, as long as you're prioritising one of your characters. This is fairly easy to achieve and not taking into consideration the amount of money you will be making once you are actually playing in the new continent. One thing that will probably throw these estimates off track is that we're more than likely to see inflation. We all know a thousand gold today is worth less than it was before the Burning Crusade, and the same will happen here. I'm hoping auction house prices do not rise so much and the removal of daily quests at level 71 could help; educated guesses suggest current daily quests will reward more XP than gold, although I've yet to see evidence of this from the Beta (anyone playing it let us know!).

If you do focus on one main, now is a good time to make that final push for you epic flyer. It's never been easier to get, and once the expansion will come you can enjoy saving for fresh new things, instead of worrying about old world content you wish you had. We won't be able to fly until level 77 in Northrend, but the last 3 levels will be the easiest of your life with an epic flying mount. Don't worry about the cost of training falling, in a year 5000g might be as easy as making 1000g today!

Let me know what you're saving for, or if there's anything from the Beta thats already tempted you.

Learnin' the hustle

Why should you care what I have to say? Well I could tell you how I managed to make (at least) 35, 000 gold in my first year of playing the game...how I had over 8, 000 gold before I even hit level 70...how I was running around with 20 slot bags by the time I was in my mid 40s...how I bought a Zul Aman bear mount despite having never stepped into Kara, let alone ZA. But really none of this matters, and I only tell you these facts because maybe its grabbed your attention. I'm just an Economics student at University, who somehow found a game which has actually made my education interesting. I never knew when I first installed this game that I'd get so much enjoyment out of making virtual money. Having made my "fortune", I no longer care enough about keeping my secrets. I have enough gold to last me the next expansion, or maybe even two.

In all honestly, making money shouldn't be difficult for any level 70 player. But not everyone is level 70, or has the time (patience?) to do 25 daily quests everyday. Nor does this consider your raiding/arena commitments, whilst holding down a job and family. Or the fact you may have a couple level 70s with no realistic chance of ever getting that epic flyer for all of them. However, there is a severe lack of basic knowledge amongst much of the WoW community on how to achieve balance between making and saving money, whilst still keeping the game fun. Do you buy that epic gem you need off the AH, or that Orb of Deception you've always wanted? Most players are constantly facing a battle between buying stuff they need and buying stuff they want. I managed to find this balance for myself easily and this blog will hopefully help you find it for you.

The blog will talk about ways of making money, saving it...and sometimes I'll go a little off topic.

I'm not for one second claiming I know it all. I learnt about small parts of the WoW Economy to make myself some money. But there are hundreds of other avenues that I either don't have the time for, or just don't know about. Hopefully my ideas will blossom ideas for you, and you'll find your own niche. Some of these suggestions will seem very basic, yet I can assure you a lot of people will not know about them. I'm also sure there are plenty of things I don't know about, and you'll fill me in on them. Hopefully you'll enjoy my articles, and leave feedback (positive and negative). Let's get to work!