Upkeep Shouldnt Keep You Up at Night

Constaly in the MW Forums, I see people complaining about the "High Cost of Upkeep."

Before you buy your first item requiring upkeep, do the following two things:
1. Attain level 20.
2. Earn 1 million per hour.

That first million should be easy to obtain. There are several reasons for this. First off, you won't be losing income to upkeep. In Mafia Wars, a penny saved is truly a penny earned. Secondly, as an associate, you can do jobs for free goodies. You can invest that savings in extra properties, which means extra money.

UPKEEP WORST CASE SCENARIO

If you have 500 people in your mafia, The most it should cost you to outfit your mafia is $2,650,000.

ITEM........................................HOURLY RATE..............x500 MOB
Chain Gun...............................................$2500.............$1,250,000
Body Armor...............................................$400................$200,000
Towncar...................................................$1200.............$1,200,000

If you go into fights with 500 mobsters, you're likely to win most of these fights until level 30, even with Hacksaws, Bullet-Proof Vests, and Delivery Trucks.

My first upgrade was 500 motorcycles, which I kept until about level 40, then I changed over to Towncars as quickly as my income would allow it. It's a much better philosophy to have 500 guys with Baseball Bats and Body Armor than 25 with Chain Guns and Towncars.