Sims 2 Modern Social Class Challenge

Sometimes the Sims 2 can become a tad boring. Find the partner, get married/pregnant, make money, gain skills, grow up, and then repeat the cycle over and over again.
A way to make this feel less boring is to do 'Challenges' and whilst many exist, as someone who does not do challenges, often they feel a burden to prep for or work on an idea of a new hood and new sims. I wanted a challenge that would feel similar to the Victorian Social Class challenge and the Medieval Charter Challenge but with the well-known premades and the modern Sim world and no need for creating an entire world or lots of sims/families etc.. 

Hence the 'Modern Social Class Challenge' was born (in my head...).

Now whilst not a traditional challenge in the sense, because this can be seen as more of an 'Add-on' challenge to any existing world you are already playing really i.e. there is not end point, this is continuous within your own gameplay. But you could always set yourself an end point?

The challenge bases its' premise on there being 3 social classes, Upper, Middle, Lower. Whilst social classes are technically a thing of the past, they are still seen in practice in many places around the western world and further afield, and still discussed in the UK (my home nation).

Modern Social Class Challenge Main Rules

Whilst these rules are not definitive, they do make the challenge into exactly that, a challenge! You could adapt them to be more strict or less so to suit your play style.

Under these rules you need a few things in your hood to make it work. Mostly a large Grand Hall that can be where the Balls are hosted. Note in my head canon one of the rich elder female sims hosts the balls acting as a sort of 'Social Matriarch'. For the ball to work I make the Social Matriarch make a group (you will need the bigger groups Mod, allowing 20 Sims in a group) and eligible sims who are looking for a match aged Teen, Young Adult or Adult are able to be added to it. If you want to play with the boarding schools you will need LordCrumps' 3t2 Boarding Schools. II also suggest you work a tax system, both my tax system, my adapted boarding school system and my social class system and tracker can bee found on my blank spreadsheet which is downloadable from my shared google drive here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1yylFVZNq1Y6rufYGNAiPO5EeRElA4Sgw

Moving on Up

When a sim/family have met the household fund requirement to move up after a round/season, they are now that social status but on a sort of probation. To retain their social status, by the end of the next round/season the household must meet the household fund (HHF) requirement and all other requirements for that specific social class. As an 'Easy Mode' version of this challenge you could simply focus on whether their HHF meets the requirement and keep them in the social class that reflects their HHF. See details below:

Requirements to become Middle Class:

• HHF must be at £5,000 (Just this in 'Easy Mode')
• Lot Value of £50,000 minimum
• One Sim must be at Level 3 in their career (Retired Elder Counts)
• Adults have a net savings of £10,000 (Moniques Hacked Computer required)
• One child/teen is in Private school or one Adult Alumni of Private/Boarding School
• One Adult must be in a Middle class career track (Retired Elder Counts)
• (If the sim/household runs a business) Business Rank 5 must be reached

Requirements to become Upper Class:

• HHF must be at £15,000 (Just this in 'Easy Mode')
• Lot Value of £100,000 minimum
• One Sim must be at Level 5 in their career (Retired Elder Counts)
• Adults have a net savings of £50,000 (Monique's Hacked Computer required) NOTE: Investments would be allowed, such as holiday homes, or more of a Lot Value.
• All children are in Private school and teens are in Boarding school or 75% Adults Alumni of Private/Boarding School (if there are no children/teens in the household)
• 50% of Adults must have a degree
• Main Adult(s) must be in a Upper class career track (Retired Elder Counts)
• (If the sim/household runs a business) Business Rank 8 must be reached

Student/Roommate Mode

Sims living together in an owned or rented property can be different social classes. You would need to check two instances to deduce their social status.

1. Historical Social Status If a sim has living family of a certain social status they would remain that status for one round. On the second round the sim would remain that social class if they were friends with all members of their familial household. Lastly by the third round they must meet the 'Solo Social Status' outlined below. or drop to the social class their situation would dictate.
2. Solo Social Status The sim must have the correct career path (with a degree if necessary for their career level which is 3 for Middle Class and 5 for Upper Class). They also need to have the following individual net worth:
• For Middle Class the sim needs a net worth of £30,000
• For Upper Class the sim needs a net worth of £50,000

To calculate a sims individual net worth you use their proportion of the HHF and owned house/lot, their owned items in the house, whether these items be in their own room/space or communal, and any savings they have using Monique's hacked computer

I find that sims going to university always meet scenario 1 in this mode as I count their 4 year college degree (which I play short as 8 days) is completed in 1 round and thus they meet the first round social class stipulation. 

Let us see an example below to help with 'Solo Social Status' of this mode.
Three sims Stan, George, and Dave live together in an owned house. Their house/lot is worth £60,000 and their HHF is £9,000 (Lot Value and HHF will remain the same throughout this example). Stan has Upper Class parents in the Hood, George and Dave are new to the Hood

Round 1

Stan remains Upper class due to Historical Social Status.

George has a net worth of £23,000, a Physics Degree and a Career in Science (Lvl 4)
    Despite the correct degree and career path to be at least Middle class his net worth matters

So George is Lower Class.

Dave same as George has a net worth of £23,000 from a 3rd share of the HHF and Lot value, but he has £8,000 in savings using Monique's Hacked Computer and £2,000 value for his owned items, totally his net worth at £33,000. Dave has a Biology Degree and a Career in Oceanography (Lvl 6), making him Middle Class.

Round 2

Stan is friends with his family and thus remains Upper Class.

George has the £23,000 net worth from lot and HHF but now has £5,000 in savings and £7,000 value for his owned items, giving him a net worth of £35,000, Physics Degree and Science (Lvl 5) now makes him Middle Class.

Dave now has no savings, but owned item value of £5,000, making his net worth £28,000. So regardless of his job he is now Lower Class.

Round 3

Stan regardless of his previous standing can no longer rely on Historical Status. He has no career and no savings, but owned item value of £20,000 and a share of the lot and HHF value, totalling his net worth at £43,000. Despite his heritage being upper class, his worth being middle class, Stan is now Lower Class. His only way to retain his social status would be to move back in with his family or marry into an upper class family

George has the shared value of £23,000, his degree and career are the same, but his savings are now £15,000 and his owned items value is £15,000. This makes his net worth £53,000. George would now be Upper Class.

Dave has the same career and degree, and same share as before (£23,000). His owned items now have a value of £8,000 and he has savings of £4,000. Making Dave's net worth £35,000, so he moves back to being Middle Class.

Remember this mode only works for SOLO sims living in owned or rented properties as roommates. If the roommates live in a rented apartment they still need to meet the same requirements but would not have a owned property to share the value of.

Some families premade living together may be difficult to deduce who owns what item, such as the Singles in Strangetown, you would need to either ignore the owned items or make up a story for who those items belong to

For families who rent an apartment they also need to meet the same career/degree/HHF requirements but it would be all the apartment item's value added to their HHF to work out the family net worth. For example the Cleveland family from Belladonna Cove would have a net worth of over £50,000 with their HHF and owned items in the apartment added together, making them Upper Class (as they should be) at least for the first round...

Careers, Schools and Degrees for the Social Classes

Each social class has specific schooling, degree and careers they require to have their social status which can be seen on my spreadsheet or below:

Do you do something similar in your game? Have you had a go and have some improvements to the challenge?

Insert this into your Game and Insert the Sims into your life!

If you would like to contact me, please comment down below, or alternatively send me an email at insertthesims@gmail.com, I would love to hear your feedback.