I'm looking for some challenge and having played The Sims 2 for years now i'm a pro and my sims get rich in no time, even without cheats. Can you share mods or tricks that will make it harder to get rich?

Thanks in advance.

Maybe open a store ?
I've tried opening a few and no matter what I am always in the red.

Many of mine are poor.

Halved wages. https://modthesims.info/d/304457/mo...eplacement.html
Bigger Bills (I don't find I need this) http://cyjon.net/node/134
No 20 K handout on moving out http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/al/hacks/ (Some of my poorest sims leave home with less than $50.

Set down some rules. For example I play a lot with the hobby system and all of my families will at some point receive a genie lamp. Make yourself some rules for using it. Some of my families never use it, it sits on a shelf.

Play a shop and set rules for gaining money perks. For example only allow government buildings to have the high money perks. Own a dress shop or a cafe? I only allow such business to gain the very first money perk of $1000. After that they must pick the other perks.

Set down rules for other means of making cash. For example no random digging for treasure. I only allow sims whose hobby is science who rolled for archeology to dig. Or another rule i saw was the sim may dig once in a hole dug by a dog then be filled in.

Instead of focusing on getting to the top of a career, does your sim even want to? What are their wants? Maybe they never want to skill and will stay at level 3 on halved wages their entire life.

Try the two packs on NPC careers that start at only $50 a day or $250 per week. They gain $50 more each promotion, but again this is assuming they wish to skill. A sim only making $50 a day is never going to get rich unless perhaps they live down their parents basement and spend nothing.

Or perhaps if you have not modded out friend requirements for careers (I have) this could also check how far they advance. Again see what they want.

I also use motivation levels. I add together neatness and activity minus playfulness. This gives me a score at toddlerhood so I know if the sim is an overachiever an average cabbage or a low motivation/not the sharpest tool in the shed.
I set them with limited skills for each age range and only overachievers are set as smart and only they can skill and do whatever is needed to advance.
This means some will be low and may never gain many skills unless they roll wants to. They are far more likely to drop out of uni and take one of those npc careers. I did this to force myself to make sims more different. It's very easy to fall into the super sim way of playing with all of them skilling for careers and or getting top marks at uni which will equal wealth quickly, especially without mods to curb it. Even sims who did graduate with top marks from uni I make start at level 1. The game will start them off at level 8 which is ridiculous, so I use the simblender and set them back to level 1.

Make it far more difficult for sims to make money, but also allow a variety of ways to make money to get away from the career grind. For example I have Brandi Broke set as cuisine and I allow her to earn money from cooking contests. She has no guarantee of winning but she has 3 times now (this is $500 each time) -she does not have a job because she has never rolled a wish for one but she does roll wishes to win cooking contests.

This would be better in sims 2 general chat as no one mod will make your sims less rich, mods can help but its how you play.

You might want to check out the Increasing the Game Difficulty with Mods thread. There's a few more mods out there nowadays, but it's still a really good read and resource to use as a starting point for making a lot of different game aspects harder. Otherwise, Jo's post is a really good overview of how to approach the "my sims have too much money/earn money too easily" problem.

Mods that half wages and increase bills can be a good start to making things more challenging, but, imo, they're really a temporary fix. Especially if you are a player that loves to meet milestones (max skills, top careers, get tons of best friends, etc. etc.). Even with such mods, I found that, after a little bit of time, my sims still had tons of money and things overall were just way too easy. To truly get more challenging gameplay, I believe you have to change your playstyle. What that looks like will depend on you, how you want to play, and what things/cc you want to use. For me, this meant taking a more wants-based and motivation-based approach to simming. Yes, I do use mods to make things harder, but also, once I stopped following the same trajectories for all my sims, I found more challenging and varied gameplay. How does a social butterfly make money if they don't get a traditional Maxis job? How does a sim get a promotion if they never skill? What if only creatures get access to aspiration rewards? What if it cost money to go to uni and if every teen didn't skill excessively for scholarships? Those are just a few examples of how a gameplay approach can make for more challenging play.

I recommend reading threads on challenges, like the bacc (build a city challenge), as well as threads on how to set up integrated hoods and even medieval hoods. Threads that discuss setting up those playstyles often give insight on how to make gameplay more challenging through rules and sometimes give mod recommendations. I also recommend checking out rules on motivation. Here's some resources:
Eien_Herrison We Are All Dreamers - Redux: Motivation
Eien_Herrison Cresdale: Rules and Regulations
Sim Motivation
How Does Your Want-based Play Work?
Wants-based Play Question
Tips for STARTING a Self-Sustaining 'Hood?
Integrated Neighborhood Play Style
Careers and Businesses for Sims

And some resources for mods:
Simler90 actually has a ton of challenge-increasing mods right here on MTS, but also check out Pick'N'Mix mods, and Plumb Bob Keep. I weave a lot of Sun & Moon sets into my play, even in modern hoods. There are a few other mods at the Keep, like Laura's Water Required for Bathtubs/Showers and Sinks that I use in my challenge hood, too. So that's why I recommend checking out challenges and historical gameplay threads/resources--you never know how you can use a mod or object to fit your hood.

I have REDUCED JOB EARNINGS to redice paychecks
ADJUSTED BILLS is for resdential lots owned by the residents.
EXPENSIVE APARTMENTS is if you want apartments to be a luxury.
ADJUSTED DEPOSIT is a patch for the apthack to fix the apartment deposit issue in that hack.
REDUCED RENTS are used in my games to make apartment rental rates more realistic and more affordable for sims without much money.
ARARTMENT MEAL FIX is just a major patch to fix an apartment lot bug intirduced ny EA mistakenly in trying tofix another issue with the apartment firdges.
I did hack out the friends requirement for promotions and have the job stoppinator to stop some from getting to the top of their careers and
I've also found MOVING OUT FIXES which allows greater flexiblity in the funds they get on moving out though find own place.
FIXED JOB SEARCH gives all job options to all sims teen or older so they can all start with part time jobs if they're new or never worked before.
JOB UPGRADE lets a part time worker advance to full time though mine haveto be at the top of a partmtime job before advancing even though it's a soft requirement becuase the verion of that I installed is inrestircted.
PROMOTION AJUSTEMENTS lets you choose a few levels of adjustment to job promotions chances to redice them to varying levels.

All the mods and tricks you guys mentioned made the game not only difficult but also more realistic, and after 10 years, I started to have a different taste from Sims 2. Many thanks to all of you.