I believe he doesn ' t include things as you suggest because it is already pretty easy to increase size of your colony . If you are too low the game literally gives you people that randomly join . You do know that once your size increases to above optimim your recruit chances reduce significantly right ? He doesn ' t want you to have 50 colonists . He is shooting for 1015 ish . PS Randy has a higher population limit . Playing Randy is easier to get a horde of colonists . <| sep |> Save 20 % of your earnings is a good general guideline . As others have said more information from you will help . Build a 6 month emergency fund , pay off any debt , pay into your 401 k if applicable or something else and pay into your savings . Never touch your savings unless it ' s an emergency .