The value of money

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I wonder how important money is in your game and what "value" it has. Is it a second XP bar and the players are expected to spend it on equipment to keep up? Or do they swim in cash with nothing much to do with it? Maybe you ignore it as much as you can and use wealth levels instead?

The system you use mostly defines how important money is and what it can/should be used on, but the DM and the players do have some free room to decide what to do with it.
So, what can you do with money in your game? And what do the players use it for? How much do they spend on "frivolous" things instead on equipment. Are there regular costs the players have to pay or is all money they find free to spend?

My current game is a 4e inherent bonus game, so money has little meaning. In the last campaign I ran, also 4e inherent, the PCs literally acquired more valuable material (iron -- this was Dark Sun) then they could hope to spend and after being nearly robbed repeatedly invested it with dwarves. The players joked that having that much money was more of a bad thing than a good thing.

In my current game money is a little more valuable, as I'm trying to encourage the use of rituals.

PCs simply won't spend money on frivolous things. Unlike the real world, we don't really know what we could waste money on. The PCs will certainly not waste money on status symbols unless they need to for a scheme. (It's Way of the Wicked, so there will be quite a few evil schemes.) They won't waste money on liquor (only "small beer"); I've literally never seen a hard-drinking PC since 3rd Edition, with the exception of a campaign where we had a magic item that made endless amounts of beer.

Given the amount of money D&D PCs make (3e and onward, that is) there's no point of keeping track of "maintenance costs". More modern and sci-fi setting games tend to do this. (D20 Modern notoriously failed to do this. Alternity and Shadowrun, by contrast, had some good and reasonable maintenance costs. SR at least made money a measure of power, and so playing a lion shaman, who must be status-obsessed, required playing an actual weakness.)

One question on that, do your players purse side activities not related to their combat powers and how are the finances involved handled (everything from spending bit on/for a party to buying a house and stuff like that)?

To the first, no. My group is terrible at player-driven campaigning and need a common goal, which is stated when I'm proposing a campaign. If a PC wants to start a business for themselves, I take the player aside and ask if they're actually interested in the game. If yes, skip the non-game stuff, have bad guys burn the place down, and ... hook.

To the second, if the group is willing to buy a house, they might do a quick adventure or two to collect money to build it, that's fine. (I don't use XP anymore, so XP/money rate is no object.) If just one PC wanted to do that, see first point, re discussion and arson. A PC wanting to live in comfort is saying they want to retire.