My region as of a few months ago. Right now, it's up well over 2 million, but I don't feel like grabbing a screenie of it at the moment.
Here's my quick guide to making money:
First city: build near the edge. Run roads to an adjacent city square. Build a water pump, oil plant. Run pipes and power lines to adjacent city. Save and exit to region.
Build in the adjacent city a small town with its own water and power and stuff. Don't worry if it's in the red. Save and exit to region.
Go back to your original city. Sell enough power and water so that your plant/pump is operating at 75% capacity at all times (as your city grows, you will be able to sell less and less to your neighbor.) This eliminates a major source of debt new players seem to acquire.
Now, you're gonna want to build a fire dept, but no police to start. Under 5K people, you shouldn't need it, but fire is MUST. Build a small clinic, set its funding level down to almost nothing (but leave the ambulance funding alone) Repeat for elementary school, and if you want, a library. Ignore garbage for the time being. Completely ignore water treatment, recycling facility, parks, etc. until you're running in the black for several years.
I build all high density, and it seems to work fairly well. There are some, however, who like to start with low density. Either way is fine. Initially, you want to set the residential and industrial fairly far apart. Don't worry about placing clinics amidst the industry or commerce; they stay with residential zones, as do schools and libraryies. Obviously, you want to have complete fire coverage, but don't overlap if you can help it. It doesn't help fires break out less.
Hopefully, your city grows. As your population moves in, you'll have to adjust the clinic, school, and library funding. School attendence comes and goes. If your population booms, then the school attendence will be high for a few years before dropping off and staying low for a while (assuming no new homes are added to the district).
I can usually get a city like this going for about 40K. It usually takes about 20K to get into the black budget wise. Raising the taxes to 8 or 8.5% across the board can help with the initial sting. Once you're making money, it's time to invest in your city with parks, police stations, and garbage. A 3x5 landfill should do the trick for a while.
SC4, more than any other SC game, is about slow expansion, You can't slap up 40K worth of residential zones initially and expect to make money hand over fist. The services are a bitch to contend with, but micromangement will win out.
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance--that principle is contempt prior to investigation." -Herbert Spencer
"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." - Schiller, Die Jungfrau von Orleans, III vi.
