- Befriend NPCs. As long as they aren't in your household, they never die. In my first ever dynasty, my founder had an encounter with a bunch of NPCs, and then a day or so after generation six was born I took a look at her relationships panel, and guess what? All the NPCs from when she was a young adult were still alive. I've also noticed this going on in my current dynasty when Elisabeth was trying to invite a bunch of NPCs over, all of the NPCs from when you first load Riverview were all elderly, but still kicking.
- Befriend professors at University. They don't die either, Tatiana has been friends with her professor since she was an adult, and the professor is still an adult while Tatiana has been immortal for a while.
- Go easy on recoloring outfits. It sucks up a lot of memory and was the downfall of my first dynasty attempt (the file can only last for about fifteen minutes before it crashes, even in windowed mode). Try not to have more than one of each catagory, as well. I'm at the same point in my current dynasty as I was when my first crashed and burned, and so far my current dynasty is running as well as it was when I first started
- Don't be afraid to splurge if you have a lot of funds you don't know what to do with. Make everything in the house top-quality, buy everyone a second sports car, buy multiple vacation houses, get lots of heart-shaped gem cuts to display, eat out for every meal...your Sims are filthy rich, enjoy it to the biggest extent
- Monitor the elders as they watch TV. If they don't have any skill points in, say, cooking, and they watch Cookin' Cable, nothing will happen, but if they accidentally get a point they'll start learning from the TV. Have everyone watch the shopping channel or get a low-quality TV.