Right now my upkeep is 4mil.

With the upgrades I plan for the near future my upkeep will hit 14.7m. (Probably before I hit rank 60). All I can say is that I'm going to need as much help I can get from friends and legion mates if I complete this. From these upgrades I will get

140(.4) attack
54 defense
28 energy.

So my ultimate question: Is it worth it?

I could easily cope with both of our upkeeps put together. I'll help you out if you need it.

My upkeep is 80m and yes, it is worth it.

My upkeep is 9.6M at rank 100 - I run 2 guns and I'm missioning right now.
Get a couple of mining planets and you'll be fine (two hour's mining at most pays my upkeep and repairs for the day)

Well Im at Rank 98 I have 1.2m a day in upkeep and I make that easily just from what I get in Minerals, heck more than once I have donated over 1 billion dollars to my legion "bank"

Yar, but I'm going to have 12x your upkeep at half of your rank.

my upkeep is 258 mill every 24 hours and that is nothing compaired to the
ranks that are way higher then me.
every planet you take in up's your storage by 500, artifacts is higher, research
cap is based on rank.
go for large and above size planets with better then average resources.
you should have no problem being able to afford a better equiped ship.

To get an idea of how blown out of proportion 15m upkeep is at rank 60, take a look at the upkeep thread.

ua 14.7 mil upkeep is nothing, unless you only have like 4 mining planets, if you're struggling to pay 14.7mil or it's eating up you income, get another mining planet.

Lol.. is it worth it to grow.. and use your research... SURE.

My upkeep is now 3.2 billion.. as a builder.. with much more to buy.

At 80 or so (before the huge jump) I was getting 30m a day, that increased to 100m a day after the huge jump. (For those who don't know, the income seems to change at set points rather than every rank. 85 is a huge one, along with 160).

If we had an idea of how much you produce Strm?

Generally around 3.5m.

go research planet structures: they have no upkeep, and they'll up ur resource amount, which in combination w/ ur better minerals from leveling, should bring you up to par

Go forwards, buy more expensive stuff and learn right now how valuable income is to cover the costs, as rank 230+ my income is over 563m (thats at half price as a builder) with much more to go, if i am careful about securing mining planets, i can cover this comfortably with the ability to add many more great add ons

Eep! Reading your responses is giving me a glimpse of things to come! I'm still a low-level player rattling around in a tin can with a mere 17.7K upkeep.

But, based on what others have said here and elsewhere when I've inquired about build strategies, it sounds like it's worth it... but as I've been told, definitely have ample mining planets!

I'm level 564, my upkeep is 2.3 billion as a builder (half cost). I don't have many of the very top items yet either. Things get pricy as you go up.

It is always worth going up if you can handle the upkeep though.