Looking for good House Rule on Wealth

[phayman53]

I both like and dislike the way the wealth rules work in GURPS. I like that it is somewhat abstract and tries to model something more than just "how much stuff you start with". That said, it definitely runs into problems, especially when paired with the realistic supplements like Low-Tech and Loadouts: Low-Tech. Basically, it becomes impossible to purchase realistic amounts of armor and weaponry that ancient common citizens would have without them also having unreasonable amounts of wealth. This is especially bad when using the optional realism 80%/20% rule that limits how much you can spend on adventuring equipment if you have a settled lifestyle.

For instance, a Camillan Hastatus minimum armor required, according to Loadouts: Low-Tech, $1560 for the bronze helmet, scutum, caligae, and short sword (or $1200 if you went with a spear instead of a short sword). Now, even if you are allowed to use all of your wealth on gear, this is more than comfortable wealth at TL2 and the Hastatus is supposed to be Status-1 (which I think is historically incorrect for the Camillan period, I think status 0 is probably more appropriate because they had to own some land, but that is still only Average wealth by default). If you are going to implement the 80%/20% rule, to cover the $1560 (before any other gear) you would need 10.4x the basic starting wealth of TL2, so you would need to be Filthy Rich unless you had partial wealth levels. That seems a bit much for the least well equipped class, and this does not even include optional gear like pectorales and the one shin greave. The Camillan Principe is even worse.

I am not sure how to handle this in an elegant wealth rule system. Ideally I would like:

-to be able to separate the wealth you have to support your settled lifestyle (which needs to come with perks such as giving status at breakpoints, making Cost of Living less than living "on the road", etc.)
-a stat that indicates your default earning potential because of your resources (which the current Wealth advantage seems to have in mind)
-a separate stat that fairly prices starting equipment that one might have above and beyond normal
-Some way of appropriately handling itinerant heroes who don't have a home but may have armor, mounts, and even servants or squires of various costs.

Thoughts?