Unless you go VIP for a month, or spend the 395LP to unlock your characters wallet, you can only have 2 Gold in cash; any amount you earn above this goes into a kind of escrow account, you can see it, but you cannot spend it until you remove the Gold Cap. This means the most you can ever spend is 2G, and then your wallet will be empty.
What veteran players suggest is, you try out a couple of characters to around L20, then go VIP for one month. This unlocks the wallet and various other skills that can also be unlocked for gold or real money, but the VIP unlock is cheaper; once unlocked by a VIP subscription, most of the items stay unlocked after you revert back to Premium player status.
Every character you create on your account during the VIP period will get the same wallet and skills unlock; it will also allow you to sell items at the Auction House (F2P cannot sell without spending LP to by 5 sellers slots).
VIP also gives you access to all the quests in the areas surrounding Breeland that are usually locked until you buy the relevant quest pack. With one or two characters, and a one month VIP subscription, you could quite easily get those two characters up to L50, or 3-4 characters up to L35.
Yarbro,
Thank you very much for the information. I will have to give that a try. I am really enjoying the game and thus far, aside from this little glitch, the only thing that bothers me is the nickel and dime stuff (but I understand they have to make money so it's not THAT bad). I think I will be delving more onto the game. I really appreciate all your help and info. Happy New Year!