The entire economic system in 5e is broken. I have spent a ton of time day dreaming about fixes. Wealth per level tables, magic item prices, and what not. The rough guidelines for magic item pricing as written make no sense. Three different Belts of Giant Strength all for the same price, for instance? I have been going back through the Magic Item Catalog and correcting some of these oddities. I have also been working to revise the cost of potions and scrolls downwards. I plan to key off the 3e price structure, perhaps divided by 4 or so. More on that later.
I have revised my working table for PC Wealth by Level (based on the DMG report of number of rolls on such and such chart for Hoard Treasures). The magic items are not converted into gold piece values in this table. The chart below shows what each character should have, on average, based on their level. Note that these magic items are the ones they found. They could, of course, use, sell, or trade these magic items and probably purchase others using their share of the coins, gems, and art.
I am dismayed when I consider low level characters purchasing mundane equipment. The prices for this stuff are unchanged from 3e, yet the the heroes only have about 1/5th the coins at low levels! The 75 gp price tag for a riding horse would take almost half of a 2nd level character's collected gold, gems, and art to buy. Similarly, the fighter type who wants to build toward non-magical plate armor will be waiting a long time: until 6th level (and then it will take 37% of their cash).
Comparing these items with the 3e equivalent (and the 3e PC Wealth by Level) table, we see a big difference. A 2nd level character in 3e can easily buy a horse (using just over 8% of their wealth), and a fighter type need only wait until between 2nd and 3rd level to splurge on the plate armor (spending every copper piece they have on it). At 4th level they'd be able to comfortably afford plate: only needing to spend 28% of their on hand cash.
If we consider a sale on mundane equipment and mark everything 80% off, we'd be in better shape. The riding horse, now at 15 gp, would be around the same percentage of a 2nd level character's wealth as in 3e. The plate armor, now at 300 gp, would be attainable by 3rd-4th level as well.
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