Well, according to this
Maintenance
There's a chance every minute for items you're wearing to break up resulting in them getting reduced stats until they are repaired. By default items will automatically be repaired when you have enough money. On average player can hold gear worth of roughly 50,000 and break even (Source: http://forum.c-rpg.net/index.php/topic,8400.0.html). This is a long term average though, and you should have a considerable reserve of money before trying to run around in gear of that price.
For weaponry wpf dictates the breaking chance while other items have a static chance which supposedly is somewhat higher for arrows and bolts. For melee weapons highest melee skill is chosen, so for example using a long spear with 1 polearm wpf while having 120 wpf in two handed uses the 120 wpf for breaking. For ranged this kind of mechanic isn't in effect, and bow breaking chance in determined by archery wpf etc.
You can have maximum upkeep of about 3500 without constantly losing gold. I guess you had just bad luck, and a few thousand gold can vanish quickly. I'd suggest you collect maybe 20-30k gold and then change to gear you wan to use, so you won't be in trouble with gold at the start.
Also this:
Tears of Destiny's General Guide For New Players (http://forum.c-rpg.net/index.php/topic,9245.0.html)
Section 3
You can either make money and wear low tier gear, or make a very small amount of money and wear top tier gear, or lose money and wear the most expensive stuff.
Note that WPF dictates how often repairs are made for your weapons.
Paul has previously stated that '... melee weapons are one category for the extra breakchance thingy. The highest melee skill is picked in the script when checking for breakage.' (http://forum.c-rpg.net/index.php/topic,14164.msg199810.html#msg199810)
1wpf is about 11% where as 140 is 2.5% so it does make a difference.
If you are trying to earn money for something, try and keep your gear at about 18K to 30K in total cost. I find that keeping my gear between 10K to 20K allows me to remain competitive yet make a lot of money.
With average luck, over the long run you should be able to sport 30K of gear and still made some money in the long run. Anything past 46K and you will take losses regularly.
A common trick is to wear good gear at high multipliers, and normal gear at the lower multipliers. Remember that every multiplier level is worth about 23K of gear that it can sustain on average.
Make sure to keep a small reserve of gold, my rule of thumb is 2-3 times the amount that your total gear costs. This will allow you to survive the bad days where your multiplier is stuck at one and your items keep breaking more frequently then they should (tilting for those savvy at poker). Saving up for this reserve while wearing terrible gear will be less of a hassle then struggling to make ends meet by playing a "live by paycheck to paycheck" lifestyle.
I think those are still quite relevant even if they have been written a few years ago.