Impossible to make enough gold to upgrade anything.

[Bobo]

Join a house. Each event will get you ~100k+. Or make money doing trading etc.

no i'm not complaining, just wondering how people get those 100 mil loadouts, lol.

Just playing. Money will come, have patience.
Good advice from Kaasovic: try to participate in ragnarok runs, it pays a lot. The easiest way is to be on an active house.
And best advice from Looter: play for fun and don't worry about your gear. Whatever it is you can do your best with it and be satisfied. Also, from my experience, things are not half the fun when you already have this 100m gear.