I know Speech has been slandered as a useless tree. I've started a low level mage character and it seems I spend a ton more money with this class than any other (spell books, good weapons to level up a particular enchanting spell, etc) that I don't typically have to spend on my stealthy characters.

I'm wondering if the Speech tree might be useful for this magic class to lower prices on bought items and also higher prices on sold items (to help recoup some of the money spent on books, etc).

Also, a secondary question in the tree; when you invest in a store...do you get profit sharing from them? Or does this just increase the money they have available to buy stuff from you (this would be worthless if just the latter due to a mod I got).

I like to put 3 points into speech, just to allow the sell anything to anyone perk, for convenience.

The tree is pretty much worthless otherwise, money really is never going to be an issue after you get enchanting/alchemy up or get to 30+, but I guess the extra 1000 gold could also be a nice convenience option.