Disabling Seasions But Keeping its Stuff - Want to disable weather or make plants in season year-round? You can do so with my new Seasons Tuner Mod
Improving Sims 4: The past month, I've spent every day tinkering The Sims 4, making quality of life improvements, gameplay changes, and new difficulty settings for the game. If you'd like to learn more about my project, visit the post on Patreon where you can download it now.
Making Money typically involves mastering something, like the writing skill or painting. Pictured is the money vault from the Get Famous expansion, which lets you hoard money!
There are many powerful ways to make money in The Sims 4, though not all will make your Sim wealthy. With a game full of options, some players may feel overwhelmed with what direction to take. This guide is meant to give the player ideas to help them generate Simoleans to give their Sims a comfortable life. First, we'll look at the most profitable means of Self-Employment, then add on the other ways Simmers can make a little side money. Money cheats are included for those who want to skip skilling up.
Money Cheats
If you want to cheat for money, it's as simple as typing Control + Shift + C to open the command console, then typing in either motherlode (for $50k) or kaching (for $1k). Players who want millions of Simoleans can type money 2000000 (or any other amount - that gives 2 million) to automatically make the household's funds match the given value (this can actually lower money, too). If you'd like to move a new Sim family directly into a mansion, type freerealestate on to make all homes free.
Know the Importance of Ideal Moods
Whether chasing promotions in a Career or trying to create a master work with a Skill, being in the Ideal Mood will help your Sim do better work. Every Skill and Career has one, so learning how to get your Sim in the right mood is essential to having a high-earning Sim.
If you want your Sim to be rich without cheating, these are the methods that can best create wealth. At minimum, you'll want enough to sustain a Sim family and give them a decent life. Here is a list of the biggest money-making methods in the game. While I'm not really trying to rank them, those that make less are toward the bottom.
Open a Business
The Sims 4's Get to Work Expansion greatly expands on the means of making money in the game, because players can sell anything they can make in the game in their own shop through Open for Business Retail features. Click the link to learn more about opening your own shop and managing employees.
Careers
Getting a Job is an obvious choice. It's better when a Sim requires Skills that are also good at generating money, and gives them means of making even more. Take Painter for example - its pay is actually low, but they tend to earn more when at home and working their trade, because paintings can sell for thousands. They get better easels from the Career and can thus paint more Masterpieces. In our Careers Guide, you can see a table of the highest-earning Careers and compare the hours and days worked per week, along with tips on individual Career Tracks and how to get in the right mood.
Gardening
Gardening is one of the most involved Skills in the game, given the need to graft plants and maybe even enter a rocketship to complete your collection and make your dream garden. This is perhaps the biggest earner on the list, though you need to stay on top of it as plants can die. If your goal is only to make money, focus on produce that sells for more on an individual level. See the plant list in the linked gardning guide to get an idea. In general roses or pomegrantes are accessible and make more than apples and spinach.
Painting
Painting is great, in that you start generating lump sums of money as soon as you finish your first piece that is above-average in quality. What's really nice is that you can generate money on-demand, allowing you to buy your Sims all they need to live.
Writing
The Writing Skill gives players a way to make residual income. When writing a new book (which takes only 4 hours), your Sim will be able to publish it and earn money every day on their book. This can generate gobs of money over time, and you may even have so many books generating cash that it won't show the newer books in the notification window. One of the best ways of making money in The Sims 4.
Explore My Mods! Color Picker for Builders, Seasons Tuner, Dine Out Reloaded and a Gameplay Overhaul! Like other modders, I've been working to make The Sims 4 a better game. Check out my many mods here!
Active Careers
Players who own Get to Work are also able to pursue the Doctor, Scientist, and Detective Active Careers to earn money. These are more involved, as the more tasks you complete on a given workday, the more progress you earn toward your next promotion. They are all entertaining in their own ways, but Scientist has the most going for it.
Fishing
Like Painting, Fishing is a free form of making money on demand. Fishing will earn you gobs of cash once you're catching the big ones available at later skill levels. Be sure to sell your fish, because them being in your inventory raises a household's bills! It is not as reliable as necesary though, and you have to sell stacks of fish one at a time. This is why I've moved it down the list. In general a big problem is you need to head to fishing spots like the one that has treefish in Sylvan Glade, or else you will not make as much.
Programming
Programming provides steady money should you use your Sim's skills to occasionally hack, while making plugins and doing freelance work on the side. Overall it's not as good as others, but can provide plenty to live on.
Comedy
The Comedy Skill is not a huge money-maker, but it's certainly enough to sustain a Sim family. Players can perform comedy routines at parties and night clubs, but will earn best by purchasing a microphone for the park and entertaining large crowds. Learn more in the Comedy Skill Guide.
These means of making money are not as potent as those above, but may help a Sim have enough to live on or at least earn some side money. Still, you should do what you enjoy and pursue one of these if they suit your fancy. The Sims is all about directing and observing a life or living out a fantasy.
Musical Instruments
Guitar, Piano, and Violin are all means of making cash by earning tips and licensing songs (one at a time). Enough to live on, but not enough to become very wealthy. None of the instruments shine on their own, though you may make decent cash if your Sim becomes a master of all three and is able to license more than one at a time. Writing a song takes a very long time, and its payoff is fairly low, hence its low position on this list.
Video Gaming
Video Gamers can enter tournaments once every several hours and when their Skill is high, they'll win cash prizes. Although professional gamers in reality can be rich, Sims don't have that opportunity. Still, it's a stay-at-home way of making cash.
Collecting
Living off Collecting takes a bit of luck. You're digging rocks, catching insects if you own Outdoor Retreat, and perhaps trying to track down rare Elements. Many of the other Skills have associated Collections, but merely running about harvesting wild plants, getting MySims trophies, and generally living off what can be found falls under this category. Some finds will yield you nearly a thousand, but many others will underwhelm. Collecting is a way to make side money at the moment.
The Sims 4 Seasons expansion now has options! Want to disable weather or make plants in season year-round? You can do so with my new Seasons Tuner Mod
The past month, I've spent every day tinkering The Sims 4, making quality of life improvements, gameplay changes, and new difficulty settings for the game. If you'd like to learn more about my project, visit the post on Patreon where you can download it now.
Cottage Living Guide! Here is my guide to new features in the Sims 4 Cottage Living Expansion
You can also find handy Cottage Living Cheats
I have much more to come, since you can actually write a few guides about this pack!
Blender has been incredibly useful in video production, so I made my own Physics and Simulation Improvement Addon that lumps a ton of unique tools into one compact interface.
Snowy Escape Cheats
Lifestyles in Snowy Escape
Climb Mt. Komorebi
Sentiments in Snowy Escape
Rock Climbing
Skiing Skill
Snowboarding Skill
I've released a guide to Sentiments in The Sims 4 & Snowy Escape.
There is a new platform tool in The Sims 4. There's also a new Sentiments system, but it'll take some time to create a guide to that. Players can also use rental lots in any world now by changing lot types of builds in manage worlds.
I've created a massive List of The Best Mods in The Sims 4 that should be very helpful to new players and those who have not yet explored modding and how much it can do for your gameplay.
New - Secrets I have a new guide to secrets in the game. If you prefer, you can also watch a video about secrets in Sims 4.
Nifty Knitting is now available. Learn all about the stuff pack on my guide page here.
NEW - Nifty Knitting CheatsNew features in the Sims 4 June 2020
The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle Guide
Eco Footprint: How it Works
Neighborhood Action Plans
How to Cheat in Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle
Civil Designer Career
Insect Farms & Bio Fuel
Fabrication Skill in Eco Lifestyle
Juice Fizzing NEW
Traits and Aspirations in DLC
Gameplay Ideas for Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle
Updated
Trait Cheats Updated
Traits List Updated
Aspirations List Updated
Readers who use adblock or those who'd like to thank me for my efforts can now pledge $1/$5 monthly via Patreon. This helps a lot with server costs and provides some stability for my business.
This is inspired by a new series in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to the full playlist!
I now have a guide page to Tiny Living Stuff where you can learn about Murphy Beds, the new death, as well as the lot bonuses you'll receive if you manage to keep the size of your lot down with this new pack's Tiny Home Lot Type.
New I now have a guide to Making Super Sims in The Sims 4. Look for a text version within the next 72h. It won't have THAT much more info but it will help out as a checklist.
This was inspired by a series, "Let's Play a Super Sim" in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to each part for people who are interested. You can also see the Let's Play as a Playlist on Youtube.
The Sims 4 Discover University has been announced for November 15 for PC/Mac and December 17 for Xbox and Playstation 4 consoles. Click to learn more about the pack, see my summary of the livestream or read our FAQs below.
Other Guides to Discover University:
New Lot Traits: Study Spot and University Student Hang Out
New: Discover University FAQ: Gameplay Features
New Video The Sims 4 Discover University Gameplay Tips Video
More videos coming soon!
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Comments (50)
Once you pass the threshold of what it takes to pay your bills and buy food with the money you earn with the 5%, your sims are set forever.
Which is what usually happens seeing as how you your sims can all earn 5% of 50,000 for each one of them that has ever earned 200,000 in their lifetime.
If they haven't, you can buy them expensive inventory items such as guitars and have them sell them. Apparently it counts as money earned, despite the loss of overhead.
Even if you actually spend all your money or have bills that overtake the Shrewd Perk, as is the case for the Goth family when they start out (LOL right?) getting each Sim enough Violins to sell, or have them writing books works.
I had Mortimer writing best seller after best seller and pretty soon, the Shrewd interest rate perk overtook the Bills cost, especially once all four of the Goth family had by then reached both 200,000 earned and 50,000 cash reserves.
If you had just 10,000 in the bank, each sim makes 500 a week.
Frankly I think that the Shrewd Perk should be less money. Like 1% but with free bills :)
When you get to the maximum threshold of household money ($9,999,999) you are making $499,999 a week for each sim who has earned 200,000 on their own or by selling items you bought them in their inventory.
I hope Maxis changes it to 1% of the money you have, free bills and allows you to get like 20 digits of money :)
Tech Guru Career Guide Page
making painting costs a lot of money but if u spend 50$ on a painting and u finish
I had this idea...
One generation of sim creates a vast sum of wealth and then the following generation basically blows it all and the family becomes dead broke again.
Do you think it would be possible to do this without cheats?
I know... bit odd, but it seems fun.
I haven't tested it, but I've heard that using the money vault from Get Famous raises your bills, because the game treats it like the object's value is the cost of the vault plus the contents. Have a really expensive house (which raises your bills), all the services, get massages, eat the most expensive meals and drinks, have a business that is a money sink, throw lavish parties, always buy a round for everyone at the bar of the most expensive drink, don't make any money, redecorate often, go to expensive restaurants etc. You could always have someone take a chunk of the money with them when they move out - either running off with it or a "trust fund". It's a truism that it takes 3 generations to lose a fortune.