Making Money in 2020: 20 Days, 20 Ways

[Sruixan]

My biggest money maker was asking for loans which netted 140,500. Spent a lot of time on days with low earners making good friends and getting friend of the world aspiration so on loans day there were lots of donors. Found out I needn't have made so many friends as at that stage cheerful intro made them like my sim enough for both loans, so could have spent that time better.

This was my biggest moneymaker too (I just managed to surpass you there, netting §144,500!) and I had a very similar experience. I'd planned for Cheerful Intro + Incredibly Friendly + Pristine Reputation being able to make Good Friends just from introductions alone; once I started finding that the sims I was ringing up to come round were sleeping, I dragged Adam off to the bar in Strangerville because I knew doing so would make the game spawn in a whole bunch of brand-new sims for him to defraud, and once that started drying up we hit the Narwhal Arms and persuaded most of Windenburg's nightclubbing scene to fork over cash too. But yeah, a lot of time sunk into getting people to be friends in the first place was completely wasted - in one instance, Clara Bjergsen gave Adam a large loan despite them barely being acquaintances! My other problem was getting the marks to stop talking to each other - or, worse, snapping them out of standing/sitting still with vacant faces, waiting for their next animation to drop. I reckon I missed a fair bit of moolah from stuff like that...

I'm kicking myself for not thinking of selling party rewards - well, I did, but not knowing what all the rewards were I dismissed it as insufficiently lucrative. Compared to a lot of the other things I did, though, even selling the House Party stereos that sprang to mind would have served me better! Holiday gnomes were another thing I really should have thought of - the first time I tried flower arranging was before they fixed the bug where the gnomes would stay post-Harvestfest if you were away from the lot when it ended, and my sim in that instance made a small fortune from their constant offerings... guess I was too rushed to remember that! And blimey, I didn't know you could swipe things without being a kleptomaniac! When it became apparent that my ambrosia retail plan wasn't going to work (long story), I did wonder if I should maybe get Adam a retraiting potion with his excess aspiration points and try a spot of larceny - turns out I should have!

I'll post a more in-depth assessment of my strategy when I get the chance later, but in summary: Adam wasted too many days selling low-value collectibles in the vain hope of accumulating useful quantities of retail perks with which to make big money from paintings, flower arrangements and ambrosia. Paintings worked out fine (§122,388), I ran out of time to try flower arranging on the last day, and between my mistakes and a little bad luck the ambrosia had to be swapped out for baked alaska (§51,738). Ah well - let this and hearing other people's strategies be a learning experience, eh? Speaking of other folks, I'm curious whether anyone managed to find a wheeze that was more profitable than asking for loans...

[duskcheetah]

Swiping and selling 32000. In a previous thieving tournament challenge someone revealed that you don't need to be a klepto or have high mischief to steal if you make it a club activity so this was done on the first day adding Bella Goth to the club then robbing her violin, Vivian Lewis then stealing her computer, then  a Landgraab and stealing their computer. This also gave lots of time during the eight hour cool downs for skilling and befriending.

I saw your post in the thieving challenge and used pretty much the same strategy on my day one!

Second money maker was painting on digital pad (thanks Carl for releasing a guide as the challenge started) - 121353.

I only noticed Carl's video on the topic immediately after my challenge run finished and kicked myself. I wasted a whole day unlocking the better easel from the artist career + connections reward.

It's sounding like I had a lot of the elements of the higher earners (painting, loans, running a store, swiping objects), but not quite the same level of execution. Lots of lessons hopefully learned for future challenges!

[furbyqueen]

I did the James Turner trick by marking up violins (that I caught fishing) 300%, that got me a lot of money up front. Loans were another $$$$$. Stole a little, sold Sulani treasure. Was blessed enough to get some dragonfruits and evolved them up a lot before selling.

[Teresa]

I am just now watching the video about painting on the sketchpad.  Wow.

[ratchie]

My strategy for getting a very low score was to not bother preparing jumping in with both feet and winging it. Also downloading some new to me content without play testing any of it added an extra layer of confusion.  Will I learn by my mistakes and practice in future possibly not did I have fun doing it? Yes I did.

[Metropolis Man]

My strategy for getting a very low score was to not bother preparing jumping in with both feet and winging it. Also downloading some new to me content without play testing any of it added an extra layer of confusion.  Will I learn by my mistakes and practice in future possibly not did I have fun doing it? Yes I did.

Hard to believe you were gone for two full years, Rachel! (mid 2017-mid-2019). It's so great to see you back.

[Teresa]

My strategy for getting a very low score was to not bother preparing jumping in with both feet and winging it. Also downloading some new to me content without play testing any of it added an extra layer of confusion.  Will I learn by my mistakes and practice in future possibly not did I have fun doing it? Yes I did.

Sounds like we had the same strategy.

[Deklitch]

I lost money on a few days
- vampire research (was going after happiness points)
- playing the piano (paid bills that day)
- spearfishing (only speared guppies)
- baking cupcakes (discovered I couldn't sell them after I began)

My biggest day was day 1 - painting.
Searching the beach caves was more lucrative in practice runs than the live version
Casbah Gallery I discovered had easels, violins, pianos and guitars as well as a workbench, kitchen/dining and toilets. I camped out there for a few days for playing instruments and wood working. Found it too late for painting

ETA: @ratchie @Teresa I am far more skilled at those strategies than either of you

[Rainbow Dash]

Because about a third of my money making ideas involved collecting stuff in a number of different ways and selling it, I gave my Sim the Collector and Geek traits along with Loves The Outdoors. It seemed to pay off as I found a lot of Voodoo dolls and valuable items though activities such as digging, combing the beach for trash, excavating etc ... these were sold on a Vendor Table at a 300% mark up.

My best money makers were crafting Camping Mascots, netting me $159,708 as most of the ones my Sim made were worth about 4K each, Painting and like most people here I watched Carl's video and used the drawing tablet to earn $114,282, and Opening Chests in Selvadorada for around $73,374. Everything my Sim crafted was sold at a Vendor Table at the highest mark up, paintings were sold via that thing you can buy to sell paintings on that came with City Living. (I forget what it's called). Baking made a fair amount of money too,a round 70K, those activities were my best earners.

Buying a Holiday Decorations box and rummaging though it was surprisingly profitable, it's super quick and my Sim ended up with 285 items to sell for $53,280, I also made stealing a club activity and sold items my Sim swiped for over 30K. I came up with an idea that I'm rather proud of, the day after my Sim had made money through painting, I had her join the Freelancer career as a Freelance Artist, because she was already at level 10 painting (Thanks to reward and lot traits and club perks) she was able to take the best jobs right away, I got about 25K for that and about the same for combing the beach in Sulani. 

My Sim had the Marketable and Creative Visionary rewards so everything she found or crafted and then sold was worth more money, I bought her the Entrepreneurial reward and Networked club perk before joining that career so she went up a rank while doing it.

I thought I'd be clever and have my Sim live outside for the duration of the challenge to save money on building/buying a house, that was a great idea ... until she got abducted by aliens! Thankfully the Team let me buy a Satellite dish. I also got hit with a couple of freak thunderstorms and blizzards which surprised me as I played mostly in Summer, I didn't know that Mysterious Weather was a random Calendar thing that can occur.

I could have thought of a couple of better ideas I guess but I think most of my ideas were good.

[Vesper]

Holiday decorations box - why didn't I think of that? Brilliant.

Rainbow your strategies are always sound but you have playing skills as well to make them work which is what impresses me. You made three times what I did with the camping mascots, I knew they were profitable but couldn't carry that through to the playing.

I also did the freelance artist career but frustratingly it had mainly low level jobs available that day, don't know why. Made a lot more from it in the practice run.

The vendor table has been a real money maker for other people in various challenges but I've not had any luck with it. How do others make sure visitors buy stuff? What am I missing? My sim just has sad yard sales where she sells one item despite the sales patter.

[Rainbow Dash]

Posted by: Vesper« on: Today at 03:14:14 AM »Holiday decorations box - why didn't I think of that? Brilliant.

Rainbow your strategies are always sound but you have playing skills as well to make them work which is what impresses me. You made three times what I did with the camping mascots, I knew they were profitable but couldn't carry that through to the playing.

I also did the freelance artist career but frustratingly it had mainly low level jobs available that day, don't know why. Made a lot more from it in the practice run.

The vendor table has been a real money maker for other people in various challenges but I've not had any luck with it. How do others make sure visitors buy stuff? What am I missing? My sim just has sad yard sales where she sells one item despite the sales pattern.

Thank you, I try to pay attention to small details and pick up things, some of these strategies I've used in past Challenge attempts and found a way to improve them, something which I'm always aiming for. But others thought of things that I didn't such as selling rewards from parties, that didn't even cross my mind. I did the Holiday Gnomes too but didn't have as much luck with them as I did in my practice round. I thought about growing Money Trees and possibly Dragonfruit or Blackberries but when I realized I'd have to weed the plants every other day to keep them healthy I decided I couldn't be bothered with that.

As for the Vendor Table, my Sim would sell 3-4 items on a good day, even 5 on a really good one and at least a couple on a bad day. One thing I noticed, if customers arrived in large groups, they would often stand around and chat and not buy anything, when I saw that happening, I would simply close the yard sale early to make them all leave, then I would start another one to refresh the customers. I found that Sims were much more likely to buy items if on their own or in pairs ... most of the time anyway. I didn't always manage to sell everything on the table but most of the items I did.

[Isabelalabe]

Wow, everyone has such interesting strategies. Mine is close to Nikitachi's but instead of money trees, my sim just keep planting dragon fruits. The first 19 days she made about 400k only. The rest (more than a million) she got from selling Dragon Fruits.

Here is what I am not sure if I did right. I pick Fall season and set the length to 28 days. I studied the general rules and thought this was OK but still not sure since I didn't ask the team specifically. On day 1, she fish for a couple of dragon fruits and keep on planting. All produce before day 20 were used to plant or fertilize. On the last day, she got more than 400 dragon fruit tree with excellent to magnificent quality. She harvest once at 8 am and again around 6-7 am the next days. These two harvest yield more than a million. Note than my club members help taking care of the garden everyday. I am so glad I recently bought club and season content.

Please let me know if I am DNF too 

[Metropolis Man]

Wow, everyone has such interesting strategies. Mine is close to Nikitachi's but instead of money trees, my sim just keep planting dragon fruits. The first 19 days she made about 400k only. The rest (more than a million) she got from selling Dragon Fruits.

Here is what I am not sure if I did right. I pick Fall season and set the length to 28 days. I studied the general rules and thought this was OK but still not sure since I didn't ask the team specifically. On day 1, she fish for a couple of dragon fruits and keep on planting. All produce before day 20 were used to plant or fertilize. On the last day, she got more than 400 dragon fruit tree with excellent to magnificent quality. She harvest once at 8 am and again around 6-7 am the next days. These two harvest yield more than a million. Note than my club members help taking care of the garden everyday. I am so glad I recently bought club and season content.

Please let me know if I am DNF too 

So you actually planted dragon fruits on more than one day?

[Isabelalabe]

So you actually planted dragon fruits on more than one day?

Yes. I asked about that and was told that it is fine as long as I harvest and sell in the same day.

[Metropolis Man]

So you actually planted dragon fruits on more than one day?

Yes. I asked about that and was told that it is fine as long as I harvest and sell in the same day.

Gotcha. Thank you.