More starting money without cheating...if you have WA.

[jestina]

I think I've seen it hinted but not sure if it's been mentioned yet.

With WA I don't build anything on my lot starting out. I might take classes if my Sim needs to, might want to get gardening and cooking class so you can watch the channels and learn. Anyways, I'll get my sim a bed to take a nap and then after taking care of whatever business has to be done, take a trip to China.

Upon immediate arrival in China, open the two book cases at base camp and dump them all in your sims inventory. You can take the portable radio too. After that you might want to do an adventure or two and then spend the rest of the time on martial arts learning. I like to do the reconstructing the first emperor mini adventure, but the latest patch broke insect spawning. After that I'll buy the really good tent, and everything else I want from the market (that's why you don't blow money building) and then set up camp at the martial arts school. Between resting from bouts with the board breaking, I'll watch cooking or gardening on tv. There's a chess table and telescope so you can learn logic if you need that skill for a career. Anyways, once getting back home you can sell all those books, and usually have around 28-34,000 simleons to start the game with.

Oh, if you have klepto you can just steal a training dummy and board breaker from the scholars garden, if you want to save a little bit of money.

[Metropolis Man]

Nice tip, Jestina. Yeah, when I was playing through my Bruce and Linda Lee characters for the Martial Arts Master walkthrough, I noted in the article that Linda returned to Sunset Valley with tons of books that she had obviously been reading at the base camp to keep herself amused while Bruce was off sparring. They are indeed worth a lot of money.

[jestina]

I was also thinking that getting max visa in one location and setting up a home would be a great idea for a writer since time stands still on vacation. I haven't tried it yet though.

I wish there were libraries as well. 

The emperor mini quest can net you around 9,000...so I hope EA fix's insect spawning soon because I usually do that one first. My sim comes home from China with alot of starting money.

It's always nice to start out with a full kitchen set and the big tv(for fast fun increase). I think the smaller tv with a game set will give about the same increase in fun as the huge tv though.

[Pam]

Oh, if you have klepto you can just steal a training dummy and board breaker from the scholars garden, if you want to save a little bit of money.

Are you positive about this one?  Because the klepto opportunities have been recently changed.  In Sunset Valley, you can no longer steal from the inside of public lots (like the gym).  You can still steal from the park, though, so maybe it's more like that at the scholar's garden.

[jestina]

Yes i'm positive. You can't steal on the actual ground but you can still things that are off the ground, like the rock on the bridge in the scholars garden. I've taken the training dummy and board breaker several times.