The Sims 4: Making Money

Tips for Getting Rich, Money Cheats & Self-Employment Methods

How to Make Money in The Sims 4
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.

Big Earners

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.

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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.

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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.

Enough to Live On

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.

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Comments (50)

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MizMerrillsays...
rosebud also works for $1k. Kaching!
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Wizzsays...
In programming you can create mobile apps or games that generate around 2400 and 100 a day but it might only be if you are in computer career
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Peabody and Shermansays...
I find that the writing career is the best, especially if you write books (with high enough writing skill as they then come out better) because you tend to make $3k a day if you write about 10 books
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Colesays...
Yea go watch aviatorgamez, his wife in the game, Dina. Makes about 6,000 bucks a day. Its insane. Also if you are in the eSports Gamer career you can live stream and make 1,000 bucks a second if you have over 1.000.000 fans. Its honestly crazy.
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alejandrishasays...
If you max gaming and are in esports branch of tech guru, you can make ~80 every 2 seconds (no, that is not a typo) livestreaming. It started happening for me around ~1,000,000 fans but that might just be a coincidence, or it might have messed up the calculations that generate the timing and amount for tips check for yourself and confirms here. it is kind of imbalanced.. at level 8 of the career I was getting 4500 per hour.

Also, if you buy the most expensive trash can and manually dispose of garbage with the hand tool, you get $50 a pop so the trash can pays for itself in 24 uses.
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Playalotsays...
The nano-trash can give you back $10 for every sim you have in your household. It certainly can make you some extra cash.
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Tom Goodgersays...
You can make tens of thousands of dollars a day once you start live streaming with 1,000,000 fans in the tech guru career. It sounds like a of work to get 1 mil but its actually not.
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Tarelle Sinclairsays...
I am extremely fascinated in becoming apart of the of the Carls Sims 4 community.
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Playalotsays...
Everyone is welcome! Follow the forum button and hit register. Smile
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Suzy B.says...
A small money extension to the family that is, if you have teens, can get a job. My family is very short on money. Mom has the creative trait, and works as a nurse (Get to work). My twins both work at a retail store, and they both are instrumental; the family also owns a retail store (In the making).
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Nadim.Rsays...
You could also put sims.modify_funds +(amount)!!
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Johnsays...
You forgot to mention for the video gaming, if you join tech guru and then switch to esport gamer as you progress through the career, you can livestream at home on the computer, first win tournaments then live stream after, within about 2 sim weeks of this process doing it everyday you can make about 50k a day with 1 million fans on your livestream, the most i made in one livestream session is about 100k using never weary etc, i tested it and my sim made about 4-6k an hour it never a accurate amount becuse it pays you random amounts but pays quite often a hour
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Playalotsays...
Great tip, thank you.
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Leesays...
The best way is when you pass that milestone of money earned. The Shrewd trait of getting 5% of the money you currently have each week.
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 :)
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Lee Georgesonsays...
Case in point, say you have a new sim join your household and they are old enough for the Shrewd perk.

Buy them 17 Violins (cost 15 grand each) and they will sell instantly for 12 grand each, this is the bare minimum number for that sim to be considered having earned 200,000 in their life time.

Once the House Coffers are at 50,000 then that Sim ALSO starts piling money.

You can even try to make it so that each Sim achieves said perk at a different day.
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Lee Georgesonsays...
It total this will cost 255,000 so your other sims who already gained the perk will need to have earned that much in their coffers but it adds up quickly.

Its also kind of fun to buy a whole bunch of violins but have 8 sims all with the perk if you get tired of having multi-millions...
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holydaysays...
I made more than 2 millions by gardening within about 30 in-game days. The value of dragon fruit can reach up to about 4,000 simoleons apiece! And I take them by hundreds in one harvest. I've noticed that harvestables of max quality increase their value each time I load the lot or when I drag them into sim's inventory from the storage chest. Also I used fungal infusion fertilizer to get the perfect quility plant faster and grafted needed plants to herbs such as elderberry as it grows faster than others.
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Mac Jonessays...
Thanks for nice idea!
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idksays...
Hey can anyone tell me more about the live streamining thing? like can you quite your career as an e sports gamer and still have the option to live stream?
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Playalotsays...
Live Streaming is only available when your sim is in the eSports Gamer career. If they quit then they can not live stream anymore. Smile


Tech Guru Career Guide Page
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brookesays...
Unsure Its not working for me :/ pls help what am i doing wrong? im typing in money 2000000. do i do /money 2000000? pls tell me what to do
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Admin
Playalotsays...
The cheat 'testingcheats on' needs to be typed first. Then type 'money 200000' and see if a lesser amount works. Smile
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Nancy Jonessays...
Information is very useful I think it suits me also. thank you..
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AnEvilAliensays...
The best way to get rich without cheating is to date a rich girl, and ask her whether you could move in, after that, you can just delete the other sims in the household and your GF too if you want to, and then the money and the home is yours baby!!
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HeyBabeMyNameIsBxtchsays...
Isn't that technically cheating though? Grin TongueLaughSmileWinkCoolGrinGrinLaughLaugh
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moneysays...
i found that having the painting skill is allot more fun silly and u make money.
making painting costs a lot of money but if u spend 50$ on a painting and u finishGrin it u set about 100$ depends how good the painting is and if u make 5 paintings a day each day u get 300$ dollars if u spend 50 dollars on eachWinkWink
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Regular
Ambersays...
OMG thanks this saved me! I made a house and may put it on the gallery in a few months coz I need some cc in dis house! I'm gonna make a retail store
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Noxyoursoxsays...
One of my households survived on carpentry alone. Not an easy way to get by, but doable!
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krispeirissays...
I recently started playing sims4.maxed out gardning. Value of my harvest has gone insanly high.i dont know how. 300 $ cowbery has gone up to 14k in a week. I got dragon fruits worth 3 k a piece. Got 1m just from selling crops.
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Regular
Katiesays...
Hi! I've just started out and I actually find that the programming skill gets quite a lot of money! My sim, Rosie, has mastered the skill, and has made 1 app and 2 video game so far. This gets me 300$ each day, and she's going to make lots more! Also, hacking gets around 200$ a day, so if your just starting out and need some quick cash, I suggest this as a simple way to do so! Also, does anyone know if/when you stop getting paid for apps/video games? SmileGrin
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Admin
Playalotsays...
Royalties generally seem to last about 2 sim weeks.
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Olivia Ritchottesays...
Painting is to the Sims what Sorcery, Pyromancy and Miracles are to Dark Souls - no matter how hard you nerf it, it's still easy mode. Tongue Not that I'm complaining, it's just amusing to me.
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Annabelsays...
So, I know this is going to sound weird, but what do you think would be the best way to spend vast sums of money (so that it can't remain in your lot funds, as objects will) in sims?
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.
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Hisays...

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.

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Regular
Elizabethsays...
I like having that bin that gives you money and cooking, you get food and lots of money this way.
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New
Bokisays...
Well,i love The Sims,and i love to cheat.Thank you for the cheats,i use them every time.


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