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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New
waterfallcashsays...
the best way to earn is gardening guys just go find a blueberry in the start of the game and plant them, then grow them to more higher quality , harvest them then plant more then again and again soon my friends u guys will be earning about 40k per harvest
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Admin
Playalotsays...
I think you mean blackberry. Smile if you graft blackberry onto potato plants they become harvestable quicker and so you can make more in a shorter time too.
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New
LadyGrimsays...
Okay, here's my strategy.
1. Max Handiness
2. Buy Woodcutting table
3. Make bathtubs until you run out of money
4. Sell all your wooden bathtubs
5. Profit
Each tub cost $377 to make. If the quality is Normal, it will sell for $755. If the quality is Excellent! (and at lvl 10 it almost always will be), then it sells for $1.5K. If you have enough aspirations point to get Marketable, get it. The values I've seen with that trait ranged from $1.8K-4K. Be warned though, that each tub adds to the value of your lot, so if you don't time it properly, your next bill will take a nice chunk out of your earnings.
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Senior
Playalotsays...
If you have Outdoor retreat your sim can learn the woodworking schematic for the large statue once at Level 7. That combined with the Marketable Trait will get your sim even more simoleons per each statue. Either way woodworking/handiness and painting and writing are my fav ways of making money for sure!
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New
Kawiipoptart999says...
:( i have a vampire sim and all her content was removed now she walks around in pink bra and pants :D please help She is Also Bald and a Grandmaster Vampire she is also Pregnant.
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Senior
Playalotsays...
Sounds like you removed some of the cc clothing she was wearing. Take her back into CAS and dress her up.
Guide to CC and Mods
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New
Davesays...
Opening a retail store deserves the number one spot on top of the list; it is by far the most efficient way to gain a lot of money quickly, although it requires a bit of an initial investment. Selling mostly high-quality paintings and the most expensive violin, I have been able to generate a profit of about 150,000 simoleons for every time I restock the inventory while selling at a 50% mark-up for easier sales. With a couple of the retail perk items, which grant a boost to Confident emotions, it's also possible to use the "Close the Deal" interaction on customers, which fills about 25% of the blue interest bar in one interaction. The key is to buy or produce items that are as expensive as humanly possible, sell them all (so that customers don't stick to buying lower-value items) and then close the store and restock, using the cheaper restocking perk when possible. Anything else, including several painter sims or writer sims, makes peanuts and chump change compared to this method.
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Senior
Playalotsays...
True re: retail but selling just the one type of high cost item and then using restock instead of making your sim recreate the said item always feels like an exploit really and not part of normal game play. But like you say, this method will make a lot of simoleons very quickly.
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New
Naw tiesays...
My friend told me motherlode and I didn't know the rest; very helpful LaughBlushSmile
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New
JerryFsays...
With the "Clubs" expansion, when starting a new game you can create a club that meets at your home to paint. Set down 20 easls around a stereo to take care of their "Fun" needs while they paint. You can boost their output by buying club perks like the Painting Skill boost, Inspired Vibe, and use the Rally The Troops perk to keep them painting through out the night by instantly refil their Hunger and Energy needs. The payout on the first few days will be low, but with the Club Perk boosting painting skill gains, the club will be churning out masterpieces by the dozens after a couple of days, netting about 30k a day. Best to have unemployed sims in this club as they won't have to leave the club meeting to go to work. The club's encouraged activities should be Painting, Listening to Music, and Socialize with other club members. Make sure that the stereo at the center of the painting area is the only stereo on the lot, or sims will go dance away from the painting area and not be painting.
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New
Alex D.says...
You have applied the principles of Marxism to painting Sims... and calling it a "Club". Very clever, you Capitalist swine! Tongue
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New
blakemwsays...
One fun way to make a bit of chump change is to have the Kleptomaniac trait, you can steal stuff when visiting other places, or sometimes the sim will steal stuff from work. Some pieces of art will sell for several thousand. Actually this might be even more useful for stealing things that would take a long time to earn (i.e. high end career rewards). Obviously you'll never get stinking rich this way but it's good fun.
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New
ibrownsays...
cool site ! loving it ! and sims 4 rules !!!!
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New
Ghostsays...
Get a sim to level 10 guitar and 10 handiness. Have them make guitars for an 8 hour shift and you'll have between 30-50k
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New
Ghostsays...
Whoops, with marketable as a trait*
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New
Davesays...
I feel like this guide is seriously lacking by not even mentioning mixology as a skill to make money. While Focused, your sims have access to Amygdelight from level 1, which is among the highest-profit drinks at §100 investment to §489 profit at the highest level. The drinks you get access to with the Astronaut carreer level 8 are better, but require a significant investment of time as you need to reach level 8 of any branch. Otherwise, there's the Draught of Reconfiguration from Vampire Lore, which can net you a §5000 profit in less than an in-game hour, although you need special ingredients and level 14 Vampire Lore skill. I did have a sim making these drinks after about two days of research into Vampire Lore, and as you can order the ingredients from a planter or computer, it's a reliable and fast way to make insane amounts of money, provided you have some capital to invest into ingredients and skill books.
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Senior
Carlsays...
You're not wrong. I'll take a stab at updating it tomorrow night. This guide came really early in development and If I remember correctly, mixology was AWFUL at launch, but they patched it some time later and made it worth much more so that bartenders aren't completely broke. It was this way for some time, but you could sell the drinks with the nano trash can as well. Actually a lot of EP content needs to go on this page as well. Thanks for the honesty.

This is however one of the best reasons to have a comment system here.. if I can't or fail to update a page, someone is usually nice enough to mention things I didn't think of.
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New
Alycesays...
If you max the Vampire Lore Skill, which doesn't take very long, and you can sell the books once you're finished to get some of the money back, then you can make the Ultimate Vampire Cure, which at level 10 mixology sells for $13,500. If you're buying the ingredients via a planter, they cost $3,250, and it costs $2,500 to make the drink, leaving you with a profit of $7,750 each time. Make those while doing the Fab Wealthy aspiration, and you're set.
Also, with the Floral arranging skill, making the Pink Orchids arrangement sells for anywhere up to $6,500.
Another way is to do the Curator aspiration, then a really easy collection to complete now with Seasons is the eggs-make your own holiday or edit one to include an egg hunt, go to the park or your own home if you have lots of places to search, once you've completed that, collectables sell for alot more than they normally do. Especially good if you have the rocketship upgraded with the wormhole generator, go to Sixam, collect all the stuff, and sell it.
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Ottersays...
The very first time my sims played the lottery in Seasons, one of them won a million §. Basically set for life now; it almost feels like cheating.
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Admin
Playlotsays...
Probably took away your motivation for playing that save now too! I dislike having my sims get rich too quickly as it leaves me with nothing to strive for.
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New
MRizqonTsays...
Btw, if you watch The Sims Supply he break the 1 million mark in just 3 episode with 22 minutes each(average).But how? He used a retail store(his house in the retail store to) and selling violins with 100% price mark, which can make 45k to 100k(or more) in just one day, that INSANE for an early game money maker
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Zippy Blackrainsays...
a "cheat" I use is to get the money tree and have gardening skill to 5. take a cutting of the money tree and splice it to a sage. that makes the money fruit havestable and you can plant and have unlimited money trees.
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New
Mommacita57says...
Has anybody ever tried being a landlady to make money? Owning a big house and renting out rooms? How could you make the money work so that the renters just paid rent and not their entire paycheck as in a regular household? So that renters could move out and new ones could move in? Any ideas?
I'm a complete newbie at this, so dumb your advice down and do tell me if this is completely unrealistic. Oh, and it's a renter with pets since I want the house in B Bay. I'm a cat lover. Trish is the human for Miss Eloise DeCatur.
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New
Donnasays...
Best way to make money is to buy a craft table make out handy skills craft bath tub for $377 you make $1,500 for every tub you make and if you unlock marketable at the reward store you can make up to $4,000 a bath tub
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Jeansays...
date a lottery winner, instant millionaire
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Regular
Samanthasays...
I love this
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Regular
Samanthasays...
I love the Sims mobile
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LizardPope1101says...
Starting with a cheap starter house and 5000 simoleons with the fabulously wealthy aspiration, buy the come and get it table from city living, stock it with slablets via buy mode, set price markup to 300% and hold a yard sale. Rinse and repeat until you complete the aspiration or until you get tired of it.
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New
Simalareenossays...
There’s another way to earn money that I found out the other day, it’s quite a slow way and doesn’t earn much but once you get to around level 4-6 of the mixology skill you can make sea of fires whicb can sell from around 160 - 280 simoleons. Make about 10 of them and you’ve already made 1,300 simoleons! :D
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New
Anitajesse153says...
I seemed to have picked some dragonfruit at the love festival and didn't realise it. Found them a few days later and planted them cause i needed a new hobby. They take a few days to grow, but have 10 fruits per tree and they sell at normal quality for 250 a piece. Which means 1 planter with 4 plants gives you 10.000 simolians per day!
7 planters full with nice quality makes 100k per day! Scared
Easiest money my sims ever made! All of my sims will grow them from now on.
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New
Dramallamatimesays...

This career was added after this guide was made, but I reached $800,000 by the time my lawyer was an adult. She had a distinguished degree in language and literature from the University of Britechester. I'm not sure if this is related or not, but she also receives weekly returns on "investments" that total around $40,000 each time. Does anyone know where these investments come from?

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Admin
Playalotsays...

Probably from completing the Fabulously Wealthy Aspiration

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New
KarnaLousays...

Actually, video gaming can be quite lucrative. Get to level 10, then do the Hillock 2 pro tournament. 3rd place nets 3,330 simoleons, 2nd place 6,660, and 1st place 9,990. You can play the game 2-3 times a day (there is a cool-down period). This does not require joining any careers.

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New
Bernardosays...

you could also earn money quickly by swiping, simply make your sim a kleptomaniac and look for lamps and select swipe surely it starts of really cheap but at LVL. 5 of mischief you can swipe from museums and make thousands, later on you can also get a higher level mischief and hack bank accounts or steal credit cards from other sims.

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New
Elemenasays...

If you have Realm of Magic, you can have your spellcaster learn "Copypasto", which is a practical spell. It (predictably) duplicates small items. Combine this with a skill like painting, flower arranging, handiness, etc., a retail store or Plopsy from Nifty Knitting, and you have an incredible money-making scheme. My Marketable spellcaster learned the flower arranging skill and her flower arrangements sold for 15-20k a pop. She can make hundreds a day. Mwahaha.



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