Money Ideas Other Than Jobs?

Stealing is honestly one of my favorite methods of getting money when starting from nothing. Add that Kleptomaniac trait and hit up the richest Sims and museums. Level up Mischief to steal more expensive items!

This goes along with gardening, but you can grow a money tree. From what I understand, it grows in all seasons. You buy the seed from the rewards store, but it's pretty pricey.

Also, along the lines of collecting, you can get some pretty valuable items from exploring space. I know rockets are expensive, but you could download a science center from the gallery that your Sim can travel to or use the one at the GeekCon when it's in town.

Also with gardening, you can take microscope samples from plants. If you buy a microscope, you can use the sample to make a print (which comes out like a large painting), which can be sold. Again, maybe it would be more efficient to download a science center that already has a microscope?

There's also fishing, which I find less efficient than most other options. Unless, of course, your Sim has high level skill and fishes in a rare fishing spot like the Sylvan Glade. Granite Falls also has some pretty valuable plants and fish you can harvest.

Don't forget to invest in that money-making trash can, too! When I do the legacy challenge, that's always one of the first things I buy. Don't let your Sims wash their dishes! Always throw them out and get $10 each! If you make a group meal for $12, then throw away 4 dishes for $40, you'll actually be making money to eat!!!

Repair any objects that break. You can scavenge for parts, and sell the parts for some good money. If you don't have the aforementioned trash can, you can tell your sim to take out the trash. BEFORE they get to the outside can, cancel the interaction so they lay the garbage down on the ground. Sometimes it will let you scavenge for parts in the garbage, too, and you can sell them.

Archaeology is extremely lucrative. Only issue is your Sim needs to be pretty high in a lot of skills to stay "safe" and work productively in the Jungle. The artifacts go for several hundred each, and the temple treasures are usually worth about $10,000. Takes a few days to get to the temple, usually.

If your sim has high enough Vampire lore skill, they can buy and grow garlic seeds. They can make a few decorations with garlic like necklaces and wreaths that you can sell.

If you have Get to Work, you can put your sim in the scientist career until they get the SimRay as a career reward. I think they get it at career level 3. They can transform cheap items, and sometimes they will get a bigger, more expensive item. Then sell the item. Of course, that means they need to be a scientist for a while first, though.

If you want to keep being a scientist, you can also harvest some awesome plants from the planet Sixam which you can grow on Earth. Their fruit is worth mega $$$.

You can also breed puppies and kittens. You can sell them for $ ONLY when they're puppies and kittens (so don't wait for them to age up). You get more $ depending on how well-trained they are.

You might already know this, but don't allow items to hang out in your Sim's inventory (or household inventory) unless they're using them. Your taxes depend on the price of everything your sim owns, including what's in their inventories. So bigger inventories = higher taxes.

One of my favorite items in my sim making money is using the sales table from City Living (or the one from Jungle Adventure). I won't ever have my sim directly sell items in their inventory. Just the sales tables alone. It's basically a Yard Sale event that will start on your home lot and sims will come to browse the table.

You can also earn money from DJ'ing

If you have Get Famous and your sims acting skill up a bit they can do street performances for money.

Oh! And your sim can also upload videos and music with the Video Station and Music Station. Just like writing, you'll get royalties when you upload videos/music. You can also get a drone that follows your sim around and records as they go about their day-to-day lives. The best thing about drones is if it records your sim using a particular skill (e.g. the drone follows your sim around as they tend their garden), the video will be labeled as a "skill video", and it will make your sim more money. You will still need to edit and upload the video at the Video Station before you can upload it. It's nice though because you can make money in two ways (e.g. gardening and video streaming) at the same time!

"ctthomas;c-16967692" wrote:
Archaeology is extremely lucrative. Only issue is your Sim needs to be pretty high in a lot of skills to stay "safe" and work productively in the Jungle. The artifacts go for several hundred each, and the temple treasures are usually worth about $10,000. Takes a few days to get to the temple, usually.

You might already know this, but don't allow items to hang out in your Sim's inventory (or household inventory) unless they're using them. Your taxes depend on the price of everything your sim owns, including what's in their inventories. So bigger inventories = higher taxes.

One of my kids was playing the other day and started a new family in a house they could barely afford. A teenage Sim used the last of the household funds to spend one day in the jungle. After barely surviving and just a few hours before the vacation was over, he managed to get a treasure worth 10k, even though he had very few skills to start off with. (I think he ventured in with a 2 in Gardening, and that was it.) It was pretty impressive.

I didn't realize items in your inventory contributed to your bills. That's good to know. I know if you're living in an apartment, your bills are always the same, no matter how much fancy/expensive stuff you have.

@katrinasforest Wow! That's really impressive. Maybe your son needs to come teach me how to play in Selvadorada! The first time I went, my sim went through ONE gateway. He didn't have high enough skill and got the deadly disease. I couldn't figure out how to cure it for the longest time and he almost died! After that, we spent a LOT of time skill-building. Took me days to get to the temple, too...

The marketable reward trait could be useful when selling items. It's only 1500 points.

Sims in the business career (investor branch) can invest in stocks. You can lose money but potentially also make a lot.

Fishing, it's a bit slow going, but once they get the skill built up & find the best fishing spots (including the two in hidden locations), they can catch more of the high value fish. Not just fish either, they can also catch harvestables & other items. My current household lives in Magnolia Promenade & one of them keeps catching dragon fruits & cowplant berries off the fishing spot on the dock by the steamboat.

My sim makes 69000 simoleons every week with video royalties.

If you have max level archaeology they can send you items to authenticate too, makes good money plus fame if you have fame enabled