Which cheats and why?

I use "cheats" regularly as part of setting up new households. It's important to my gameplay that new Sims seem like they've actually become who they are now, not just popped into the world. I want them to have some skills, some people they know (I use clubs for this, then cheat relationship levels), be farther up a career if they're older, have an amount of money that I feel like makes sense to them, have relationships that are weaker or stronger than 50% with family members, etc.

I think of "cheats" and mods that increase the availability of "cheats" as just alternative ways of accessing game tools, which is why I put the word in quote marks. I don't think it's an appropriate word for what these are in the context of Sims. There's nothing to cheat -- there are no rules, and there's no winning.