Hopkins Padgett is outside taking the picture while he waits for his carpool to arrive. He has just moved into the apartments with his son Pindle, Pindle's wife Pinkey, and their two sons Pitkin and Pippin. The two-bedroom apartment is a little crowded with the five of them, especially since Pinkey is expecting another child, so Hopkins is considering moving out once he scrapes together a bit of money. There are also a couple of single women in the same building that he is growing fond of, though, and in his heart he wishes he might be able to move in with one of them.
- Get a job. The newspaper carrier will bring a newspaper in the first few hours after you move in, and Mr. Humble will drop off a gift that turns out to be a computer. The newspaper will list three jobs your Sim can take, and the computer will list five (the same three as the newspaper, plus two more). The jobs that are listed change every day when the carrier brings the day's paper. The carpool comes to get your Sim, then drops them off again. They earn a salary every day they work, they will get a bonus every time they get a promotion, and once they are elders they can 'retire' and get a pension.
- Grow vegetables or fruit. Your Sims can harvest them and put them in their fridge, but there is also the option to sell them straight off the tree or plant. The value of them depends on how well your Sim does growing them: a Sim with a gold Gardening badge who fertilizes and regularly weeds, waters, and sprays will get "mouth-watering" produce.
- If you have the capital, buy one of the five crafting stations; Toys, Robotics, Flowers, Sewing, or Pottery. As soon as each item is done, you can sell it directly from the station. For each of these crafts, as your Sim works on them, they will get better at it, and will be able to make more things that are worth more money.
- Buy a makeover station and have Sims pay you to give them a haircut or makeup. (You need a home business for this; see below for more info on that).
- Invite Sims on dates. The next morning they will drop off flowers; the size depends on how well the date went. You can sell them for a few Simoleons in "buy" mode. Every now and again a date will drop off a really nice present, like a TV or a stereo, and those can be sold for cash.
- This doesn't work in apartments, but if your Sim lives in a house, you can click anywhere on the ground and choose "dig for treasure". Most often they will dig up a rock or a bone, but sometimes it will be something more valuable you can sell.
- If your Sim's home has a stream or pond (either existing when they moved in, or that you make with the 'water' tool), you can fish in them. The fish they catch go in their inventory, and normally you would click on a fridge and choose "stock" to add the fish to your food. However, you can also take them out of inventory, put them on the ground, and sell them in 'buy' mode for money.
- Write novels. On any computer, an adult or elder Sim can choose "write novel". You get to choose the elements and cover, which I don't think impacts the result, but is kind of fun. It takes some time, but over a few days they'll finish and you choose the name of the book. The phone will immediately ring and tell you how well the book is selling, and the delivery service will drop off a copy of it that you can put on a bookshelf, read, and discuss with other Sims. A really good novel can make a few thousand Simoleons.
- Paint on the easel and sell the paintings. The first few will only go for a few dollars, but eventually your Sim will get good and they will fetch hundreds of Simoleons. This is a cheap way to start because the easel is cheap to buy.
- Open a home business. With an open/closed sign, a counter, and a cash register, you can have a home business where you sell fruit or vegetables you grew, fish you caught, things you crafted on the stations, paintings you painted, any food your Sim knows how to cook, and anything at all from the catalog that you use for furnishing your houses. (And when I say 'you', I mean your Sim. It's possible I over-identify with my imaginary friends.)
- You can also have a home business with just a ticket machine. This turns out to be pretty easy to do. As long as there are things to do on your lot - musical instruments to play or a TV to watch - neighbourhood Sims will show up on your lots, think about it a bit, and most of the time are willing to pay a few Simoleons per hour to spend time there. This is a great way for your Sims to meet their neighbours, too. The more popular the business is, the more neighbouring Sims will show up and hang out.
- Buy a community lot and run it as a business. This takes the most capital and is the entire topic of the "Open for Business" expansion pack, so I won't try and explain it in a single bullet point.
- Once you have a community business, the Sim that owns it can hire other Sims to work there. For example, I have a Sim named Charlotte that owns a restaurant. One time when she was there running it, another Sim named Robert came by, and since they were already friends, I was able to have Charlotte hire Robert. Now when I play Robert's household, the carpool comes to pick him up at 8am, he comes home at 5pm, and he gets paid the same amount that Charlotte pays him to be at the restaurant when I'm playing Charlotte's household.
- Also once you have community businesses, when you have your Sim there running them, some of the other Sims you create in the same neighbourhood will show up to shop. If they buy something, the next time you play that Sim, the item they bought will be in their inventory. In this case, though, the money is not deducted from their cash, which makes sense, because they're not directly controllable. Depending on the nature of the challenge I'm playing, I'll use the items they bought (food and groceries get stocked in the fridge, furnishing get placed in the house), ignore them, or sell them for cash.
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