Sources of Income: Simoleons

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Sources of Income: Simoleons

Earning Simoleons in large quantities can be accomplished by getting your Sims jobs and making sure that you are there to send them off to work, but when you cannot do that, there are other ways for earning and collecting Simoleons.

Gardening is a fast track to XP and Simoleons

Gardening: the first method for earning Simoleons that you are introduced to as part of the tutorial play is also one of the easiest ways for you to continue to make money in the game -- especially as it allows you to set all of your Sims to work at predictable schedules.  For instance, when you examine the various plants that you can grow, you will note that they all have different grow times, and different rewards:

Bell Peppers (Free to Plant) -- 30 Second Growth -- $4 / 4 XP Reward
Carrots ($3 to Plant) -- 5 Minutes Growth -- $28 / 20 XP Reward
Corn ($11 to Plant) -- 30 Minutes Growth -- $100 / 100 XP Reward
Pumpkin ($66 to Plant) -- 1 Day Growth -- $500 / 800 XP Reward
Tomatoes ($82 to Plant) -- 6 Hours Growth -- $160 / 120 XP Reward
Beans ($115 to Plant) -- 12 Hours Growth -- $840 / 620 XP Reward
Onions ($137 to Plant) -- 10 Hours Growth -- $800 / 600 XP Reward
Watermelons ($22 to Plant) -- 1 Hour Growth -- $160 / 120 XP Reward
Potatoes ($44 to Plant) -- 2 Hour Growth -- $300 / 200 XP Reward
Spinach (1 Life Point to Plant) -- 1 Day Growth -- $980 / 1200 XP Reward
Strawberries ($44 to Plant) -- 1 Day Growth -- $100 / 1000 XP Reward
Zucchini ($66 to Plant) -- 4 Hours Growth -- $480 / 400 XP Reward
Lettuce ($22 to Plant) -- 45 Minutes Growth -- $140 / 120 XP Reward
Garlic ($93 to Plant) -- 8 Hours Growth -- $680 / 500 XP Reward
Eggplant ($126 to Plant) -- 18 Hours Growth -- $900 / 700 XP Reward
Chilli Pepper ($33 to Plant) -- 16 Hours Growth -- $200 / 1000 XP Reward
24-carat Carrot (2 Life Points to Plant) -- 5 Hours Growth -- $800 / 100 XP Reward

One of the easiest and most efficient ways to put your Sims to work in Gardening is to pick one house and place as many Garden Plots as you have Sims -- usually in a straight line along the back edge of the lot -- and then invite all of the Sims over who are not at work, and set them to work Gardening.  The reason that this is efficient is in how the game interprets the active Sim at any given moment -- when you start with the top Sim in the Sim Tracker and assign them to a plot it automatically makes the next available Sim active.

What that means is you can go right down the line by tapping the Garden Plot itself rather than having to select a Sim, then pick the Seed, rinse and repeat until all of the Sims who are present are Gardening.  While the most profitable Seed would be Peppers (a 30 second crop) that will keep you so busy you will not have time to scratch your nose...  Corn, which is a 30 minute crop, is a more convenient one for this sort of effort, since it allows you to do other things in real life and come back at convenient intervals, but YMMV.

Baking is another inside track to money and experience...

Baking:the second money making way to exchange time for Simoleons and XP is baking, which you will need to own an oven in order to do.  The following recipes are available:

Cookies ($1 to make) -- 1 Minute to make -- $2 10 XP Reward
Pancakes ($6 to make) -- 10 Minutes to make -- $12 60 XP Reward
Heart Shaped Chocolate ($9 to make) -- 20 Minutes to make -- $18 90 XP Reward
Apple Pie ($19 to make) -- 1 Hour to make -- $36 180 XP Reward
Choc Pudding ($33 to make) -- 2 Hours to make -- $60 300 XP Reward
Donuts ($66 to make) -- 8 Hours to make -- $120 600 XP Reward
Croissants ($121 to make) -- 18 Hours to make -- $220 1,150 XP Reward
Rocky Road ($137 to make) -- 12 Hours to make -- $250 500 XP Reward
Banana Bread ($132 to make) -- 20 Hours to make -- $240 1,200 XP Reward
Caramel Slice ($77 to make) -- 10 Hours to make -- $140 700 XP Reward
Gingerbread Sims ($55 to make) -- 6 Hours to make -- $100 500 XP Reward
Brownies ($4 to make) -- 5 Minutes to make -- $8 40 XP Reward
Danish ($165 to make) -- 1 Day to make -- $300 1,500 XP Reward
Cheesecake ($44 to make) -- 4 Hours to make -- $80 400 XP Reward
Waffles ($16 to make) -- 45 Minutes to make -- $30 150 XP Reward
Muffins ($13 to make) -- 30 Minutes to make -- $25 120 XP Reward
Souffle (1 Life Point to make) -- 4 Hours to make -- $200 200 XP Reward

The seeds/recipes are unlocked as you progress in gaining levels, and as you can see from the list, they offer you a variety of choices for exchanging time for either Simoleons or Life Points.

Construction takes time but each building adds to the town income

Town Income: while this is not as obvious (or as lucrative) as active earning, it must be pointed out that the game includes a passive sort of income that comes from the properties that exist in the city.  Each has its own timer, with the timers based upon the order of placement, so you can collect on the following schedule:

Residence 01 -- $5 every 1 Minute
Residence 02 -- $10 every 5 Minutes
Residence 03 -- $15 every 30 Minutes
Residence 04 -- $25 every 1 Hour
Residence 05 -- $35 every 2 Hours
Residence 06 -- $50 every 4 Hours
Residence 07 -- $75 every 8 Hours
Residence 08 -- $100 every 12 Hours
Residence 09 -- $125 every 16 hours
Residence 10 -- $150 every 20 hours
Residence 11 -- $200 every 24 hours
Residence 12 -- TBA
Residence 13 -- TBA
Residence 14 -- TBA
Residence 15 -- TBA
Residence 16 -- TBA

Industry 01 -- $5 15 XP every 1 Hour
Industry 02 -- $10 25 XP every 4 Hours
Industry 03 -- $15 50 XP every 12 Hours
Industry 04 -- $25 75 XP every 1 Day
Industry 05 -- $30 100 XP every 1 Day

Your first pet is free, the rest require Life Points to purchase...

Business 01 -- 25 XP every 2 Hours
Business 02 -- 50 XP every 4 Hours
Business 03 -- 75 XP every 12 Hours
Business 04 -- 100 XP every 1 Day
Business 05 -- 125 XP every 1 Day

When passive income is available for collection the Town Icon will flash with the Simoleon sign -- you simply need to select the Town view and then each of the flashing Simoleon icons over the properties to collect the funds due and reset their timers.

-- The Pleasure and Gains of Pet Ownership --

Random Income from Pets: believe it or not the income that you can take in by remembering to click on the dig icon for your pet, which can easily net you $100 or even the odd Life Point, which certainly makes that worth doing.

On average your dog earns more per hour than you can!

An example of pet income over the course of a real-life hour of game play shows the value that they present, especially when this is combined with having one or more Sim Garden at the same time.  Here is a sampling for the first pet provided to your original Sim for one hour of play:

7:00 -- 1 Life Point
7:01 -- $50
7:02 -- $5 ($55)
7:02 -- 1 Life Point (2 LP)
7:03 -- $1 ($56)
7:04 -- $10 ($66)
7:05 -- $10 ($76)
7:06 -- $15 ($91)
7:07 -- $50 ($141)
7:07 -- $15 ($156)
7:08 -- $5 ($161)
7:10 -- $10 ($171)
7:10 -- $10 ($181)
7:11 -- $50 ($231)
7:12 -- $5 ($236)
7:13 -- $10 ($246)
7:14 -- $20 ($266)
7:14 -- $5 ($271)
7:15 -- $15 ($286)
7:16 -- $100 ($386)
7:17 -- $15 ($401)
7:18 -- $15 ($416)
7:19 -- $10 ($431)
7:20 -- $5 ($436)
7:21 -- $15 ($451)
7:22 -- $5 ($456)
7:23 -- $1 ($457)
7:23 -- $5 ($462)
7:24 -- $5 ($467)
7:26 -- $25 ($492)
7:27 -- $100 ($592)
7:28 -- $15 ($607)
7:31 -- $15 ($622)
7:32 -- $15 ($637)
7:33 -- $10 ($647)
7:34 -- $10 ($657)
7:35 -- $5 ($662)
7:36 -- $15 ($677)
7:37 -- $10 ($687)
7:38 -- $10 ($697)
7:40 -- $10 ($707)
7:40 -- $15 ($722)
7:41 -- $100 ($822)
7:42 -- $20 ($842)
7:43 -- $20 ($862)
7:45 -- $15 ($877)
7:46 -- $20 ($897)
7:48 -- $15 ($912)
7:50 -- $10 ($922)
7:51 -- $15 ($937)
7:53 -- $25 ($962)
7:55 -- $25 ($987)
7:55 -- $10 ($997)
7:56 -- $5 ($1002)
7:57 -- $5 ($1007)
7:58 -- $10 ($1017)
7:59 -- $25 ($1042)

When you average out the $1000 Simoleons an hour that your dog pulls down in income and compare that to the pittance that your Sim earns for an 8-hour workday, you have to start wondering where to focus your time and attention, right?  But then you factor in the 2 Life Points per hour, which is what the pet averages, that boosts the attractiveness immensely...  The thing is of course you earn no XP for this, so really it should be viewed as a side-activity that happens to be profitable and beneficial rather than a primary activity because FreePlay revolves around XP.

You can tell by the sound what your dog has found when digging -- a cash register sound is money, a high-note ding is Life Points, and a regular ding is XP.

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