The fastest legitimate money in The Sims 4 comes from skills that produce sellable objects, and Painting is the best of them because a high-level Sim can turn out a valuable canvas every hour or two at no cost beyond the easel; the fastest money of any kind is typing motherlode into the cheat console for §50,000. Between those two extremes sit writing royalties, gardening, collecting, the base-game Freelancer career, and the Small Business system from Businesses and Hobbies, which as of the current build is the most flexible earner in the game. This guide ranks each method, gives the exact steps and menu names, and ends with the cheats and what they cost you on console.
Everything is checked against the patch notes through the September 22, 2026 update (PC 1.128.90.1030) and EA’s official cheats FAQ. Every Sims guide we publish is collected on the Sims hub.
Painting and writing
Painting needs only an easel (Buy Mode > Activities and Skills > Creativity). Click the easel, choose a size and style, and sell the finished piece straight from the easel’s menu with Sell to Collector, or hang it on a wall and sell later. Value rises with Painting skill, canvas size, quality and the emotion the Sim painted in: an Inspired Sim paints faster and better, and emotional paintings (Confident, Flirty, Sad and so on) are worth more. Our guide on how to get Inspired in Sims 4 covers the shower trick that keeps that going. At Painting level 10, per the base-game tuning, large canvases regularly clear several thousand Simoleons; the exact figure depends on quality rolls, so we will not quote a ceiling.
Writing is slower to start but compounds. Write on any computer, then choose Self-Publish (instant lump sum) or Submit to Literary Digest (bigger pay over several days) from the mailbox; the Writing skill and the book’s quality set both. Royalty cheques arrive daily for weeks, so a stack of books becomes passive income. Songwriting works the same way with an instrument and pays weekly licensing royalties; see how to write songs in Sims 4.
Gardening and collecting
Plants cost nothing to run once planted. High-value harvestables include the Dragonfruit, the Bonsai Buds and the Death Flower, and a garden of grafted plants at Gardening level 10 with Evolve applied sells for a lot every few days through the plant’s Sell menu or from the inventory. Our guides on getting a Cow Plant and getting a Death Flower cover the rare ones, and fertilizer speeds evolution.
Collecting is the early-game answer. Dig sites, fishing spots, frogs and crystals are free; each item shows a value in the inventory and sells from Sell on the item or in bulk through Sell All. Fishing in secret lots such as Sylvan Glade tends to give better fish, and our guide to secret areas in Sims 4 shows how to reach them. Per the September 22, 2026 patch notes, rocks, dig sites, frog logs and wild plants now respawn while your Sim is away from the lot, which had quietly throttled this method for a while.
The Freelancer career
The base-game Freelancer career (phone > Find a Job or computer > Career) has Programmer, Writer and Digital Artist tracks, with more added by packs (Fashion Photographer with Moschino Stuff, Crafter with Nifty Knitting, Paranormal Investigator with Paranormal Stuff). You accept gigs from the career panel, deliver on the deadline, and get paid on completion; there are no hours to keep, so a Sim can also paint or garden between jobs. Gig pay scales with the matching skill, so it pairs naturally with the skill methods above. The June 30, 2026 patch stopped Freelancers receiving gig calls from careers they are not in, which had been cluttering the phone. If you want out of a salaried job to go freelance, our guide on how to quit jobs in Sims 4 has the menu path.
Small Businesses and retail
With Businesses and Hobbies (March 2025), any hobby becomes a shop. Register through the Owned Businesses tab (cash register icon) in Live Mode, sell crafted objects on Retail Surfaces, charge entry through a ticket kiosk set to Hourly or One-time, and push prices with the Price Modifier (up to +100%). Renown grows with customer satisfaction and unlocks Perks that raise income further. Per the developer, employees cost an hourly wage set Low, Medium or High, so a solo home business with no staff is pure profit. The full setup is in our guide on how to start and manage a business in Sims 4. Get to Work’s retail stores, Dine Out’s restaurants and For Rent’s rental units still exist as separate systems if you own those packs, but Small Business is the one that works on a home lot and with base-game skills.
Money cheats
Open the console with Ctrl + Shift + C on Windows, Cmd + Shift + C on Mac, or all four shoulder buttons together on PlayStation and Xbox. Per EA’s cheats FAQ:
kachingorrosebudadds §1,000.motherlodeadds §50,000.Money 145897sets household funds to that exact amount (any number works).FreeRealEstate Onmakes every residential lot free from the world map;FreeRealEstate Offreverts it.
These money cheats do not need testingcheats true. On console, EA notes that any cheat which does require testingcheats disables achievements and trophies for that save, so keep the money cheats on their own if you care about trophies. Our Sims 4 money cheats guide has the rest, including sims.modify_funds for adding or removing exact sums.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fastest way to make money without cheats? Painting at high skill while Inspired, with a garden of evolved rare plants running in the background. Writing royalties become the best passive income after a few in-game weeks.
How much does motherlode give? §50,000 per use. Kaching and rosebud give §1,000 each.
Do money cheats disable achievements? Not on their own. Only cheats that need testingcheats true disable achievements and trophies on console.
Is a Small Business better than a retail store? For most players yes: it runs from home, needs no staff, and works with any skill. Get to Work retail still works but is a separate, older system.
Can I sell paintings without a store? Yes. Use Sell to Collector on the easel or on the painting itself; no pack is needed.