How To Make it Big in the Sims (PC)

Start small. If you create a new family and buy an existing house you can put in the necessities and have a few thousand simoleons left over. Necessities include a toilet, bed, fridge, couch and bookshelf. Even if you put in basic counters and a computer you will still have those necessary simoleons to start.

Chat it up. If you make a small family and move them into a house the very first thing you need to do is get your two adults to talk to one another and begin to like one another. If you don't they will not sleep in the same bed, and they will have other issues with one another. If they talk to each other often this will keep them happy, and keep their social skills up. You can also save money by buying one large bed instead of two small ones.

Skip the job, train. If you build your house and go get a job right off you will start bringing in the money, but you'll also have to train your abilities, take care of the romance, and other necessities. On the other hand, if you buy a bookshelf and some chairs you can start your Sims off by learning to cook, which will save you on fire damage later, and raise their mechanic skills. Depending on the job you go into later you might also want to practice speeches in the mirror, and do something creative like paint. The more skills you have the faster you will raise in your profession once you do get a job. Use the extra money left over from setting up house to eat and pay the bills. You can usually train your Sims for a month or two before you have to get a job.

The faster the better. Many of the activities you have to do, like eating, reading, or watching TV, in The Sims can get a little tedious. Use the fast forward buttons often. The short cut for this is the "1", "2" and "3" on the number pad. You can train a whole month in less then an hour.

Make friends fast. When you first move into a house you have about an hour before people start showing up to welcome you to town. Invite them in. Turn on the TV. Serve a meal. Doing activities like eating together and watching TV together raises your fun, and lets you make friends with people. You should also do intensive friend making with a few people. Remember: only one person in the family needs to be friends with one person outside of the family to be a family friend. No need to waste energy making everyone friends.

Intensive friend making involves getting someone to talk to one person repeatedly for a while. Once they hit 20 in their friendship you can start making jokes, or complimenting. This will raise their friendship faster. At around 40 you can begin flirting if you want to.

Do many things at once. As I said, if you eat together, or watch TV together it raises your social skills, you have fun, and you make friends. There are other objects that have multipurpose uses as well, some of which depend on which expansion you have. Many games, like pool and basketball, are interactive. Some items like the workbench and the chemistry set let you make things increasing you skill levels and giving you something to sell or eat later. You can also download objects that let you do other things like pick fruit from a garden, or decorate with your own artwork. Be aware that some downloadable objects are not compatible with every Sim game as it depends on expansion packs. I've gotten some that simply disappear after buying them. Some downloadables are not free.

Create more families. Once you set up a house and have everyone settled in it's a good idea to create new families. This not only gives your main Sims more friends to talk to, it also expands the environment and gives you new houses to manage. Many jobs require you to make friends, so you'll need to have some to meet.

Party hard! The best way to get a really good party where everyone has lots of fun is to have a lot of food, and have several objects that your Sims can do as party games. I've found the camp fire, bubble blower, and dance floor to be some of their favorites. Parties allow your Sims to meet new people, make new friends, increase their social skills, and just have fun.

Keep track of your needs. If your Sims aren't clean, fed, and socialized they tend to throw fits, refuse to do things, or do poorly at work. If you've kept up their skills, and their needs you should have no trouble raising high in their profession.

Don't forget to move up. What is the point of getting all those simoleons if you don't use them? If you keep working your way up and making more simoleons eventually you can get into that giant house on the hill.