Its value can vary between titles, and doesn't consistently reflect any real-life currency (such as the US dollar or British pound), as many of the more expensive items are marked down in price, while some of the cheapest may be marked up; for example, in The Sims 2 an SUV costs approx. §4,000, while a pizza costs §40. Usually, items of limited duration are more expensive, while durable objects or house structures are cheaper. This reflects the fact that a Sim has less time to earn money in the series than would be available in real life. Much like the real world, better quality items are generally more expensive. Also, the Simoleon has no sub-units; the only way something can cost less than §1 is for it to be free.
In SimCity, a stretch of road is §10 per segment and a Police Department §500. According to the SimCity 2000 "City Value" menu, one § unit that represents the cost of a building actually equals §1,000.
The Simoleon’s currency symbol is the section sign (§). In The Sims Medieval, the currency is known as Simoles, although the same symbol is still used to represent them. The same symbol is also used in another Maxis game, Spore, as the Sporebuck symbol in both the Civilization and Space Stages.
In the English-language versions of the Sims games, the amount notation is "(currency sign)(1-3 digits)(comma)(1-3 digits)(...)", which corresponds to those used for most major Anglosphere currencies, including the various dollar versions, the British pound, and the Euro's use in the Republic of Ireland.[1]
The Sims 3, The Sims Medieval and The Sims 3 for Console
§99,999,999
The Sims Social
Unknown
The Sims 4
§9,999,999
Starting money[]
In The Sims, The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories, families will start with §20,000.
In The Sims 2: Apartment Life, a new rule for figuring starting money has been added. The amount of starting money depends on the number of Sims in the family and their ages.
In The Sims 3 and The Sims 3 for console, a household will start with §16,500 to §30,500[TS3]/§26,500[TS3C][3] depending on the number of Sims created and their ages. For example, a single-Sim household made in CAS will start with §16,500.
In The Sims Medieval, Hero Sims will start with either §12,000 or §1,000, depending on whether or not their house is furnished or unfurnished.
In The Sims 4, a household starts with §20,000, plus §2,000 for each Sim beyond the first. This additional value applies to Sims of any life stage, as well as pets.
Sims need a minimum amount of money in order to buy food and pay their bills. Leaving bills unpaid for too long results in either a visit from the repo-man[TS][TS2][TS3][TS4] or in electricity and water systems being shut.[TS4] (In the handheld versions of The Sims Bustin' Out and The Urbz: Sims in the City, Sims/Urbz who skip their bills are arrested instead.)
Working for money[]
There are several ways for Sims to receive a steady income. The usual way is to work in a career or profession[TS3:A] that gives the Sim a regular salary or stipend. Owning a business[TS2:OFB][TS4:GTW] is another way to make money, though income from a business is not as steady as the income from a regular job, as the Sim does not get paid a salary.
Some Sims can make money through creative endeavors, such as painting or writing. In The Sims 2: University, The Sims 3[4] and The Sims 4 Sims can collect tips while playing an instrument. There are a number of crafts Sims can partake in, where the objects they create can be sold. In The Sims 4: City Living, Sims can set up street tables and galleries in order to sell their collectibles and paintings with the price being freely decided from 0% to 300%.
Investments[TS3] are another way Sims can earn money. A Sim can buy a partnership in one of the rabbit holes in a neighborhood and collect weekly earnings. As of Ambitions, Investments are not limited to rabbit holes, and Sims can buy into almost every community lot, being challenged to upgrade it in order to make even more money.
In The Sims 2, family members and best friends can inherit money on the death of a Sim. How much a Sim will inherit depends on three things; the deceased Sim's aspiration level at death, the type of relationship the Sim had with the deceased, and the Sim's lifetime relationship with the deceased.
Found money[]
Sometimes money is just lying on the ground. Random phone calls may be able to net Sims a few extra Simoleons.[TS]Collecting objects that are littered around the neighborhood could net a Sim some money. One Sim's trash is another Sim's Simoleons! Sims can rummage through garbage and occasionally find something worthy.[TS3] Sims in lots that have the "Penny Pixies" lot trait can find randomly money from the ground.[TS4:CL]
Money grows on trees. The money tree grows Simoleons. With some care Sims can "rake" in the cash. Money falls from the sky when Sims wish for wealth from the Genie[TS2:FT][TS3:ST] or the wishing well.[TS2:S]
Some players also like to take the easy route. A player can move their Sim(s) into another occupied house and then move the existing members out enabling the player's Sim(s) to steal their house and money without the need of cheats.
rosebud or klapaucius - 1,000 Simoleons ("klapaucius" only works in the unpatched version. Said cheats can be used over again without opening a new cheat box by typing in !;!;!;x and holding Enter. E.g. klapaucius !;!;!;!;!;!x)
(e.g. familyfunds Goth +10000 gives the Goth family 10,000 Simoleons; familyfunds Goth -10000 takes 10,000 Simoleons from the Goth family; familyfunds Goth 10000 changes the amount of money the Goth family has to 10,000 Simoleons.
money (+/-)(amount)
(e.g. money +10000 gives the current family 10,000 Simoleons; money -10000 takes 10,000 Simoleons from the current family; money 10000 changes the amount of money the current family has to 10,000 Simoleons)
The allmenus cheat must be enabled for this cheat to work.
(e.g. familyfunds Bachelor 2000 sets the Bachelor family funds to 2,000 Simoleons). For familyfunds to work in The Sims 3, testingcheatsenabled needs to be activated. Unlike The Sims 2, this cheat can only be used when a family is moved into a lot.
money (amount)
(e.g. money 50000 sets the current household's funds to 50,000 Simoleons). For this cheat to work, testingcheatsenabled needs to be activated.
(e.g. money 50000 sets the current household's funds to 50,000 Simoleons). Only affects the household that is currently being played. For this cheat to work, testingcheats needs to be on.
Lot prices[]
The Sims 3[]
In The Sims 3, the maximum furnished value a lot can have is §2,147,483,647, more than 21 times more than a household would be allowed to have. Going over that value, will cause the lot to instead cost §0, making the lot free of charge for any household to move into if it's a residential lot.
The maximum value is determined by signed 32-bit integers, a somewhat outdated (First used in production hardware in 1970~1972) but common measurement system that was still used by many software programs well into the 2010s.
Reaching such a lot value is highly unrealistic in regular play (where lots intended for living or business rarely cost more than 10 million), very difficult to achieve unmodded, and extremely difficult to achieve unmodded without the Leon's Fountain of Youth (Hidden Springs) or the Lady Ravendancerspell book.[Store] One possible trick to speed up the process, is to edit an object's OBJD file's price in the game's or expansion pack's FullBuild0.package file to somewhere in the tens or hundreds of millions.
After passing 2 billion, certain values may become so wide that the last digit is moved to the row below.
A lot value that is fairly close to the max value.
After passing the rollover value.
How to type the § sign[]
Some keyboard layouts have § as a directly accessible key combo, or in a select few cases as a standalone key. These include:
Standalone § key: Swedish, Belgian, Czech, Swiss, macOS British, macOS International English
Key combos:
Key combo
Keyboard locale(s)
AltGr+⇧ Shift+S
US-International, Canadian CSA, Canadian Multilingual Standard
⇧ Shift+3
German (Standard, T2, and T3)
AltGr+à
French 2019 standard
⇧ Shift+!
French (Classic), Tamazight International
AltGr+O
Francophone Canadian
⇧ Shift+ù
Italian
AltGr+=
Brazilian
AltGr+4
Portugal
⇧ Shift+1
Polish (QWERTZ)
⇧ Shift+| (Vertical line)
Norwegian
⇧ Shift+½
Danish
AltGr+Õ
Estonian
⇧ Shift+M
Serbo-Croatian-Slovene
⇧ Shift+0
Hungarian
AltGr+P
Romanian
AltGr+5
Greek
⇧ Shift+7
Bulgarian
⇧ Shift+@
Dutch (Classic)
For people who use other layouts, it can often be typed by turning on NumLock, and then holding down ⎇ Alt key while typing 21 on the numeric keypad.
If NumLock is off and cannot readily be turned on, holding down ⇧ Shift+⎇ Alt while typing 21 on the numeric keypad may work.
Trivia[]
The name originates from the word simolean/samolean, first used as far back as 1895.
The name for the § is the 'section sign' and is most often used to refer to sections of text, particularly in in legal documents.[5]
Some computer users use $ (dollar sign) instead of § (Section sign) to represent Simoleons, likely because they either do not know how to or are otherwise unable to type that character. Simoleons in SimCity and SimCity 2000 for Super NES also appear as $.
In the PlayStation 2 version of The Sims, the funds display will only show 5 digits, so if the family had over 100,000 Simoleons, it would be displayed as §99,999. However, the full amount would still be available. This was fixed in the GameCube and Xbox versions of The Sims and in the PS2 versions ofThe Sims Bustin' Out and The Urbz: Sims in the City.
In The Urbz: Sims in the City and The Sims Medieval, Sims made by players do not share money. However, in The Sims Medieval, if two Hero Sims get married, they will share their funds.
If The Urbz: Sims in the City is inserted in a Nintendo DS, DSi or 3DS, the icon of the game will show a Simoleon sign (§). The console must be in Manual Mode to see the icon; if not, the game will directly start instead.[6]
In The Sims 4, the Simlish word for Simoleon is "Simola". This can be heard sometimes by choosing the materialistic trait.
Gallery[]
Simoleons from a Money tree
Simoleons being counted by a Sim
The icon for Simoleons (top left) in The Sims Social.
A Sim from The Sims 2: Open for Business holding 20 Simoleons
Simoleons from The Sims 2
Simoleon coins as clutter object in The Sims 4: Everyday Clutter Kit
↑ 2.02.1PS2 versions will only display 5 digits, so amounts of §100,000 and higher will be displayed as §99,999. This was fixed in the PS2 version of The Sims Bustin' Out.
↑The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of The Sims 3 only allow up to 6 Sims.
↑In The Sims 3, Sims cannot play an instrument for tips unless they have at least level 5 skill with that instrument.
