Whenever you run out of cash (or just want more of it), tap on random signs, especially animated ones that are in front of buildings. An example of this is the cell phone billboard in front of the Chateau Nuit in Vegas. You’ll usually earn cash for doing this. Sometimes, though, you’ll earn an even better bonus, such as energy.
You’ll find pets in the street sometimes, such as the cat in Downtown Los Angeles. For a somewhat hefty fee, you can adopt the pet, but the tradeoff is that you can earn random bonuses from the pet too by going to your apartment and tapping it. Energy is the most common of the free bonuses that you can earn from the cat.
When you’re going on dates, it’s best to have a good amount of money if you want to finish as quickly as possible. There are plenty of actions that you can do which cost no money, but you will usually only earn one heart per action. The ones that do cost money will earn you far more hearts for far less actions, making it easy to finish a date with one full energy bar or even less than that.
Buy a ton of star-power clothes if you want to network above your list grade. Buy a ton of heart-power clothes if you want to date above your list grade. The higher up you date, the more fans you will end up earning in return whenever you go on an assignment or a date with someone, and the more of a bonus you’ll earn star-wise or heart-wise, which again will speed up whatever you are doing.
Purchasing furniture and other goods in your apartment (or house, condo or whatever) will give you more overall networking power and dating power. Go to your apartment and buy the cheapest stuff first, and then go to the clothing store and buy the cheapest stuff first, in order to increase your star power and heart power the fastest.
Purchasing new apartments and houses might seem a bit pointless, but it’s actually a good idea. Each one has a different number of pets that they will allow, and each one will allow you to buy different furniture and other goods.