How to Make Money in GTA 5

Lester's side missions

As you progress through the game Lester will help franklin by giving him side missions that go along with the stock market. Listen closely as Lester will drop hints as to what stocks will increase once the mission is complete. The more you put into a stock the more you will get in return.

When to invest in FlyUS

After you complete the Mission Legal Trouble, the share price of FlyUS will fall dramatically. Invest your money in it now. Once you complete the mission Meltdown (a few missions later) the share price will return to what it was pre Legal Trouble. An example from my game, pre Legal Trouble the share price for FlyUS was around $250. Post Legal Trouble they dropped to $120. Once the mission Meltdown was completed, they went back to around $240 which doubled my investment.

Lurk near the ATM

For fast cash, stake out an ATM with bare fists or a SuppressedWeapon. People who have just visited an ATM generally have a bit of cash in their pockets.

Grease them and escape before the cops arrive.

Small Time Shenanigans for Big Bucks

Money is very hard to come by in the first few hours of GTA 5. When you need money quick, consider one of GTA 5’s nineteen Robberies.

Convenience stores and corner markets are prime, soft targets for a stick up. Walk in, aim a gun at the cashier, grab the money, and escape before the cops arrive.

Stake out a few favorite stores and look for handy hiding places nearby. Park your Vehicle facing toward the street just outside the store. Grab the cash, hop into your ride, and scoot away to your alcove. By rotating between a few familiar stores you can pick up a decent bankroll.

Some stores have two registers. By firing your gun into the second register you can force more money to pop out. Be sure to wait until you’ve got all the money from the first register before shooting to avoid alerting bystanders with the sound of the gunshot.

You can also rob gun and clothing stores by pulling out your gun and aiming it before entering the stores. Although the store's employee won't be emptying the cash registers for you, simply shooting them open yourself will provide you with the money inside.

Caution when robbing the same store multiple times as the clerk may get a gun, and is not afraid to use it.

Cash is scarce in the first few hours of GTA 5, and this page describesHow to Make Money in GTA 5, including perfectly innocent ways, and straight up cheats. if you need a extra few dollars to afford that shinyGrenade Launcher or Super Heavy Armor, read on.

Looking to build up your bankroll in GTA Online? Read out Making Money in GTA Online page and you'll soon be swimming in a sea of luxury and decadence. 

Lester's side missions

As you progress through the game Lester will help franklin by giving him side missions that go along with the stock market. Listen closely as Lester will drop hints as to what stocks will increase once the mission is complete. The more you put into a stock the more you will get in return.

When to invest in FlyUS

After you complete the Mission Legal Trouble, the share price of FlyUS will fall dramatically. Invest your money in it now. Once you complete the mission Meltdown (a few missions later) the share price will return to what it was pre Legal Trouble. An example from my game, pre Legal Trouble the share price for FlyUS was around $250. Post Legal Trouble they dropped to $120. Once the mission Meltdown was completed, they went back to around $240 which doubled my investment.

Lurk near the ATM

For fast cash, stake out an ATM with bare fists or a SuppressedWeapon. People who have just visited an ATM generally have a bit of cash in their pockets.

Grease them and escape before the cops arrive.

Small Time Shenanigans for Big Bucks

Money is very hard to come by in the first few hours of GTA 5. When you need money quick, consider one of GTA 5’s nineteen Robberies.

Convenience stores and corner markets are prime, soft targets for a stick up. Walk in, aim a gun at the cashier, grab the money, and escape before the cops arrive.

Stake out a few favorite stores and look for handy hiding places nearby. Park your Vehicle facing toward the street just outside the store. Grab the cash, hop into your ride, and scoot away to your alcove. By rotating between a few familiar stores you can pick up a decent bankroll.

Some stores have two registers. By firing your gun into the second register you can force more money to pop out. Be sure to wait until you’ve got all the money from the first register before shooting to avoid alerting bystanders with the sound of the gunshot.

You can also rob gun and clothing stores by pulling out your gun and aiming it before entering the stores. Although the store's employee won't be emptying the cash registers for you, simply shooting them open yourself will provide you with the money inside.

Caution when robbing the same store multiple times as the clerk may get a gun, and is not afraid to use it.

Saving is Earning

Avoid the temptation to purchase Vehicles and Weapons you don’t need in the early sections of GTA 5. The ability to fill your newly-purchased economy-sized garage with custom rides is enticing, but every dollar you spare hijacking a sedan is a buck you’ll have available to buy things you really need.

Steal a couple of choice cars and store them in your home garage, and rely on theft for reliable transportation. Likewise, select four mainWeapons, (short range, long range, sniper, heavy), that you favor, and stick with these until you complete your first Heist. And always prioritize weapon purchases over Vehicles. Weapons are far more scarce.

Complete The Jewel Store Job and Other Heists

There’s real money in the first Heist, enough to give you a hefty Stock Market bankroll. Use our Walkthrough to complete the Heist seamlessly, and remember that the most valuable Jewels are hidden in the center cabinets in the island near the register.

Be sure to hire the best available Crew on any Heist. They end up saving more than you spend on most occasions.

Even after you've completed the jewelry store heist, there's several more heists available through the story missions, most of which provide you with a greater reward than the first heist.

Play the Market the Manipulative Way

Check out the Stock Market and multiply your earnings.

Once you've built up a large sum of money, multiply it with wise investment opportunities. Franklin’s series of assassination Missions are almost always tied to corporate sabotage and market rigging. Lester drops stock tips during Mission descriptions.

If you’re icing the CEO of a multinational pharmaceutical firm, invest in their competitor. And note that you can pause and check recent dialogue in the system menus if you miss anything! 

Once you begin an assassination mission, you will no longer be able to switch to another character.  As each character has their own wallet and portfolio, It may be worth your time to research the mission you are about to aquire, so that you can cycle through all three characters to invest in the counter stock.  No sense in letting Franklin monopolize all the gains!  Alternatively, the market response is somewhat delayed, so you can invest immedietly after you have done the deed and still capture almost all of the gains.

HOW TO INVEST

After every assassination, save your game at any safehouse a few times to fast forward to the time of the highest return. Remember, always invest all your money on all three characters. The return percentage may vary from game to game.

• Hotel Assassination: Invest in BettaPharmaceuticals (BAWSAQ) before the mission. ;Look for a 40-50% return.
• Multi-target Assassination: Invest in Debonaire (LCN) before the mission. Look for a 80-90% return. Immediately invest in Redwood (LCN) after selling your Debonaire stock as Redwood will see a rapid 300% increase within days.
• Vice Assassination: Invest in Fruit (BAWSAQ) before the mission. Look for a 50-60% return.
• Bus Assassination: Invest in Vapid (BAWSAQ) after the mission. Ignore any graphs or green/red arrows, if the stock's current value is well below the "low" value, then invest. Look for a 80-90% return after one or two in-game days (the stock will remain at its "low" value during that time, after which it will spike), although a return as high as 150% may occur.
• Construction Assassination: Invest in GoldCoast (GCD) before the mission. Look for a 80-90% return.

Rob an Armored Truck

In the beginning hours of the game, one of the easiest ways to make money is to rob an armored vehicle. They appear randomly as blips on the minimap while you are driving around. Take out the drivers, then blow the back doors open with a gun or C4. Collect the money, which is often worth over $5000, then escape the cops.

You might even be lucky enough to catch the security guards bringing the money to the armored truck beforehand, in which case the job is that much easier. Take out the guard carrying the cash, take the money, and run.

Invest in Merryweather Security after you complete the game

The Merryweather stock will be very low after the main story. Invest $30M in it and you should get about $6M more than you invested.

Money Saving Tips and Cheats

• Ammu-Nation Discount: If players complete all Gun Range challenges, they will receive a 15% discount at all Ammu-Nation stores. Getting Gold for all challenges gives the player a 25% discount.

• Free Weapon Upgrades: During a mission, visit an Ammu-Nation and purchase a weapon and all upgrades. Kill yourself after and the mission will fail. This will give you all your money back, however if you visit the Ammu-Nation again, the upgrades on the weapon will still be marked as purchased. At the mission fail screen press 'retry' (A, X), do not press 'exit' (B, O) or you will not get your money back.

• Free Vehicle Repairs: If you want to get out of fixing your vehicle, simply save your game and reload it. The vehicle will spawn back into the world fully repaired.