I disagree ! its a grind fest! The MC earns $200 per day (and couple of $20 deliveries) argument sake thats $1000 every 5 days! the 1st thing you need to buy $5000 thats 20 + in game days ! add that to the go meet here in morning and be @ here in the afternoon... etc you telling me thats not GRIND
You are clearly not doing something correctly.
Back in 0.15, prior to the lottery tickets being available, between hacking and lockpicking as much as I could (using coffee and water for extra energy) and working at The Royal every day (which took no more than 5 real-time minutes per "in-game day"), I was earing an average of $550 per "in-game day".
I had the equipment upgrade by the end of Day 2, and the new wing for the house by day 8.
I'd recommend buying all the coffee and water you can, on any given day.
That's $60 out.
Then focus on doing as much hacking as you can and lockpicking when you have enough energy left.
As far as "perks" go, focus on "less energy used per hack/lockpick", and once you've gotten both of those, focus on "more hacks/lockpicks per day"
And yes, it's repetitive, but
as Crippy rightly pointed out above... it's not grind.
Grinding is repeating the same NPC interactions to progress the game.
Grinding is having the exact same scene/dialogue repeated over and over and over to gain "points" with an NPC to move onto the next stage of the game with that NPC.
While earning money in this game is repetitive, it really doesn't advance the story or the game in general.
Yes, you do need Vivian to move in, for the story to progress, and you do need the new wing to be built for that to happen.
and if you want the sauna scene with Lily and Paige, you're gonna have to build the sauna to get that.
Beyond those two instances, money is not used to progress the game/story at all.
Earning money is simple (if repetitive) and doesn't take long, you're progressing the game when you're not earning money.
I spent considerably more time interacting with the various NPCs on a day-to-day basis, then I did earning money.
It's not grindy for me in the slightest, it's just a money mechanic which is typical of most games.
What's atypical is the ways you can earn cash.
- working
- hacking
- lockpicking
- deliveries
- lotto tickets
What's also atypical is that, beyond working a shift at The Royal, absolutely none of the other money-making tasks advance the clock.
You can get all of them done in the morning, or the evening, or whenever (except deliveries, because those are only available at Noon or the Afternoon... I think)
Sure it's repetitive, like every other money mechanic, but it's not grindy.
If you want to experience actual grind, play Big Brother, or one of it's various clones.
Try out Foot of the Mountains, Chapter 1.
Try virtually any sandbox that has Russian as an available language.
That's grind.