Lonnie Leach - Part I

Meet Lonnie Leach.

Traits: Charismatic, Virtuoso, Artistic, Mooch, Ambitious
LTW: Living in the Lap of Luxury (net worth of $100,000)

Lonnie wants the nice things in life but he can't be bothered to work for them. He lives in a simple, three-room trailer but dreams of owning a large, beautiful home. Can he achieve this without pursuing a career, painting, or writing? This is my attempt at Opi's Mr Opportunity challenge, part of the Lap of Luxury group of challenges.

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First Lonnie gets to know the neighbors. Erin Kennedy has a nice home, she must be worth a few simoleans...

After chatting to Erin and mooching a quick meal, Lonnie heads home to practise the guitar. He has a theory that he may be able to make decent money busking in the park.

Finally, Lonnie spends some time in the library reading about charisma.



Lonnie doesn't have a bed yet and so he heads back to Erin's house who is more then happy for Lonnie to sleep over. She's also willing to share her large and comfortable bed (strictly as friends though)!

Next day Lonnie meets his other neighbors - the Alvi family. He decides they are an odd household but nice enough. VJ Alvi is especially strange.


Lonnie also gets a Charisma opportunity to use charming introduction. He visits Fiona at the Single Mom's house and completes the opportunity. While he's there he helps himself to some tomatoes to stock his fridge.



When he gets home, Lonnie checks the weekly events in the newspaper and notes there is an Eating Contest on Wednesday. So the next day he heads to the bistro and wins some cash for stuffing himself silly (I think it was $1000).

Lonnie now has enough Happiness Points to purchase the discount diner reward. Why waste money on food when you can dine out for free?

On day 4 he reaches level 5 guitar skill. So Lonnie can now play for tips. He plays for 2 hours and earns $58 in tips. Not great but he's sure the money will get better as his skill improves.




On Saturday morning, Lonnie mooches some food from Erin then heads off to the park again. He plays from 10:45AM to 5.45PM. This time he earns $464.



At the end of the week, Lonnie is disturbed from his sleep by the phone ringing - he is asked to teach criminals how to talk. This should be easy. Lonnie accepts the opportunity and the next day earns himself $1000 at the police station. He celebrates with a free (thanks to the lifetime reward) meal at the bistro.

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End of week one: net worth is approx. $16,000. This is the same as Lonnie started out with and so not very good! Hopefully, the simoleons will start to roll in once he's mastered a few more tunes on the guitar.

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The following week, Lonnie competes in the eating contest for the second time, netting himself another $1000. He then hangs outside the bistro for a few extra hours, strumming his guitar. There's reasonably good foot traffic and he earns $332 in a very short time.



Lonnie is also building great relationships from playing the guitar. He has now completed both the Celebrity (25 acquaintances) and Super Friendly (20 friends) charisma challenges.

Each day in week 2 Lonnie earns money playing his guitar for tips. He is now at skill level 10. On his best day so far, he plays for 7 hours and earns $1215. He knows that by completing the Guitar Star challenge he can earn better tips but he (and I) haven't figured out how exactly to do that. Apparently he needs to play at 10 venues or parties but he hasn't managed to play at any yet. He did hold his own party and play but this didn't seem to count. I'm also disappointed that in two weeks NO guitar opportunities have come up.

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End of week two: net worth is approx. $21,000. An improvement, but at this rate $100,000 is going to take a very long time! Lonnie and I need to refine the strategy if he is ever going to achieve his LTW. I'm thinking about investing in some businesses or maybe finding a spouse who can mooch alongside Lonnie.

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