You're broke. It sucks. You’re playing as Franklin, staring at a high-end Pegassi Vacca in a showroom, but your bank account has barely enough for a pack of P's & Q's and a car wash. We’ve all been there. Most players think they need to grind small-time robberies or chase armored trucks around Los Santos to build a fortune. They’re wrong.
Actually, the secret to how to get money GTA 5 story mode isn't about working hard; it's about being incredibly patient. If you’ve already finished the "Life Invader" mission and started doing hits for Lester, you might have already messed up your chances of becoming a multi-billionaire. Yeah, billion with a "B."
Most people play the story missions as they come. It’s natural. But in the world of Michael, Franklin, and Trevor, the big money is tied to the stock market, and the stock market is tied to the deaths of corporate CEOs. If you kill the target before you’ve invested your heist setup money, you’re essentially flushing millions down the drain. Stop what you’re doing. Don't touch those "L" icons on the map until you understand how the LCN and BAWSAQ actually work.
The Golden Rule: Save the Assassinations
Here is the thing. Lester Crest offers Franklin a series of assassination missions. Each one targets a major player in a specific industry. When a CEO dies, their company's stock plummets, and their competitor's stock skyrockets. This is your ticket to infinite wealth.
However, you only get one shot at this.
You should only complete the first assassination mission—The Hotel Assassination—because it’s required to progress the main story. After that? Ignore Lester. Seriously. Leave him hanging. You need to finish the entire main storyline first, including the final "Big Score" heist. Why? Because the final heist nets each character roughly $25 million to $35 million.
Think about the math. If you invest $100,000 and get an 80% return, you made $80,000. Cool, you can buy a garage. But if you invest $30,000,000 and get that same 80% return? You just made $24,000,000. Now multiply that across three characters and five different missions. That is how you end up with enough money to buy every property in the game, including the $150,000,000 Golf Club.
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Mastering the LCN and BAWSAQ
Los Santos has two stock exchanges. The LCN is influenced by in-game events and is totally offline. The BAWSAQ used to be influenced by the global player base via the Rockstar Social Club, but in 2026, it functions mostly as a scripted market for specific missions.
The Multi-Step Investment Strategy
When you finally have that heist money, head to your phone's browser. Go to the Money and Services tab. Here is exactly how to play the market during the remaining Lester missions:
The Multi-Target Assassination Before starting, put every cent from all three characters into Debonaire (LCN). After the mission, wait for the stock to rise to about 80%. Sell it all. Immediately dump that new wealth into Redwood. You’ll have to wait a few in-game days for Redwood to rebound, but when it does, it usually jumps by 300%.
The Vice Assassination This one is simple. Invest in Fruit (BAWSAQ) before the hit. It usually peaks around 50%. Sell, then buy Facade. Facade is the competitor, and it will slowly crawl back up.
The Bus Assassination This one works differently. Do not buy anything before the mission. Instead, complete the hit, then wait for Vapid (BAWSAQ) stock to crash. Once it hits the floor—usually around a 50% drop—buy in with everyone. Wait a few days, and it’ll bounce back to its original price. You just doubled your money for doing basically nothing.
The Construction Assassination This is the finale. Invest in Gold Coast (LCN) before the mission. It’ll rise by roughly 80%.
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People get impatient. They sleep in the game to pass time (saving the game at a safehouse advances time by 6 to 12 hours depending on the character). Trevor sleeps the longest, by the way. If the stock hasn't hit the peak mentioned in most guides, just keep sleeping. Check the market. Don't sell too early just because you're scared of a dip.
The Tinkle Random Encounter: A "Free" Millions
There is a specific random event that most people trigger by accident while driving to the airport. Look for a guy whose car broke down on the side of the road near Ineseno Road. He needs a lift to the airport because he's about to miss his flight.
If you get him there in time, he gives you a stock tip for a company called Tinkle (TNK).
Honestly, this is the best non-heist way to get money GTA 5 story mode offers. If you do this after the Big Score, you can dump your millions into Tinkle and see a 30% return almost instantly. It’s a one-time deal, so don't trigger it while you're still a low-level thug with only $500 in your pocket. If you see a hitchhiker near the highway on the west side of the map, and you aren't rich yet? Drive away. Fast.
Small-Scale Hustles for the Early Game
Maybe you’re early in the game and you can’t wait for the final heist. You need money for ammo, armor, or a decent engine tune-up.
- Armored Trucks: You’ll see blue blips on the mini-map. These are Gruppe Sechs vans. Don't just shoot the drivers. Shoot the back doors where the handles meet, or use a sticky bomb. You’ll usually net between $3,000 and $7,000. It’s a quick way to get a 2-star wanted level, but it’s easy cash.
- The Hidden Caches: There are briefcases of cash hidden on the ocean floor. One of the most famous is the wreck of a plane on the western coast. It contains $25,000. In the older versions of the game, you could switch characters to respawn the money, but Rockstar patched most of those "exploits." Still, grabbing them once provides a nice starting boost.
- Robbing Shops: Most players forget you can actually walk into a suburban clothing store or a barbershop and shoot the registers. It’s petty crime, and the payout is low (a few hundred bucks), but it’s an option if you’re truly desperate.
Misconceptions About the Stock Market
A lot of "expert" guides tell you that you can influence stock prices by destroying property. For example, people say if you blow up FlyUS planes at the airport, AirEmu stock will go up.
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I’ve tested this for hours. Honestly? It barely works.
The amount of destruction required to move a stock price by even 1% is astronomical. You’d spend more on RPG rockets and sticky bombs than you’d make in profit. The game's engine just isn't that dynamic outside of the scripted missions. Don't waste your time roleplaying as a corporate saboteur unless you're doing a mission for Lester or Devin Weston.
The Property Trap: Spend to Earn?
Buying property seems like a great way to get money GTA 5 story mode style, but the Return on Investment (ROI) is actually terrible.
Take the Hen House in Paleto Bay. It costs $80,000. It brings in $920 a week. Do the math—it takes about 87 in-game weeks to just break even. That’s nearly 44 hours of real-time gameplay just to see one dollar of profit.
Properties should be your "end-game" goal. Buy them because you want the missions or the prestige, not because you think they’ll make you rich. The only exception is the Smoke on the Water dispensary for Franklin, which pays for itself relatively quickly, or the hangars which allow you to store stolen military jets.
Immediate Steps to Maximize Your Wealth
- Stop doing Lester's missions. If you see a green "L" on the map and you've already done the Hotel Assassination, leave it alone.
- Complete "The Big Score." Choose the "Obvious" approach if you want a slightly higher payout, and always hire the best gunmen and hackers to ensure you don't lose money during the getaway.
- Invest everything. Use all three characters to buy the target stocks before the assassinations.
- Use the "Save" trick. Before every mission and every big trade, save your game in a new slot. If the market doesn't behave or you sell too late, just reload.
- Check the "Return" percentage. Don't look at the stock price; look at the percentage of growth. 80% is the magic number for most Lester hits.
If you follow this path, you’ll end up with roughly $2.1 billion per character. That is the hard cap for the game's engine. Any more than that, and the numbers actually glitch out. You will literally have more money than you can ever possibly spend in the game. You can buy the golf course, every cinema, every car, and still have billions left over to cause chaos in the streets of Los Santos. This is the only way to truly "beat" the economy of GTA 5.