How to grow a money tree in Animal Crossing and farm the most 'Bells' possible

May 2024 · 5 minute read

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They say that money doesn't grow on trees. That might be true in real life, but couldn't be more wrong in Animal Crossing.

You can make a lot of money (or "Bells") fast in Animal Crossing by growing money trees. These are just like fruit trees, but instead of giving you peaches or pears, they'll grow bags of Bells. How much money they grow will depend on how much you plant, but if you're lucky, you can earn 300,000 Bells from a single tree.

Here's how to grow a money tree in Animal Crossing, and a quick guide on how much you'll earn.

How to grow a money tree in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Every day, a "shining spot" will appear in a random location on your island. This spot looks like a thin golden light rising from the ground, and it's the place where you'll grow your money tree.

1. Find the shining spot on your island and dig it up with a shovel. You'll find a bag of 1,000 Bells buried in the hole, and the hole will keep glowing.

A new shining spot will appear on the grass in your town each day. Nintendo; William Antonelli/Insider

2. Stay by the hole and open your inventory, then select a bag of bells and pick the Bury in Hole option.

You can bury the bag of Bells you just dug up, or bury your own money. Nintendo; William Antonelli/Insider

Quick tip: You can put your money into bags by selecting it and pressing A. This turns your money into an inventory item that you can drop, attach to letters, or in this case, bury. If you don't want to give up your own money, you can just re-bury the 1,000 Bells you dug up too.

3. Once you bury the money, a small sapling will sprout up in its place.

4. Wait three days for the tree to grow (or time travel forward three days). Unlike flowers, you don't need to water it.

5. Once the three days have passed, return to the spot where you planted your money tree. You'll find a fully grown tree with three money bags in place of fruit, and you can shake the tree to retrieve them.

Shake your money tree to make the bags of Bells fall. Nintendo; William Antonelli/Insider

After you shake the bags down, your money tree will become a regular tree. But since a new shining spot appears every day, it means that you can plant one new money tree per day.

If you don't like where your shining spot appeared, don't worry. Once you bury your bells and the sapling appears, you can dig up the sapling with a shovel and replant it anywhere.

How to earn the most money possible from money trees in Animal Crossing

The amount of money that your trees will grow depends on how much you bury. The more money you bury, the higher the chance is that you'll hit the money tree jackpot.

Your game decides how much money it's going to grow for you the exact moment you plant the tree. There's no pattern to this decision — it's purely chance.

Here's how much money you'll earn based on what you plant. Remember that every money tree grows exactly three bags.

Amount of Money Planted

Amount of Money Produced
Between 100 and 1,000 Bells100 percent chance of growing 1,000 Bells per bag
Between 1,001 and 9,999 Bells70 percent chance of growing 1,000 Bells per bag; 30 percent chance of growing the same amount that you buried per bag
Between 10,000 Bells and 99,999 Bells70 percent chance of growing 10,000 Bells per bag; 30 percent chance of growing the same amount that you buried per bag

This means that the most money you can earn from a single money tree is 299,997 Bells — that's three bags with 99,999 Bells each.

If you're looking to farm money trees to make the most amount of money possible, you should bury 10,000 Bells each day (3,650,000 each year). This guarantees that you'll triple your investment with each tree, earning a profit of 20,000 Bells each day and 7,300,000 Bells each year. That's a 200 percent increase.

Tech Reporter for Insider Reviews William Antonelli (he/she/they) is a writer, editor, and organizer based in New York City. As a founding member of the Reference team, he helped grow Tech Reference (now part of Insider Reviews) from humble beginnings into a juggernaut that attracts over 20 million visits a month. Outside of Insider, his writing has appeared in publications like Polygon, The Outline, Kotaku, and more. He's also a go-to source for tech analysis on channels like Newsy, Cheddar, and NewsNation. You can find him on Twitter @DubsRewatcher, or reach him by email at wantonelli@businessinsider.com. Read more Read less

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