To “win” Stardew Valley, you have to get 100% Perfection, which involves mastering most of the game’s individual mechanics, minigames, and exploration challenges, as well as becoming every single villager’s best friend. It can take quite a while to get anywhere close to Perfection, especially if there are parts of the game that you simply don’t care to engage with.
One of the biggest hurdles, however, is just earning straight cash. You’ll be fine for everyday expenses if you’re smart about which crops you focus on (potatoes, strawberries, blueberries, melons, pumpkins), but many of the endgame challenges in Stardew involve making fat stacks. If you want that elusive 100%, you need 14 million gold to build all four Obelisks and the Gold Clock.
The time-tested way to become a cash-money millionaire in Stardew usually involves turning your farm and/or beach house into a production facility for high-quality starfruit wine. As you’re going about your business in the mid-to-late game, it’s worth having Robin build you a storage shed, and then filling it with kegs and preserve jars. When you’re ready to cash out, install a bunch of casks in your farmhouse basement, age all your stockpiled starfruit wine in them, and practice using terms like “mouthfeel” and “oaky” like you know what they mean.