In bad economic times and good, there are always some people who end up in a situation where they need to make some quick cash to pay an unexpected bill or something. Unfortunately though, when the economy is bad there can be more people needed fast money and less people who have the money to spend so the success of any method can vary.
But enough of the bad news, let’s discuss a few ways you can generate cash to pay that looming bill or buy something you need right now.
1. Sell Off Your Stuff
Selling off your belongings is the easiest and quickest way to generate cash. The least painful way to do that is to go through stuff you no longer use and sell it at a yard sale or on Craigslist. But if you do not have a lot of extraneous junk or you need a large amount of cash, you may have to sell of some things that you still like or use. It all depends on the urgency of the situation.
If you own a lot of books, there are a few online sites that will pay you depending on the books you have. Textbooks and out-of-print books will fetch the best price of course. Check out Cash4Books if this is an option for you.
If you are having trouble selling your stuff and your need for cash is desperate, you can always check in with your local pawn store. Generally you will need something valuable whether you want to sell of just pawn. But keep this as your last resort.
2. Try Freelance Work
There are a number of ways to approach freelance work from offering to mow your neighbors yards to offering professional services online. If you want to offer a local service you may have to think out of the box, but lawn mowing and babysitting are to things to consider. Also, check Craigslist section of jobs under “Etc” where people list random jobs they have for pay. But be careful with any posting as there are scam artists who manipulate Craigslist.
There are several online sites that allow you to offer services or big on work for pay. Elance.com, Guru.com, oDesk.com and Mechanical Turk are just a few. But be aware that you will need to establish a Paypal account for payments and that your taxes will be more complicated by freelance work as you will be considered self-employed.
3. Miscellaneous Online Money Makers
There are a few different ways to make money online, but they are not always quick. The problem is that even if you do the work, payments can often be delayed by a week to two months depending on the payment system. But if you need to raise a good amount of money and haven’t had a lot of success with the first two suggestions, cash in two months is better than nothing.
First, check out Fiverr.com. This is a site where people offer services or products for $5. If you have unique talent or are just creative, you could easily make a few fiverrs – just check out some of the silly things that sell on there.
Online Surveys are easy to join and you can make a few extra dollars, but don’t count on much. But if you need $50 to get your beloved guitar out of pawn, well, doing paid surveys may help.
There are a few other ways to make extra money that aren’t quite as quick but are worth checking out:
Mystery Shopping
Focus Groups
Freelance Writing Gigs
Needing to make quick money can be very stressful. When things settle down, make sure you establish an emergency fund to avoid these kinds of stresses in the future. And if you find some of the methods easy or enjoyable there is no reason you can’t continue to generate some extra cash on the side and get that emergency established even faster.
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