分类： Money Management

Are you desperate for money?

What happened recently that caused you being in desperate need for cash?

Did you gamble? or maybe spent money on a vacation or cruise you couldn’t afford from the start

Or perhaps you got a medical bill or a surgery to do

For all the above, what was done was done, don’t cry over your spilled milk

Money was spent, just learn from the lesson and move forward

I am not here to judge you, not at all I am trying to help you

But if you are in desperate need for money for an upcoming event like your son or daughter’s wedding

Most probably you won’t ruin one of a time moment because you are broke

Anyway I’ll list below what to do if you’re desperate for money – I will start with

What to do if you’re desperate for money?

I know some of the below works for immediate situation

Now going forward, you must have full control on your conditions by building emergency fund and saving for the future

I will be honest, you’re going to put yourself in some sucky situations

It will start with eating cheap food just to save money on your grocery

You’ll have to step out of your comfort zone and work extra hours

Give up all the things you buy for yourself

Anyway ready for quick cash – I will start with the below

1- Return unnecessary purchases

I know it looks a simple advice but in reality it is deep than what you think

Costco store for example returns any products not only in the first 90 days of your purchase but also if you have it undamaged after that

I remember my wife had a pink T-shirt and she asked me to return it there at Costco

They didn’t mind to return it back but that item was 5 years old where it will be returned with the lowest ticket price

Walmart will return any product that exceeded the return back period and give you a store credit

What I want to say even with a store credit, you take your refund and buy your necessities that would be considered some quick cash

Do you know you can buy a Visa gift card with your store credit?

Bear with me as I will tell you how to cash it out right below

2- Exchange your unused store or Visa gift cards into cash

If you are really desperate for money

There are so many ways to do that – I will start with the most straight forward one

You can use your Visa gift card to buy store card from stores that accept Visa gift cards

Use the store card to buy whatever you need immediately

Then cash out the amount from your checking account that is equivalent to what you have on your store card

Or

Call the number on the back of you Visa gift card to register this card under your address

Then log on to your PayPal or sign up for a new PayPal account

You will be able to transfer the money to your bank account by using your linked Visa gift card

Or

If you don’t know how to do that, you can select under PayPal the send money feature to someone you trust – keep in mind there is 3% transfer fees

This person can transfer it to his bank account and give it to you as cash

3- Sell all the things you don’t need

I said this quote below about selling all the things you don’t need

Walk in your place of living and go into every and each room, look around on the floor and all the way up to the ceiling, do you see anything you can get rid of? a Quote for someone being desperate for money

Having said that, let’s say you have found multiple items to sell

Sell electronics, furniture, appliances and household items

First, before selling these items, search for these items as if you are buying them

Get a sheet of paper and write down all the prices you have found

Remember, don’t take the first price you see as your benchmark

some sellers don’t care about listing their items correctly

They just want to declutter their homes and looking for a quick cash

Yes that’s true, I had a piano and I went to Facebook Marketplace

I found people listing their pianos for free

Anyway, get 3 or 4 different prices on Facebook Marketplace and look for different cities around you

Now it is time to start listing it

if your item is less or equal to $100 then Facebook Marketplace can do a better job of finding buyers in your neighborhood eager to pick up your item and pay cash on the spot

But if you are selling an item more than $100

You can list it on multiple places like Craiglist and eBay beside Facebook Marketplace

Arrange for garage or yard sale

I wanted to add the above title as my first option

But I found you definitely need to understand the concept of setting up your prices from Facebook Marketplace

It is up to you to empty your garage and display your items on long tables with enough room for people to walk around

If you are desperate for money, this is an easy job to get rid of many items in short period of time

Sell your clothes

People nowadays started reacting positive towards used clothes and not like 1990s

I think that’s totally related to the birth of internet

Anyway if you open you closet and look carefully definitely you will find clothes you won’t wear

Except for the COVID-19 case, there is a quote that says if you pass your current season with clothes you did not wear, then definitely you won’t wear it again

Anyway, having said that, I will list below multiple sites where you can sell your unused clothes like

Poshmark although they take 20% which is considered high commission taking 20% but it is one of the top site for selling clothes beside having mobile app
Vinted
Tradesy same like Poshmark, high commission of 20% and long time for money to arrive to your PayPal account
TheRealReal
Grailed Some users reported that they take long time to reply back to emails
Regain on iPhone it got 4.5 out of 5 reviews
Depop low reviews of 3.5 out of 5
Luxury closet moderate reviews of 4.1 out of 5
Swop.it average of 4 out of 5 on reviews

Sell your car

I’ll be realistic, owning a car nowadays is a must

But if you are desperate for money and have 2 cars

Why don’t you think about getting rid of one car

I remember my first 4 years of marriage, me and my wife were using one car

Right now, during COVID-19 so many families are working from home

This means they are using one car

So if you are in need for cash then think about selling one car

Anyway always sell the less reliable one as you don’t want to fix your car with that money you got from your sold car

Sell your old cell phone

One of the best ways If you are desperate for money, open your drawer and see if you still have one or two old phones

You are not going to use them so if you are desperate for cash then use on uSell, Gazelle and decluttr to sell your old cell phones and also some other types of electronics

Sell your clutter

If you have things like books, CDs, DVDs, LEGO and old games

You can use the below sites

• Book Monster
• EagleSaver.com
• Ziffit.com

Beside also you can use decluttr to sell books, LEGO, games and consoles

When selling books with decluttr you type your books barcode or install the app to scan your barcodes using your phone

Sell your plasma

Again, risky for your health but If you are desperate for money, search in your city or the area you live for clinics buying plasma

All you have to do is search online for “get paid for donating plasma near me”

Sell your poop

I know it is weird but there are researchers and clinics buying poop for a new medical treatment

4- Get a housemate

I know you and me like to set our own privacy and we don’t like someone to share our place of living

But if you are desperate for money then you will have to get out of your comfort zone

Rent or mortgage is almost 25% or more of your income so getting someone to pay half of what you pay is really a good money

5- Rent your belongings for quick cash

If you are desperate for quick cash and don’t want to sell your belongings

I have an idea of renting instead of selling

This will bring you steady money but less than selling

Rent your car

If you are desperate for money, I suggested earlier to sell one of your cars but I know what was your feeling

May be a feeling of discomfort, OK I understand that

With Turo you can rent your car while you are not using it

If you like the idea then you can rent both of your cars for a steady income

There are other websites to rent your car like Getaround and TravelCar

Rent your RV

Do you own RV? if so, do you know you can make money out of it?

Some people like to take RV for camping and some resort area with far away hotels

I remember I went to a nice beach in Ontario for 3 days

I booked the nearest hotel 28 miles away

Anyway with RVShare you can make an extra cash like up to $150 per night

Also you can consider another website called Outdoorsy

Rent your extra room or basement

If the idea of looking for housemate makes you uncomfortable then you can consider AirBnb to rent your extra room or basement by days

Perhaps you can decide the days you want to make available for booking

Rent an extra space for storage

If you are desperate for money, there are so many people who want to stock their boats, cars, RVs or furniture

If you have an extra space in your driveway or anywhere else

Why don’t you use it to make money out of it

Do you know docking a boat can cost up to $15,000 a year?

If you offer half of this price, then definitely someone will finish a deal with you

You don’t have to do this all by yourself

But you can use Neighbor.com to help you rent your extra space in your home or garage

6- Sign up for free quick cash websites or apps

I know this is not a final solution

But immediate quick cash especially if you are desperate for money

The below sites and apps give you unconditional bonus when you sign up

• Swagbucks – 5$ bonus
• Inbox Dollars – $5 bonus
• Ibotta – $20 bonus
• Dosh – $5 bonus
• Rakuten – $10 bonus

Also there are so many websites that can pay up to $150 an hour for your opinion over the phone or in a group discussion like Respondent

Few websites below that tried to come close to Respondent like

User Interviews
FieldWork – US only
FocusGroup – US only
20|20 Panel
Recruit and Field
American Consumer Opinion
Probe Market Research
Survey Feeds

Again this encourages me to introduce you to many sites that offer free PayPal money instantly

Trust me it is worth to review them to collect ideas of what you can do

At the same time, you can test traditional survey sites that pay to your PayPal account

Also you can do the below to make some cash by doing the following activities

Get paid to walk by using Sweatcoin and downloading it on your iPhone and Android

Using Paidtogo another get paid to walk app available on iPhone and Android

Give your opinion about brands and make money with Toluna

Or write a review about a product you have tried before using Slice the Pie

Playing free online gambling by using Lucktastic

Let others use your phone data to access internet by downloading Honeygain

Make money by running Ads on your phone screen when it is locked by downloading ScreenLift or Slidejoy

Get paid watching videos or trailers for upcoming games by downloading AppTrailers

Get paid completing some fun and easy tasks, playing cool and nice games, watching videos by downloading CashPirate

7- Give up your WANTS

Actually I talked before many times about your wants and needs

I know some people don’t know the difference

But I will summarize it in few words

Your needs is everything that keeps you surviving like your shelter, food and transportation

Yes for the later, you need to get back and forth to work

On the other side, you wants is anything that you can get rid of and still doesn’t impact your life

An example but it is harsh for me to say it

I was reading on Reddit earlier about someone living with his dog and he is really desperate for money

To my surprise, one of the readers suggested to get rid of his dog temporarily by sending him to a shelter

I know how pet in your life makes you feel but it depends on your situation

8- Get cashback on everything you buy

If you are desperate for money, there are so many cashback credit cards that give you up to 4%

Some are free with no annual charges and they give up to 2% cashback

While most of the 4% Visa or Mastercard come with annual charges

Sometimes you can get 5% cash back like Target if used inside the store

While the above is a must have option you can still make cash back from many apps when buying online or in the stores like

Get cashback with your purchases and gas

Swagbucks gives you 5$ bonus when you sign up and cashback on any purchase you make online through their website

Rakuten with $10 bonus and cash back on thousands of online stores

MyPoints is a reward program similar to Swagbucks, you get $10 bonus when you sign up

You have to make a minimum purchases of $20 to cash out your bonus

TopCashBack is similar to MyPoints where you get rebates and coupons through many stores online

Qmee is also similar to the above

Paribus gives you cashback on online purchases similar to Rakuten and available on mobile phones

Ibotta gives $20 bonus when you sign up and cashback on groceries, also available on mobile phones

Honey is a mobile app that gives you cashback similar to Rakuten, Paribus and TopCashBack

Dosh gives you $5 bonus when you sign up

All you have to do is link your debit or credit to the app and the app will scan all purchases and gives you cashback on selected products

Shopkick is another app making money for you through online shopping

GetUpside is a cashback app for gas, it gives you 25 cents back on every gas receipt

Fetch Rewards you get $2 when you sign up and gives you cash back on your scanned receipts

Receipt Hog gives you cashback on your grocery receipts and it is available on Android and iPhone

Storewards similar to Receipt Hog it gives you cashback on your groceries available on Android and iPhone

Cashout 51 same as Receipt Hog and Storewards, it gives you cashback on products shown on the app only

ShopAtHome is another cashback app partnered with more than 2,000 retailers in US

I know the above apps would not be suffice if you are desperate for money but it really sums up

9- Cut unnecessary bills and negotiate the must use ones

I had a previous post about catching up on bills when you are behind

I summarize two important points

There are bills you can easily get rid of like home phone

You can replace it with VOIP – Voice Over IP phone or completely use your cell phones and that’s enough for people to reach you

Also for the cable TV instead of paying $50 to $100 monthly fees

You can replace it with IPTV for fraction of what you pay like $30 annually

What about a magazine subscription? do you have time to read them?

Again GYM membership – is it essential for you to keep it?

Now for all the bills that you cannot live without

You can negotiate them but don’t do it yourself

Get the expert to do it for you by using AskTrim, BillSmart, BillCutterz, BillFixers and Bill Shark in the US

Or you can use Bill Busters in Canada

10- Work a part time job or find a side hustle

When you say I am desperate for money and looking for a sort of cash flow every month

If that’s the case, you can work on a part time job or find an easy side hustle you can do for an extra quick cash like the following things below

Work overtime for easy cash

Start with an easy option of looking for working over time

Talk to your manager and see if it is possible as some companies don’t want to incur paying 1.5 hours for each hour

Complete micro jobs for business

If you are not able to work overtime then you can look for completing micro jobs for other companies or businesses

If you are desperate for money, there are companies that don’t want to hire a contractor for small tasks

If you like the idea, you can sign up to Gigwalk and browse all the jobs you can do

It can be auditing and taxation, building company websites, testing websites or managing the social media

Perform small tasks around the house

Being a handy man is really a talent or skill everyone will envy you about it

You don’t have to be desperate for money anymore

People will start looking for you even without advertising for yourself

It can be by words of mouth

I know two family relatives who were able to finish their basements all by themselves

They only had to buy the building materials which is a fraction of what you’ll pay if you hire someone to finish your basement for you

If you know how to do things around your home, you can use your skills to do work in other homes and get a quick cash

A site like TaskRabbit is one of the top website and app to sign up as a worker

Also you can consider these competitive below websites which are all similar to TaskRabbit

Zaarly
Handy
NeedTo
Porch
NextDoor
TalkLoca

Drive Uber or Lyft

Driving your car with Uber or Lyft will give you a lot of flexibility in our time

If you are ready to work, just turn on the app

When you are done just turn off the app

If you are desperate for money then Uber or Lyft will make quick cash for you

Teach English Online

There are many foreigners especially Chinese students looking to learn English

Or it can be anyone how wants to practice English as a second language

If you are desperate for money, you can get paid $23 an hour?

The best thing is that you can set your own time

Anyway if you are interested in teaching English

You can consider the below website to sign up and start teaching English to students

TeckAway
VIPKID
Dada
Qkids
iTutorGroup
GoGoKid
51Talk
EnglishHunt

Do online tutoring

If you are not into teaching English

But you are capable of teaching other materials like Math, Science or whatever

You still have a chance to make good money from teaching

Just sign up to the below websites

Tutor
Tutorvista
VIPKID
Chegg Tutors
TutorHub
Smarthinking
Aim for A Tutoring
Buddy School
MyPrivateTutor
Transtutor
Vedantu
TutorMe
Skooli
Wyzant
PrePly
CourseHero

Deliver food

I totally understand how you feel taking food delivery job for someone you may know

In fact, you can specify the location you want to work for to avoid this embarrassment

If after all of that, it happens you meet someone you know

So what there is nothing wrong about working extra job

I heard a story of someone who worked in gas station on weekends for 6 hours each day

2 hours after work on daily basis and almost after 3 years he is celebrating paying off his debt

I worked at Walmart for 3 years and I was embarrassed about it

Anyway I am not here to change your attitude

If you are interested about food delivery then you can consider DoorDash or Postmates

Babysitting

Babysitting is a very lucrative business

There is always a short in supply and high in demand

The most important thing in babysitting business is to work this job if you are patient and really love kids

Although it is very lucrative and you can make a lot of money out of it

It takes good time to build a reputable name and it is easy to get your reputation ruined by simple mistakes you don’t pay attention to

For example, parents picking up their kid only to find food all over his clothes or a trace of chocolate over his mouth

They won’t tell you but you will never get this kid again

My point is once you get 5 or more kids, you will have these kids over and over for some good time

Let us do the math here, If you babysit 3-4 kids at one session, no more than that

You don’t want to lose your focus as you need to keep an eye on all the kids

How to maximize your babysitting side hustle

You can easily charge $25 an hour and that’s a really good rate

This is $200 for 2 hours and you will get paid cash

I found Care.com to be a good site for you to signup for your babysitting services

Here is a trick to penetrate this lucrative but hard business without any hassle

Start with a small scale by advertising yourself in your neighborhood like 2-3 streets near you

Most probably your face looks familiar to your neighbors

You can advertise your name with a photo of yourself on every mailbox

They will most likely trust you for 2 hours babysitting job

What is most important here is the feedback you will collect from these parents

Don’t be shy to ask for it

Also you can buy cheap toys for the kids

What is more important is to have these kids showing joy impression on their faces when their parents drop them at your place

Who knows may be you won’t be desperate for money anymore

Walk dogs and pets

If you love pets and already talking your dog for walk

Why you don’t take other dogs for walk too and make money out of it

Yes this is possible with Rover, all you have to do is sign up for a new account

Then you can offer your services like boarding a dog where dog owners can leave their dogs with others while they are on vacation

Plus other services like house sitting, drop-in visits, doggy day care and dog walking

There are two other competitive websites fetchpetcare and petsitters.org offering same services

Flipper – reselling items for profit

Buying things for cheap and selling them high to others buyers

Weird right? but it is real side hustle that can make you thousands of money

I remember I had a piano and I went to Facebook Marketplace to see how much it is worth for similar type

I found a lot of people offering pianos for free just to pick them up

Simply they want to get rid of it and never thought to sell it

I know someone name Rob and his wife Melissa, they are expert flippers

They make $100,000 a year just from flipping items

That’s why they packaged their huge knowledge into a flipping course

Transcribers

Transcribers are those who can simply type audio recordings to convert them to text

Perhaps you have to be a fast typist and be able to memorize or quickly mark on your document any section that needs to be revised

You can expect to be paid between $25 to $30 an hour

That’s really a decent pay for someone who is desperate for money

Below are all the sites that require transcribers

Crowdsurf
Daily Transcription
GMR Transcription
Neal R. Gross
Scribie
Tigerfish
Transcriptions ‘N’ Translations
TranscribeMe
Ubiqus
1-888-TYPE-IT-UP
Verbal Ink
3Play Media
Transcription Outsourcing

If you want to pursue the transcribers job then you can take this Transcribe Anywhere course

Scoping jobs

Scopist is a person who edits the transcripts of official proceedings created by court reporters

So what is hard in that?

It is not hard but reporters write legal proceedings quickly and there may be spelling and grammatical mistakes

That’s why you need to be good for fixing grammar and punctuation

Good news is you don’t need to attend or go to the court

But you need to be able to work under pressure and by yourself

Finally, if you are interested into pursuing scoping jobs then you can check this scoping course

Website Tester

Testing websites is an easy job compared to all other IT jobs

Sometimes website tester requires to install certain software and use webcam

User Testing pays to PayPal minimum of $10
User Feel is similar website
Userbrain.net

TestingTime is similar but you are testing products or services

Freelance jobs

If you are really desperate for money then search carefully for all the freelancing jobs and see if you can really one or more of these type of jobs

Freelancing is a big umbrella of so many jobs like graphic design including posters and logos

Also building websites, writing contents for your blog, developing applications especially on mobile and testing websites

These above jobs are just an example but there are so many more

At the same time, these freelancing website Fiverr, Guru, and PeoplePerHour are few of many freelancing sites that connect those who are looking to hire with freelancers

11- Ask a friend for help

You know asking a friend to lend you money is easier than getting a loan from your financial institution

At least your friend will lend you with no interest

You just have to swallow your pride and admit that you are in trouble

It doesn’t matter if your friend would think that you are desperate for money

I know it can be embarrassing and they will ask you few questions about your finances and what let you to into that situation

Anyway it will end up that if they show a sign of agreeing on the concept of lending you money

It is now your turn to set up a solid expectation of then you will be able to pay it back

You have to be clear about paying back in installments or lump sum after certain period of time

If paying by installment, make sure to pay the due amount on time as it will be very embarrassing for your relative or friend to remind you

What if he is a shy person, this person will stay away from you

This will cause to ruin your relationship for no reason

Remember to treat your lender the same way you want to be treated if it happens that you lend money to him/her

12- Apply for a loan or line of credit

If you own your home and you are desperately looking for money

You can apply for a line of credit against your home

This is a low interest loan that you can pay it anytime with no penalty

Of course, the more you stay having your loan, the more interest you will accumulate

Another idea for a loan but you have to be very careful about that

Sometimes you receive a promotion for a new credit card balance transfer with 0% interest for 18 months

You can transfer all your credit cards balances to the new card

That’s considered a quick money as instead of paying your credit cards

Then you can use the money for your emergency and pay your loan slowly before the end of the grace period

How can you get money urgently?

Needing money urgently or being desperate for money is a condition that will put you under huge stress and anxiety

I want to break it up to defining urgency till you figure out that the urgency you made it is just something in your mind

For example, if you have a medical bill, you can negotiate the terms and pay the minimum to show your commitment

What else I can think of that can be urgent like having a utility bill to be paid

So what, it is a bill that cannot be a thousand dollars

I remember a neighbor who told me he got a water bill of more than $500

It ended up that he disputed it because of a leak in his water pipes

Learn the urgency diagram properly

Anything you believe is urgent may not be urgent as you think

Take a look at the below diagram from First Things First book written by Steven Covey

This is a must read book as best book for time management

Along with Dave Ramsey’s book called Total Money Makeover as best money management book

You would start to shape your mind about planning for future and expecting the unexpected by building emergency funds

Now you need quick answer if you need money urgently

Ask a friend of family to lend you the money

This is the best option compared to all alternatives

Even if you entice the person who is lending you money by giving back the money with interest

Assuming this person accepts, it will be way better than going to lending stores

Cash out money from your HELOC

HELOC stands for home equity line of credit

Assume you don’t have one, it would take you around a week to get a new HELOC

If you can adjust yourself to wait for a week then you have this option if you failed finding someone to lend you money

Apply for a bank loan

This option can take 2 days or sometimes same day

Although it is higher in interest than HELOC but better than the below

Take out cash advance from your credit card

Most credit cards allow you to withdraw money from any ATM machine

Some credit cards will let you cash out the maximum credit limit

While there are some cards that have separate limit for cash advance

Anyway once you cash out money, interest will start to count immediately

Expect to pay a cash out fee plus interest that can reach up to 20% if you pay the withdrawn money within a year

For example, if you cash out $500 you will end up paying around $100 on top of the $500

Payday loans

I don ‘t know why Payday loans still in business and opening stores every where

This explains why there are really people who are suck at money

If it happens that you take a money from payday loan then expect to pay 300% back in a year

What does that mean?

Simply if you take $100 you have to pay a fee or interest of $15 in 2 weeks

If you keep the money for a year, you will pay $391 for this $100 taken

That’s why this would be the last resort to think about if you are desperate for money