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Get Cash Fast in an Emergency with These Eight Ways
Sometimes life interferes in terms of finances (unless, of course, you’re the heir to Microsoft) and you need cash fast to solve an emergency. You may have lost your job, a had a car breakdown, missed the rent, or you’re simply flat-out broke. The list is endless on what may necessitate the need for instant cash. With pressure to get ahold of the money fast, it may seem like you have few options. The good news is there’s an array of options at your disposal. Look at some of these ideas, although some may not work for you depending on what “fast” means to you.
1. Ransack Your Home
Have you thought of this first? Chances are you haven’t because you’re on a timer and the clock is ticking. Try checking your old coats, pants, cushions, and car seats for spare change. You may have dropped some in between the seats or forgotten you had any in your pockets. You’ll be amazed to know that how much money you can come across just by ransacking your home. Try doing this before moving on to other options. You may just solve your emergency!
Thoroughly exploring your home is the easiest and fastest way of raising cash fast but what happens when you turn your entire house upside down with no result?
2. Collect Debts
Your back is against the wall, and anyone who owes you money should be about to get a call. However, this is not going to be an easy task. Think about it. How would you react to a collector or anyone calling you to get their money back?
To avoid any type of rejection, use these two methods. First, entice them with a discount. For example, if a friend or family member owes you $300, tell them you’ll waive $50 if they can pay up immediately.
The second method is by offering to take something valuable equivalent to the money they owe you. You can use this method if the person doesn’t have access to instant cash. This way, you can sell or pawn the item immediately and get some money.
However, you don’t want to get an item of lesser value than the money they owe you. This is why it’s wiser to contact a pawn shop, look on eBay, or do something else to get a feel for the cost of the item.
3. Sell Valuable Items
You may want to think long and hard before going down this road and get rid of some meaningful or valuable items such as your father’s silver ring or your great grandmother’s gold watch. The best route to take is to go through your old stuff. Check your basement, attic, and closet for some valuable items you don’t have an emotional attachment to. It could be an old TV, a movie collection, a juicer, a record player, etc. The list is endless.
While selling these items may get you off the hook today, the action may haunt you sometime later in life. Chances are you may not even get the best price because you need quick cash. If it’s a matter that absolutely needs money, then this may be the best time to sell these items.
If it’s been a while since you previously used these items, then you don’t need them anymore. This gives you the green light to sell the items at a throw-away price if you need quick cash. Facebook Yard Sale and Craigslist are some of the places online you can put up items for sale.
4. Consider Starting a Side Hustle
The gig economy is lucrative and it’s on the rise. With smart marketing techniques, you can get a decent income by leveraging your skills.
Do you have any marketable skill such as video animation, SEO writing, tutoring, or web and graphic design? If you’re super skilled at any of these, you can make a lot of quick cash on various online platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork.
If you’re experienced, you can charge up to $100 per hour, but if you’re just starting out, $25 to $30 isn’t that bad for someone in need of quick cash. You can also work per project, which allows you to stack up multiple projects, outsource them, and earn more cash.
5. Consider Bottle and Other Recycling
Ten states in the country have bottle deposit laws. This means you can deposit glass and aluminum bottles. In return, you’ll get 5 to 10 cents apiece. What if you only have 10 or 20 bottles in your home? Well, this is where family and friends come in. You’ll be surprised at just how many bottles they have lying around their homes. In fact, it’ll be easy for you once you explain the situation. They’ll be more than happy to help you out.
However, this hustle is difficult, especially considering the low pay. This means you’ll have to collect many trash bags of bottles to make a decent amount. If your state doesn’t have a bottle deposit center, you can still collect recyclables and sell them as scrap metal. Steel isn’t the type of metal you’ll want to waste your effort on because of the low value and high weight. Copper, on the other hand, is worth the time. However, there’s no fixed price.
6. Let Your Friend Use Your Credit Card
You must be thinking to yourself, “but this will drain money from my pocket instead of filling it.” Do this if you want to avoid paying fees or your card comes with a low cash-advance limit. This move will help you raise some money fast.
The next time your friend intends on spending a lot of money on shopping, ask them to tag along. Use your credit card to pay for all the expenses and in return, he’ll give you the cash. in fact, to incentivize the deal, offer to buy a gift. You’ll have the much-needed cash without having to pay fees or high interest rates.
7. Consider Renting Out a Room
Do you have an extra room or two in your home? Here’s the deal. Open an account with Airbnb and list your rooms there. This is a website where homeowners can rent out apartments or rooms.
Therefore, if you’re open to meeting and staying with complete strangers, here’s a chance of making a decent income. You can easily charge $100 per night depending on your area, room condition, and the proximity to fun joints. This is why Airbnb ranks as number one when it comes to sharing economy gigs.
However, it’s unpredictable if and when someone decides to choose your place as their next stay. It can take months before this can happen or even worse, it may never happen. On the other hand, you can get lucky and land a client the same day you rent out the room. They can check in the next day, and in 24 hours, you’ll have your first pay.
8. Borrow Money
This may be the fastest way to raise money. However, brace yourself for two problems. The first is you’ll have to repay the money later on. Therefore, it’s advisable to only borrow what you need with realistic loans.
The other problem is there’s no way of knowing whether the people you intend on borrowing from have the money you need. If they don’t, you can offer to take their unused items, sell them, and pay them back later on.
Wrapping Up
Being in a situation that demands you to come up with a fast money solution is frustrating, to say the least. However, it doesn’t have to be like this. With the tips highlighted in this article, you should have multiple alternatives should you find yourself in a financial jam.
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