If you need to cut back on your spending or just want to get ahead with your money, you could get a side job to bring in more cash. You can drive for a ride-sharing service, take some online surveys, deliver packages for Amazon, or use your special skills to make more money.
19 Realistic Ways to Make Money Fast
There are many ways to make money quickly, whether you want to make money in just one day, at home online, or with a side job. Read on to find out about 19 of the best choices you have.
How to Make Money Without a Job in One Day
If you don’t have time to get a job, or if you already have one but need some extra cash, check out how to make quick cash with things you already have at home.
1. Sell your gently used things on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace
Do you have used things that are in good shape but you no longer want? If so, there is probably at least one person or more who would gladly pay you for them. Take a few pictures, write a short description, and put your items up for sale on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. You can also make a good amount of money by selling nice clothes and accessories on sites like Poshmark and Tradesy.
2. Trade in old electronics and gadgets for cash
Try trading in your old, unwanted electronics for cash if you want to make money quickly with little work. Here are some things to think about:
- Phones
- iPods
- Trackers for fitness
- Tablets
- Game consoles
- Laptops
Online services that buy back old gadgets and electronics will buy things like these. ItsWorthMore, Decluttr, Gazelle, and Trademore are all places that buy back electronics. You can also use eBay and other marketplaces to set the right prices for your items and sell them on your own.
3. Sell gift cards that haven’t been used.
If you have gift cards you don’t want sitting in a drawer collecting dust, sell them. You might not get the cards’ full face value, but it’s not like you’ll lose money. Don’t forget that you didn’t buy them. So, it’s like getting money for nothing.
Use Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or eBay to sell gift cards that haven’t been used. Or, you can go to sites like CardCash to find out how much you can get for your gift card and sell it with just a few clicks. You can also try giving away gift cards on social media to see if anyone is interested.
4. Be a free-lance worker
- $5 or more per project
Fiverr is a great place for people who are just starting out as freelancers and want to build up their experience and portfolios. You can find work that fits your skills, from making logos and animation to editing and voice-over work. Prices for each project start at $5.
As you get more feedback, referrals, and experience, you’ll be able to charge much more. The company’s website says that some people have made Fiverr their full-time job because some jobs pay as much as $10,000 per project.
5. Become a partner marketer
- Up to $300 or more a day
Affiliate marketing is when you share products online and get paid a commission by joining one or more affiliate programmes, like Amazon Associates, ClickBank, or ShareASale. You’ll make money if you promote and sell these products on your blog or through social media.
Affise, an advertising platform for performance marketing, says that low-level affiliates can make up to $300 a day, while high-level affiliates can make more than $3,000 a day.
Affiliate marketing can be a full-time job, not just a side gig. It can be based on passive income, which is the closest most people will ever get to getting money for nothing.
6. Sell Digital Products
It depends on how much the products cost and how many are sold.
Digital products can be sold on a number of marketplaces, and many of them also sell physical goods. WordPress blogs, eBay, and Etsy are all popular places to sell courses, artwork, printables, and other digital products.
Oberlo says that there will be 2.14 billion digital buyers around the world in 2021. This means that more than one in four people will be shopping online. The more digital products you sell, the more money you could make without doing anything.
7. Sign up to take online surveys
- $16 an hour or more
Filling out online surveys isn’t the most exciting way to make money on the side, but it can be done. Users can earn cash and gift cards on sites like Survey Junkie and Swagbucks.
You can also sign up for online research studies that pay about $16 an hour by going to the website for the Columbia Business School Center for Decision Sciences.
8. Sign up to be a user tester
- $10 per 20-minute assignment
UserTesting lets you make quick cash at home if you have 20 minutes to spare. Each test pays $10. People are paid by the company to go to websites and apps, do sets of tasks, and give their thoughts about the experience.
9. Tutor Students Online
- Up to $25 an hour before fees
You can tutor students online if you have a computer, a way to connect to the internet, and knowledge of just one subject. TutorMe hires tutors in more than 300 subjects and pays $16 per hour. Preply has tutors for more than 100 different subjects, and each tutor sets his or her own price. Before Preply’s cut, most English tutors on the site charge between $15 and $25 per hour.
10. Take on a job as a virtual assistant
- Average hourly wage of $15.79
A virtual assistant can work for an individual or a large company. They can do things like answer phone calls from customers, set up appointments, help with travel or event planning, or post on social media. Many people are good candidates for virtual assistant jobs because we do these things every day as part of our own lives. Indeed said that the average hourly wage for a virtual assistant is $15.79.
Other quick ways to make money
So, it’s easy to make money quickly online. But there are many more options for side jobs if you are willing to work outside of your home. If you don’t want to get a regular job at all, you might want to do a few side jobs to help you make enough money.
11. Drive for a ride-sharing service.
- About $350 per month on average.
One of the most popular side jobs is driving for Uber or Lyft because it gives you a lot of freedom. You can choose your own schedule, drive when and where you want, and if you need to, you can rent or lease a car from the ride-share company.
12. Give Amazon or Uber Eats deliveries
- Amazon Flex usually pays between $18 and $25 per hour.
Salaries posted on Indeed show that Uber Eats drivers make an average of $62,339 per year. Even with such a high average salary, you will still work on a contract basis. That means you can set your own hours and work as much as you need.
You can also drive Amazon Flex deliveries with your own car. Amazon says that most drivers make between $18 and $25 per hour, depending on things like where they live and how much they get in tips.
13. Become a Pet Sitter or Dog Walker
- $12.68 per hour is the mean wage.
Sign up to watch people’s pets while they are away. Pet-sitting sites like Rover connect pet owners with sitters in exchange for a cut of the sitter’s earnings, usually between 15% and 25%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that pet sitters make a median of $13.81 an hour or $28,730 a year.
14. Find a job babysitting
- $13.50 an hour or more, depending on experience, location, and number of children
There is always a need for babysitters. ZipRecruiter says that they make an average of $16.25 or more per hour. Also, the pay can go up if you watch two kids. Care.com says that you should add 50 cents to $1 to your hourly rate for each child you watch, and you should do this twice for an infant.
15. Put up holiday lights for Christmas
- $1.25 to $3 per foot of lights on a line
Thumbtack says that most installers charge twice as much to put lights on a second story. And don’t forget the cost of moving. Thumbtack also said that you can charge about half of what you charged to install for that. You can also put lights on outdoor trees and charge between $60 and $1,200 per tree, depending on the size of the tree.
There are a lot of seasonal jobs that pay well, but if you want to keep making money all year, you’ll need to switch between them or work very hard during that one season.
16. Get a job as a home organiser
- As much as $49 an hour
PayScale says that a professional home organiser can make up to $49 an hour, with an average hourly rate of $20.18. Post ads on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace or get in touch with your neighbours on NextDoor to start organising as a business.
17. How to Garden at Home
- Average hourly wage of $16.12
Do you know how to grow plants? Maybe it’s time to learn how to grow plants. According to Indeed, the average gardener makes about $16 per hour, so you’ll have to work about 19 hours to make $300. Plus, on average, gardeners make $3,938 in overtime per year.
18. Help with moving or making deliveries
- Depending on the type of moving vehicle you use, you can make an average of $38 to $109 per hour.
When moving or making deliveries, delivery drivers often need help loading and unloading their trucks. Join GoShare to become a “helper” and make at least $38 per hour on average. Or, “hands” at Dolly make $20 an hour plus tips.
19. Start a business to remove snow
- As much as $75 an hour
Remember when you were a kid and you would go from door to door with a snow shovel and ask neighbours if they wanted their sidewalks or driveways shovelled for a few dollars? Adults who have a good snowblower that works can do the same thing, or they can post about their services on social media. HomeAdvisor says that the going rate is between $25 and $75 per hour.
How to Get Rich and Stay Rich
Once you have extra money, you should work on putting yourself in a position to be financially successful in the long run. It’s not just about how to get money quickly; it’s also about how to keep it.
Investing
If you’re new to investing, take the time to figure out what you want to get out of it. Here are some things to think about:
Think about why you want to invest.
- Find out how much you can set aside in your budget for investments.
- Choose your investments based on how risky you are willing to be.
- Choose a place to put your money to work.
With these things in mind, you can build a solid base from which you can start building your wealth and keep it going.
Budgeting
When you make a budget, you can compare your income to your expenses and set goals for how much you want to spend and how much you want to save. Even though there are different ways to make a budget, they all involve adding up your expenses and cutting costs where you can.
Spending less
No matter how you choose to make money, you need a safe place to keep your cash and an easy way to get money when you need it.
Opening an account to save money can be the first step toward building long-term wealth. And if you need more help reaching your savings goals, you can work with a qualified and trustworthy financial planner.
