How to Make Money Fast: 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 extra cash. You can become a ride-share driver, take online surveys, make deliveries for Amazon, or use your unique skills to earn more.
How to Make Money Fast
There are lots of ways to get money quickly, whether you want to make money in a single day, online at home, or with a side job. Read on to learn about 24 of the best choices that are available.
How to Make Money in a Day Without a Job
If you don’t have time to get a job, or if you already have a job but need some extra money on the side, take a look at how to get money fast with things you already have at home.
1. Sell your gently used things on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace
Do you have gently used things that you no longer want? If so, there’s probably someone — or more than one someone — who would gladly pay you for them. Take a few pictures, write a brief description, and post your items for sale on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. You can also make a tidy profit by selling high-quality clothes and accessories on sites like Poshmark or Tradesy.
2. Trading in old gadgets and electronics for cash
Try trading in your old, unused electronics for cash if you want to make money quickly with little work. Here are some things to consider:
- Phones
- iPods
- Fitness trackers
- Tablets
- Game consoles
- Laptops
Buyback services will buy old gadgets and electronics like these online. Services that buy back electronics include ItsWorthMore, Decluttr, Gazelle, and Trademore. You can also use eBay and other third-party marketplaces to price your items correctly and sell them by yourself.
3. Sell unopened gift cards
If you have unused gift cards collecting dust in a drawer, you should sell them. You might not get full face value for the cards, but it’s not like you’ll lose money. Remember, you did not buy them. So, it’s basically free money in your pocket.
You can sell unused gift cards on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, or Craigslist. Or, go to sites like CardCash to see how much you can get for your gift card and make the sale with just a few clicks. You can also offer gift cards on your social media accounts to see if anyone wants them.
4. Hold a yard sale
Yard sales are an effective way to “kill two birds with one stone.” Not only can you make money quickly, but you can also get rid of things in your home that are just taking up space and collecting dust.
The process is easy.
Go through your house and find all the things you’ve been hiding in closets and cabinets for a long time. Next, grab some construction board and make signs to direct people to your house for a yard sale.
Now, set up your unwanted items nicely in your front yard or driveway and put up signs starting at the nearest main road to your home that point people to your sale. Make sure you have cash on hand to give customers change. Then sit back and watch the money come in!
How to Earn Money Online at Home
If you don’t want to work from 9 to 5, there are easy ways to make money online. You won’t get rich quickly, but you could make as much as you would at a normal job. Here are some ways to make money fast online.
5. Working as a freelancer
$5 or more per project
Fiverr is a great place for first-time freelancers who want to build experience and their portfolios. From logo design and animation to editing and voice-over work, you can find tasks that fit your skills. Price starts at $5 per project.
Once you have feedback, referrals, and experience, you can start charging much more. According to the company’s website, some Fiverr gigs pay as much as $10,000 per project, so some people are doing them full-time.
6. Become an affiliate marketer
Up to $300 per day or more
Affiliate marketing is when you share products online and earn a commission by joining one or more affiliate programmes, like Amazon Associates, ClickBank, or ShareASale. You’ll make money by promoting and selling these products through your blog or social media channels.
Affise, a performance marketing platform for advertisers, says that low-level affiliates can earn up to $300 a day, while high-level affiliates can earn more than $3,000 a day.
Affiliate marketing can be a full-time job, not just a side hustle. It is based on passive income, which is as close as most people will ever get to free money.
7. Sell Digital Products
Pay depends on how much a product costs and how many units are sold.
Digital products can be sold on a number of marketplaces, many of which also sell physical products. WordPress blogs, eBay, and Etsy are all popular places to sell courses, artwork, printables, and other digital products.
According to Oberlo, there were 2.14 billion digital buyers worldwide in 2021. The more digital products you have to sell, the more passive income you could potentially make.
8. Join an online survey team.
Up to $16 each hour
Filling out online surveys isn’t the most fun way to make extra money, but it can be done. Many sites, like Survey Junkie and Swagbucks, let users earn cash and gift cards.
You can also visit the website of the Columbia Business School Center for Decision Sciences to sign up for online research studies that pay about $16 an hour.
9. Be a User Tester
$10 per 20-minute assignment
If you have 20 minutes to spare, you can make money quickly at home with UserTesting, which pays $10 per test. People are paid by the company to go to websites and apps, complete sets of tasks, and give their opinions about the experience.
10. Tutor Students Online
Up to $25 an hour before commission
If you have a computer, an internet connection, and knowledge in just one subject, you can tutor students online. TutorMe hires tutors for more than 300 different subjects and pays them $16 per hour. Preply uses tutors for more than 100 subjects, and the tutors set their own rates. English tutors on the site usually charge between $15 and $25 per hour before Preply’s cut.
11. as a Virtual Assistant
Average wage of $15.79 per hour
A virtual assistant can work for an individual or a big business. They can do things like answer customer phone calls, set up appointments, help with travel or event planning, or post on social media. Since we do these things every day as part of our personal lives, many people are good candidates for virtual assistant jobs. Indeed said that virtual assistants earn an average of $15.79 an hour.
12. Working as a Content Translator
Average wage of $20.62 per hour
If you know two or more languages, you’re lucky. Content translation is a booming business with hundreds of job listings on sites like Indeed at any given time. You only have to change the content from one language to another.
Some of these positions might also be highly rewarding. Many listings on Indeed have rates that start at around $50,000 per year, but these prices can go much higher.
13. Train to be a music coach.
An average income of $52,214 per year
If you know how to play the piano, guitar, saxophone, drums, or any other musical instrument, or if you’re a great singer who can explain how it’s done, you can make money by teaching others how to do what you love.
The average private piano lesson could cost anywhere from $40 to $100. You could make even more money if you taught groups of three or more people, since the average group lesson costs between $40 and $50 per hour per student.
You can earn about the same amount of money teaching other instruments, like the guitar, or giving vocal lessons.
14. Translate Telephone Calls
Average wage of $22 per hour
If you know two or more languages, you could also become a phone call translator. Several companies are happy to pay $20 or more per hour to have you translate phone calls for their customers who speak a foreign language.
Some jobs for phone call translators pay $60,000 a year or more if you want to do it full-time.
Other ways to make money fast
So, you can make money online quickly. But if you’re willing to work outside your home, you have a lot more options for side jobs. If you don’t want to get a regular job at all, you might want to pick up a few side jobs to help you make enough money.
15. Be a ride-share driver.
Average income of about $350 per month
Driving for Uber or Lyft is one of the most popular side jobs because of how flexible it is. You can set your own schedule, drive when and where you want, and rent or lease a car through the ride-share company if you need to.
16. Make deliveries for Amazon and Uber Eats
Average earnings with Amazon Flex are between $18 and $25 per hour.
According to salaries posted on Indeed, Uber Eats drivers earn an average of $62,339 per year. Even with an average salary this high, you’ll still be working on a contract basis. This means you can set your own hours and work as much as you need to.
You can also use your car to make deliveries for Amazon Flex. Amazon says that drivers usually make between $18 and $25 per hour, depending on things like where they live and how much they earn in tips.
17. Become a Pet Sitter or Dog Walker
A median wage of $12.68 per hour
Sign up to watch over pets while their owners are out of town. Pet-sitting sites like Rover connect pet owners with sitters in exchange for 15% to 25% of the sitter’s earnings, which are paid by client users. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, pet sitters make an average of $13.81 an hour, or $28,730 a year.
18. Get a babysitting job
$13.50 an hour or more, depending on experience, location, and number of kids
Babysitters are always in high demand. According to ZipRecruiter, they make an average hourly wage of $16.25 or more. Also, taking care of two kids can mean an increase in pay. Care.com says that you should add 50 cents to $1 to your hourly rate for each child you watch, and that you should do this twice for an infant.
19. Put up Christmas lights for the holidays
Lights cost between $1.25 and $3 per linear foot.
According to Thumbtack, most installers charge twice as much to put lights on a second story. And don’t forget about the moving costs. Thumbtack also said that you can charge about half of what you charged to install for this. You can also wrap outdoor trees with lights and charge $60 to $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.
20. Become a house organiser
Up to $49 per hour
PayScale says that a professional home organiser can make up to $49 an hour, and that the average hourly rate is $20.18. To start organising professionally, post ads on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace or connect with your neighbours on NextDoor.
21. Help with Home Gardens
Average wage of $16.12 per hour
Have you got a green thumb? Maybe it’s time for you to become a gardener. According to Indeed, the average gardener makes around $16 per hour, which means you’ll need to work about 19 hours to make $300. Plus, gardeners make an average of $3,938 in overtime per year.
22. Help with moving or making deliveries
Depending on your moving vehicle, you can make an average of $38 to $109 per hour.
Delivery drivers often need muscle to help them load and unload their trucks for deliveries and moves. Sign up with GoShare to become a “helper” and make a minimum average of $38 per hour. Or, at Dolly, the “hands” are paid $20 per hour, plus tips.
23. Start a snow removal business
Up to $75 an hour
Do you remember as a kid going door to door with a snow shovel and asking neighbours if they wanted the sidewalk or driveway shovelled for a few dollars? Adults who have a good, working snow blower can do the same thing or advertise their services on social media. According to HomeAdvisor, the going rate is between $25 and $75 per hour.
24. Mow Lawns
On average, each lawn makes between $48 and $211 per year.
Lawn care is a booming business. All you need is a lawn mower, a weed trimmer, and a willingness to work. Depending on the size of the lawn, you can expect to make between $48 and $211 on average for each lawn you take care of each time you show up to do work.
So where do you start?
Once you have the equipment, take a walk around your neighbourhood and look for lawns that haven’t been mowed or kept up. When you find them, knock on their door and say that you’re a neighbour starting a lawn care service and would like to take care of their lawn.
Chances are, you’ll hear “no” a lot before you get your first “yes,” but don’t let that stop you. Keep trying until you build a profitable lawn-care service.
How to Build Wealth That Will Last
Once you’ve made extra money, you should work on setting yourself up for long-term financial success. It’s not just about how to make money fast, but also how to keep it.
Investing
If you’re new to investing, take the time to set goals for your investments. Here is what you should think about:
Think about the goals you have for your investments.
Figure out how much you can put away for investments.
Choose your investments based on how risky you want to be.
Choose a platform to invest in.
With these in mind, you can build a solid base from which you can not only start building your wealth, but also 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 save. There are different ways to make a budget, but they all involve keeping track of your expenses and cutting costs where you can.
Save money
No matter how you choose to make money, you need to be able to store your cash safely and have easy access to it when you need it.
Opening an account to save money can be the first step toward building wealth that will last. And if you find that you need more help to reach your savings goals, you can work with a qualified and reputable financial advisor.
Final Take
There are many ways to make money fast. Scroll through this list, decide which option is best for you, and get started today.
FAQs About Making Money Quickly
How can I get cash now?
One of the best ways to get money right away is to sell things you don’t want anymore. Used electronics, unused gift cards, and other things you might have around the house could be just what you need to make money right away. Selling things isn’t the only way to make money quickly, though. Use any of the options above to get the money you need.
How can I make $1,000 today?
It may be hard to earn $1,000 today, but it’s not impossible. Start by looking around your home for things of value that you’re not using. Do you have an old computer, 3D printer, or other piece of technology that you could sell? What about gently used clothes or kitchen items? Next, try to find private buyers and sell them as many of your items as you can. Take the things you have left to the pawn shop. Pawn shops are in business to make money, so you’ll get less for your items than if you sold them to a private party, but you can get closer to your $1,000 goal. Keep in mind that pawn shops will try to lowball you, so it’s best to negotiate to try and get as much money as possible for your items.
How can I make $100 quickly?
Just about anything on the list above can help you get $100 quickly. You can sell your gently used things, give people rides using a ride-sharing service like Uber, teach music, or use any of the other ideas above.
How do I make $500 fast?
There are many ways to make $500 quickly, but selling things you don’t want is probably the easiest. You might be surprised by how much money you are holding on to in things that aren’t being used and are just sitting around your house gathering dust.
