Top 5 Easy Ways to Make Money Fast
You’re broke and payday is still a week away. You need to figure out how to make money fast.
Rejoice, you’ve arrived at the right place.
Whether it’s the end of the month and you’re short on rent, or you’ve got a small debt that’s come knocking, often all you need is a few bucks to get you over the hump (and preferably something you can start today).
To that end, if you need to somehow come up with $100 (or more) in the next few days, you may be able to find a few options on this list to help you pull it off.
On the other hand, if you’re deeply in debt and need a large sum of cash on short notice, this list probably isn’t for you. Outside of selling thousands of dollars worth of belongings or maxing out credit cards, anything that promises four figures in a short time frame is likely a scam.
Be safe and stick to the legitimate ideas you’ll find here. Everything included has been vetted as a real way to make money. Whether it’s a short-term work-from-home gig or cashing in on a unique promo opportunity a company has to offer, we’ve done the due diligence on dozens of different money-making ideas so you don’t have to.
- Sell your location data
Odds are we’ve all heard some variation of the phrase “if it seems too good to be true, it is.” Just this one time, it’s wrong.
If you’re not opposed to sharing your location data with yet another app (hint: you likely already share your location data with a dozen or more apps on your phone), you can earn up to $25 per month in completely passive income.
With Tapestri, you merely install the app, give it permission to leverage your location data, and forget it. That’s it. You never need to interact with the app again if you so choose.
Tapestry works with large brands like Walmart, Target, etc., to better understand consumer behavior. By collecting travel patterns on thousands of consumers, brands can get a better idea of how to target potential customers with their advertising dollars.
The location data you share is completely anonymous, which makes this a safe, ridiculously easy way to earn a few bucks each month.
- Take paid surveys
Earning potential: $50+ per month
Paid survey sites sometimes get a bad rap, but that’s usually because people have expectations that are too high. Surveys won’t make you rich (not even close), but they are an easy way to earn money in your spare time.
Market research companies such as Branded Surveys are hired by brands and businesses to find out more about consumers. Research companies often use surveys to gather these insights, and they pay survey takers for their time. Most surveys usually pay somewhere between $0.50 and $3.00, but there are some outliers that pay significantly more.
If you need help paying bills that are imminently due, surveys aren’t going to work out well for you. If instead, you want a way to slowly accumulate $25 to $50+ every month in cash or gift cards without committing to too much work, surveys are perfect. Other high-paying survey sites include InboxDollars, Survey Junkie, and Swagbucks.
- Sell your textbooks
Earning potential: Up to $300
If you’re a college student or have graduated within the last year or two, chances are good that you still have some textbooks that you could easily sell for a few extra bucks. Usually, when you sell back textbooks, you get a tiny fraction of what you paid for them. I remember getting around $40 for a $300 physics textbook that I sold back to my university bookstore — a horrible deal.
Nowadays, there are sites like BookScouter that allow you to “comparison shop” when it comes to selling back your textbooks.
BookScouter, which tops our list of the best places to sell textbooks, is an online platform that lets you compare buy-back prices from over 30 different vendors so you can get the most money. If I had known about this back then, I probably could have gotten at least double for my physics textbook.
- Make an investment in your own health
Earning potential: $50-$2,000+ in 6 months
To some degree, money is a motivator for most people. And the prospect of losing money is an even greater motivator.
Sites like HealthyWage and DietBet understand this side of human psychology and use it to incentivize their users to hit weight loss goals. If you want to lose weight and make some extra money in the process, consider placing a “bet” on either of these sites. If you reach your goal (which will be measured via a verified weigh-in), you get paid. If you don’t meet your weight loss goal, you lose your bet. See HealthyWage’s prize calculator get an idea of how much you stand to win.
- Rent out your space
Earning potential: $500+ per month
If you have room to spare in your home, VRBO could be the perfect way for you to easily make some extra money.
The premise is simple: see how much your space might be worth, list a single room (or the whole house) on the app, screen potential guests, and then get paid.
To get started, create a listing by filling out a description, take and upload photos of your space, and set a price. Your listing helps guests get a sense of what your place is like. Then, set the dates the space will be available and draft your house rules. Once your listing is live, guests can book their stay at your home, and you start earning money