How To Make Money Fast: 24 Proven Ways

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Whether you need to reel in your spending or just want to get ahead with your finances, consider picking up a side gig for extra cash flow.

Read: How To Build Your Savings From Scratch

You can become a ride-share driver, take online surveys, make deliveries for Amazon or leverage your unique skills to earn more. Keep reading to learn more about building your wealth.

How To Make Money Fast

There are plenty of ways to get money fast, whether you’re looking to make money in just a single day, online at home or via a side hustle. Read on to learn about 24 of the best options that are available.

How To Make Money in One Day Without a Job

If you don’t have time to get a job — or you already have a job and need some extra money on the side — take a look at how to get money fast with some items around your home.

1. Sell Your Gently Used Items on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace

Do you have gently used items that you no longer want? If so, there probably is someone — or several someones — who gladly will pay you for them. Take a few photos, write a brief description and post your items for sale on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. You also can make a tidy profit by selling high-quality clothing and accessories on platforms such as Poshmark or Tradesy.

2. Trade in Old Gadgets and Electronics for Cash

To make quick cash with minimal effort, try trading in your old, unwanted electronics for cash. Here are some items to consider:

• Phones

• iPods

• Fitness trackers

• Tablets

• Game consoles

• Laptops

Buyback services will purchase old gadgets and electronics like these online. Some electronics buyback services include ItsWorthMore, Decluttr, Gazelle and Trademore. You can also use eBay and other third-party marketplaces to price your items appropriately and sell them independently.

3. Sell Unused Gift Cards

If you have unwanted gift cards gathering dust in a drawer, sell them. You might not get full face value for the cards, but it’s not like you’ll take a loss. Remember, you didn’t buy them. So, it’s essentially free money in your pocket.

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Sell unused gift cards on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace or eBay. Or, visit sites such as CardCash to see how much you can sell your gift card for and make the sale in just a few clicks. You also can offer gift cards on your social media accounts to see if there are any takers.

4. Host a Yard Sale

Yard sales are an effective way to figuratively kill two birds with one stone. Not only can you put money in your pocket fast, but you can also get rid of items in your home that are doing nothing more than collecting dust.

The process is simple.

Go through your house and find all the items that have been hidden away in closets and cupboards for longer than you remember. Next, get your hands on a few pieces of construction board and make signs to point people to your home for a yard sale.

Now, set your unused items up nicely in your front yard or driveway and post signs starting at the nearest main road to your home, directing people to your sale. Be sure you have cash on hand to offer customers change. Then watch the money roll in!

How To Make Money Online at Home

If you want to make decent money without the 9-to-5 grind, there are easy ways to score cash online. You won’t get rich quickly, but you could make as much as you would with a regular job. Here are some ways to get money fast online.

5. Work as a Freelancer

Fiverr is a great place for first-time freelancers looking to build experience and their portfolios. From logo design and animation to editing and voice-over work, you can find tasks suited to your skills. Prices start at $5 per project.

Once you accumulate feedback, referrals and experience, you can start charging much more. Some people have taken their Fiverr gigs full-time, with jobs paying as much as $10,000 per project, according to the company’s website.

6. Be an Affiliate Marketer

Affiliate marketing involves sharing products online and earning a commission by joining one or more affiliate programs, such as Amazon Associates, ClickBank or ShareASale. You’ll earn by promoting and selling those products through your blog or social media channels.

According to Affise, a performance marketing platform for advertisers, 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 an entire career — not just a side hustle — based on passive income, which is as close as most people will ever get to free money.

7. Sell Digital Products

Digital products can be sold through a number of marketplaces, many of which also handle physical sales: WordPress blogs, eBay and Etsy are a few popular options to sell courses, artwork, printables and more.

According to Oberlo, there are 2.64 billion global digital buyers in 2023. The more digital products you have to sell, the more passive income you’ll potentially make.

8. Become an Online Survey Taker

It’s not the most exciting side hustle, but there is money to be made by filling out online surveys. Many sites such as Survey Junkie and Swagbucks allow users to earn cash and gift cards.

You also can 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. Become a User Tester

If you have 20 minutes to spare, you can make money fast at home on UserTesting, which pays $10 per test. The company pays people to visit websites and apps, complete sets of tasks and give opinions on the experience.

10. Tutor Students Online

If you have a computer, an internet connection and expertise in just one subject area, you can tutor students online. TutorMe hires tutors in more than 300 subjects and pays $16 an hour. Preply uses tutors in more than 100 subjects, and the tutors set their rates. English tutors on the site typically charge $15 to $25 per hour before Preply’s commission.

11. Work as a Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant can work for an individual or a big business, performing tasks that include responding to customer phone calls, setting appointments, assisting with travel or event planning, or posting to social media. Since we do these things daily as part of our personal agendas, many people are well suited to virtual assistant jobs.

12. Work as a Content Translator

If you know two or more languages, you’re in luck. Content translation is a booming business with hundreds of job postings on sites like Indeed at any given time. All you need to do is convert content from one language to another. 

Some of these jobs can be quite lucrative as well. Many listings on Indeed have rates starting at around $50,000 per year, but that price can climb significantly higher.

13. Become a Music Coach

If you know how to play the piano, guitar, saxophone, drums or any other musical instrument, or even if you’re a great singer who can convey how it’s done, you can make money helping other people learn how to do what you love.

The average private piano lesson could be anywhere from $40 to $100 in your pocket for each lesson. You could make even more money teaching groups of three or more, with the average group lesson costing between $40 and $50 per hour per participant.

You can earn a similar amount of money teaching other instruments, like the guitar, or giving vocal lessons.

14. Translate Phone Calls

Another option if you know two or more languages is to become a phone call translator. Several companies are happy to pay $20 or more per hour to have you translate phone calls for their foreign language-speaking customers.

Some jobs for phone call translators pay $60,000 per year or more if you want to translate full-time.  

Other Ways To Make Money Quickly

So, you can make money online fast. But, if you’re willing to work outside your home, there are many more options for side gigs. If you want to avoid getting a traditional job altogether, you may want to pick up multiple side gigs to help you make enough income.

15. Become a Ride-Share Driver

Driving for Uber or Lyft is among the most popular side hustles because of the flexibility this option offers. You can pick your schedule, drive when and where you want, and rent or lease a car through the ride-share company if needed.

16. Make Deliveries for Amazon or Uber Eats

Uber Eats drivers make an annual average of $63,921 a year, according to salaries reported on Indeed. Even with an average salary that’s this high, you’ll still be working on a contract basis. That means you can set your own hours and work as much as you need to.

You can also use your car to work as a delivery driver for Amazon Flex. Drivers typically make $18 to $25 per hour, depending on factors such as your location and how much you earn in tips, according to Amazon.

17. Become a Pet Sitter or Dog Walker

Sign up to watch pets while their owners are out of town. Pet-sitting sites, such as Rover, connect pet owners with sitters for a cut — 15% to 25% — of the sitter’s earnings paid by client users. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, pet sitters make a median of $13.81 an hour or $28,730 a year.

18. Get a Babysitting Gig

Babysitters are always in demand. According to ZipRecruiter, they make an average hourly pay of $18 or more. Plus, watching two kids can come with an increase. According to Care.com, add 50 cents to $1 to your hourly rate for each additional child you babysit — double that for an infant.

19. Install Christmas Lights for the Holidays

According to Thumbtack, most installers charge double to install lights on a second story. And don’t forget about the removal costs. Thumbtack also noted that you can charge about half of what you charged to install for that. You also can choose to wrap outdoor trees with lights and charge $60 to $1,200 for each, depending on tree size.

Many seasonal jobs are available that pay quite a bit, but you’re going to need to rotate through them if you want to maintain income all year round — or work very hard during that one season.

20. Become a Home Organizer

A professional home organizer makes up to $49 an hour, according to PayScale, with an average hourly rate of $24.28. To start organizing professionally, post listings on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, or connect with your neighbors on NextDoor.

21. Help With Home Gardening

Do you have a green thumb? Maybe it’s time to become a gardener. The average gardener makes around $18 per hour, according to Indeed, so you’ll need to work about 17 hours to make $300. Plus, gardeners frequently make overtime pay.

22. Assist With Deliveries or Moving

Delivery drivers often need some muscle to help them load and unload their trucks for deliveries and moves. Sign up with GoShare to become a “helper” and earn a minimum average of $45 per hour. Or, at Dolly, the “hands” are paid $35 an hour, plus tips.

23. Start a Snow Removal Service

Remember going door to door as a kid with your snow shovel asking neighbors if they wanted the sidewalk or driveway shoveled for a few dollars? Adults with a good, working snow blower can do that, too — or advertise their services on social media. According to HomeAdvisor, the going rate is $25 to $75 per hour.

24. Mow Lawns

Lawn care is a booming industry; it takes little more than owning a lawn mower and a weed trimmer and being willing to work. Depending on the lawn size, you can expect to rake in between $48 and $211 on average for every lawn you take care of each time you show up to provide services. 

So, how do you get started?

Once you have the equipment, take a stroll through your neighborhood and look for lawns the owners haven’t mowed or maintained. When you find them, knock on the front door and explain that you’re a neighbor starting a lawn care service and would like to take care of their lawn.

Chances are, you’ll run into “no” plenty of times before you get your first “yes,” but don’t let that discourage you. Keep trying until you build a lucrative lawn-care service.

How To Build Sustainable Wealth

Once you’ve made extra money, you should focus on setting yourself up for long-term financial success. It isn’t just about how to make money fast, but also about keeping it.

Investing

If you’re a beginner when it comes to investing, take time to set your investment goals. Here’s what you should think about:

Consider Your Investment Goals

1. Figure out how much you can budget for investments.

2. Choose your investment types based on your risk tolerance.

3. Choose a platform to invest with.

With these in mind, you can create a solid foundation where you can not only begin building your wealth but also continue maintaining it.

Budgeting

Creating a budget allows you to compare your income to your expenses, as well as to set goals for spending and saving. While there are different budgeting techniques, all of them revolve around tallying your expenses and reducing expenses where you can.

Saving Money

Regardless of how you choose to make money, you need to be able to store your cash safely and provide easy access to funds when you need them.

Opening a savings account can be your first step to building sustainable wealth. And if you find that you need more help in reaching your savings goals, you can work with a qualified and reputable financial advisor.

Final Take

If you want to get money fast, there are plenty of ways to do so. Scroll through this list, determine which options are best for you and get started today.

FAQ About Making Money Fast

• How can I get immediate money?

  • One of the best ways to get money immediately is to sell your unwanted goods. Used electronics, unused gift cards and several other items you might have lying around your house may be just what you need to immediately put some money in your pocket. Of course, selling things isn’t the only way to make money fast. Use any of the options above to get your hands on the money you need.

• How can I earn $1,000 today?

  • It may be difficult to earn $1,000 today, but it’s not impossible. Start by looking through your home for items of value that you’re not using. Do you have an old computer, 3D printer or any other piece of technology you can sell? What about gently used clothing or kitchen items? Next, try to find private buyers and sell them as many of your items as possible.

  • Take the items you have left to the pawn shop. Of course, pawn shops are in business to make money, so you’ll get less than you would for selling your items to a private party, but they can get you closer to your $1,000 goal. Keep in mind that pawn shops will try to lowball, so it’s best to negotiate to try and get as much money for your items as possible.  

• How can I earn $100 fast?

  • Just about anything on the list above can help put $100 in your pocket quickly. Sell your gently used items, give people rides using a ride-sharing platform like Uber, become a music coach or take advantage of any of the other tips mentioned above.

• How can I make $500 fast?

  • You can make $500 quickly in multiple ways, but the easiest way is likely to sell your unwanted goods. It might surprise you how much money you have tied up in unused items collecting dust around your house.

Joshua Rodriguez and Cynthia Measom contributed to the reporting for this article.

Information is accurate as of April 22, 2023.

Editorial Note: This content is not provided by any entity covered in this article. Any opinions, analyses, reviews, ratings or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author alone and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any entity named in this article.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How To Make Money Fast: 24 Proven Ways