Legitimate Opportunities: 10 Things You Can Do When You Need a Financial Boost as Soon as Possible

Sometimes, life throws you an obstacle you must deal with as you best see fit. Whether you need to pay your rent or other dues, you’ve probably realized that money never comes easily. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t make enough to make it through the month, at least if you’re willing to put in the time and effort required. So, without any further ado, let’s shed some light on what it takes to get your hands on some money as quickly as possible:

1. Drive people around

If you have a car and you live in a big city, signing up with services like Uber or Lyft might just be the saving grace you need. You get to work your own hours and you don’t even have to deal with collecting money manually, since it’s all done through the app. Alternatively, if driving people around is simply not your cup of tea (after all, you could always end up picking up someone annoying or suspicious), you can always try your hand at food delivery services through apps like DoorDash or UberEat. You wouldn’t believe how much these have been gaining in popularity in the recent years.

2. Personal loan
   

This is a traditional one, but why reinvent the wheel if you can find something that does the job, right? Although you’re technically not earning any money with this one, it’s still worth mentioning, since you can truly get access to it overnight. You could be visiting a financial institution that can provide fast cash or try some of the modern solutions like peer to peer lending, where you don’t even need anyone to approve you first based on the traditional factors. If you want to go with a traditional lender, variables like credit score will probably need to be in order before anyone will take you seriously. After all, the lenders are businessmen and lending is an investment to them. At the end of the day, they want to minimize the risk they’re subjecting themselves to and make sure that they only work with the most trustworthy individuals.

3. Sell your old clothes

If you have plenty of old clothes (or simply clothes you consider cool but aren’t fundamental to your survival), parting ways with them in exchange for cash might be worth considering. But ideally, these should be something you no longer wear anyway, which makes this a winning proposition, since you’re not really losing anything of value. The classic way to do this is via garage sales or visiting used clothing shops, but if you don’t feel like dealing with people directly, you can always use the internet to do it. Nowadays, there are plenty of websites and apps which were designed exactly with this kind of purpose in mind, so you won’t have to invest a considerable amount of time in finding one either (hint: Craigslist is as good for this purpose as ever).

4. Paid gigs

Speaking of Craigslist, did you know they had a special section called Gigs? Well, it just so happens that it’s designed to act as a platform that connects people who offer paid work and those who are willing to undertake the task. There are many things you can do, and completing a paid gig is quite simple if you live in an urbanized area. From moving the lawn and all the way to cleaning and hauling someone’s junk away, there’s bound to be something suitable for all tastes and preferences, if you only look for it hard enough. Obviously, the pay will vary depending on the complexity and the length of each task, so you can always choose something that’s within your wheelhouse and aligned with your earning goals.

5. Babysitting
   
   

If you’re an empath or a people’s person and don’t mind working with small children and toddlers, babysitting might just be the right thing for you. In other words, if you don’t have a hard time sensing the needs and emotions of others, you may very well be utilizing these qualities to the best of their potential and start working as a babysitter. You see, many people have kids, but in order to support them, they have jobs that end up eating the vast majority of their time. This is where you come in; since they obviously can’t look after their children all the time, they need your help. And they’re fully equipped to compensate you for it in a lucrative manner. If earning $15 an hour without having any kind of technical skills seems appealing to you, this might be a good way to build up a financial reserve in no time and pay your bills too while you’re at it.

6. Sell used books

Dust off your bookshelf and see what you have there. It could very well be that you’re sitting on an actual goldmine without even realizing it. You can get some pretty bucks in exchange for selling them, but the problem is it’s hard to know their real value unless you hire a professional appraiser. Or is it? Well, as luck would have it, there are modern ways of determining their worth that don’t involve hiring any person whatsoever. There are certain mobile apps that scan the book’s barcode, then process this in the background and dig up the needed information online automatically for you, while all you need to do is sit back and relax. After the scanning is done, they will tell you exactly how much you can expect to get for the book in the second-hand market. Alternatively, you could make a true business out of this by going around and scanning other books in used bookshops – sometimes, they are worth more than what they’re selling them for.

7. Paid online surveys

If you fancy the idea of getting paid for doing nothing else but answering a couple of questions about your life, then paid surveys might just be the thing you need to earn some bucks while not doing anything particularly demanding. Some of them even take it up a notch and pay you to watch trailers and other promotional materials. While the earning potential of doing this is probably not through the roof, it’s a good way to get started if you truly want to earn some money in the quickest way possible that doesn’t involve having to sell your own kidney. The only downside is that it might be hard to get any available surveys if you don’t live in a tier 1 country like the US. So, if you live in other parts of the world, you might have a hard time trying to make some serious money with this method.

8. Airbnb

Do you have a home you don’t mind parting ways with for a little while? No, you don’t have to sell it or find a tenant either for this to work – with Airbnb, you can earn more than $100 a day just by renting it out to people even for as little as one day. If you’re planning to be out of town anyway, there are hardly any downsides to doing this. If you’re shivering at the thought of letting your people in your home and finding it in ruins after you’ve returned, there is no need to worry, as Airbnb has you insured for up to $1 million. There is also the security fee mechanism; if any of the furniture gets damaged as a direct result of someone’s wrongdoing, you can use that money to cover the damages.

9. Walk other people’s dogs

No, this is not a joke. Nowadays, people are so busy and might not find the time to walk their dogs (and these pretty much need walking on a daily basis). What’s better than getting some fresh air while also earning some pretty money to go along with it, right? If this sounds dream-like to you, there are websites like Rover where there are numerous clients waiting for you. Currently, more than 10,000 US cities are supported, and finding work within a large area should be no trouble at all. People are reporting being to earn upwards of $20 an hour with this, and since these gigs are quite lucrative, some have decided to turn this to a full-fledged business.

10. Paid grocery shopping

As an alternative to driving people around, you could simply do paid grocery shopping that doesn’t involve having to deal with any passengers whatsoever. Similarly to Uber, there’s an app for that, so finding clients won’t be too challenging – it’s called Instacart. Of course, your pay is going to depend on various factors such as the overall size of the order and the distance needed to travel, but earning as much as $15 an hour for doing other people’s grocery shopping and a bit of driving doesn’t sound bad at all.

Conclusion

And there you have it! These are modern and legitimate ways of getting a quick financial boost whenever you need it. Understandably, some of them will require you to live in or in the vicinity of a big city in order to work best, but you can always temporarily move to a new place if need be. If you have the discipline to do this line of work, you’ll find that earning a bit of money on the side can sometimes be quite fun and doesn’t come close to feeling like a ‘real’ job, since it’s nowhere as demanding or tiresome. Good luck in your hustling!