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Since you’re reading this post, I’m going to assume you want to learn new ways to increase your available cash quickly. Increasing your cash will allow you to payoff high interest debt or invest to earn even more in the long run.
In simplest terms, there are two primary ways you can increase your available cash: (1) you can spend less money and (2) you can earn more money. Even better, these two are not mutually exclusive meaning you can do both at the same time and further increase your available cash.
In this post, I’m going to focus primarily on how you can earn more money quickly. But, I’ll call out specific ways you could combine spending less with earning more money to multiply your available cash.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to post the same methods you read in most other blogs telling you to become an Uber or Lyft driver, freelance on Upwork, take surveys in your spare time, start an e-commerce business on Shopify or start a blog!
Why? Because I personally think those methods will either result in minimal earnings for the effort required or will take a long time to become profitable (if ever) before you see a return.
Instead, I’m going to share with you the ways Ashley and I have personally earned more money quickly. My goal is to share what’s worked for us so you can get a better understanding if any of these are something you want to try out.
Okay, here we go!
Below are the 5 ways we earn more money…FAST.
1.) Easily sell old clothes with Poshmark
Speed of earnings: High
If you’re like us, you probably have a lot of clothes in your closet or dresser that you rarely wear and are still in good condition. If so, you could be sitting on cash just waiting to be freed up!
We didn’t want to try and sell our used clothes on craigslist or Facebook Marketplace because they are inconvenient and can be unsafe meeting strangers to exchange clothes.
So we searched for something better and found Poshmark, which is an online social clothing marketplace that has millions of shoppers who are searching for great deals on good clothes.
Poshmark allows you to sell your used clothes on its marketplace and even provides shipping labels for you to print and conveniently ship the clothes to buyers across the U.S. Plus, Poshmark covers the shipping cost.
Also, Poshmark is super convenient for sellers. They have a mobile app that allows you to simply take photos of your clothes, add a brief description and price, then easily post it to the Poshmark network and even share with your followers!
As with any service platform like this, Poshmark takes a cut of the sale as its revenue. But, I think it’s well worth it since it’s so easy to use and has millions of shoppers waiting to buy.
Ashley has already earned $700+ selling our used clothes on Poshmark in the last 12 months!
We even made a deal that since we do not have a clothing budget currently (we’re trying to save as much as possible to hit our goals), that whatever Ashley earns on Poshmark can be spent buying new clothes for herself. This helps us not spend planned earnings on clothes and get rid of existing clothes before we add more!
Tip: If you’re going to be shipping clothes often, then I recommend investing in an affordable scale and label printer to make your life a lot easier. We use a shipping scale similar to this one on Amazon and the DYMO 4XL Label Printer and love them! These are also perfect for any other package shipping so you don’t have to wait in line at the post office.
Give it a try and download the Poshmark app today to get started!
2.) Sign up with a local Temp Staffing agency
Speed of earnings: High
Personally, I’ve never given temporary staffing agencies a glance. My eyes have always been set on a steady, full time career with a salary and bonus. But, I recently learned how awesome temp staffing agencies are for those looking to earn money fast.
After the startup company Ashley worked for in 2017 had a mass layoff, we agreed that she didn’t have to go back to another full time salary job. Our plan was for her to work on her own schedule for a temp staffing firm in Dallas, TX.
Ashley searched for local temp staffing companies and applied to work under High Profile in Dallas, TX. She interviewed, they loved her and the rest is history.
The three requirements she informed the agency of was that she needed (1) complete flexibility to work whenever and however many hours per week she wanted, (2) to earn between $20/hour to $24/hour and (3) to work within a 15 mile radius of downtown Dallas.
Get this…High Profile said that would be no problem! Before we knew it, Ashley had multiple short term, temp jobs lined up from High Profile! One week she’d fill in for a receptionist at a corporate office. Another week, she’d help a company whose office manager went on vacation. Then, she got a longer term temp gig as a lease contract coordinator for a commercial real estate company.
There was no shortage of flexible, good paying work for her! And, the best part was that she didn’t have to interview over and over with companies or find the gigs herself because all of the companies trust High Profile to do that for them, which they do once.
Ashley was quickly earning $900+ per week with the flexibility most people want!
If this is something you’re in a position to do, I definitely recommend giving it a try so you can earn more money fast!
3.) Sell your vehicle with CarGurus
Speed of earnings: Medium
In August 2018, I decided to sell my 2009 F-150 King Ranch truck, better known as “Pearly” to those who’ve heard me mention it before. I made the decision so we could free up cash to pay-off the remainder of our student loans and stash away more savings to hit our financial freedom goals.
From my perspective, vehicles are a depreciating asset that lose thousands of dollars in value (equity) every single day. Worse, if you purchased your vehicle with an auto loan and haven’t paid it off yet, then you’re paying money including interest expenses to a bank every month and likely losing the same amount of money each month due to depreciation. It’s definitely not a wise investment and I had been doing that for years.
So, I decided to sell my truck to free up cash and stop throwing my hard earned money down the drain. I paid off my truck in January 2018 and decided to sell it eight months later. I had complete equity in the vehicle now and wouldn’t have to pay back a bank for the amount owed.
If you’ve ever tried to sell a vehicle you know it can be a hassle. But, I did my research and learned a better way to sell a vehicle in Texas.
First, I needed to determine the market value of the truck. I looked up the value on Kelley Blue Book and searched for comps within a 100 mile radius of Dallas, TX using Car Gurus, ebay motors, Auto Trader and Cars.com. This helped me understand my truck’s potential trade-in value at a dealership and market values if I sold directly to a buyer as a private seller.
Now that I knew a market value range for my truck I quickly got it cleaned and detailed, and took some good photos. Then, I needed to decide if I was going to sell it to a dealership or list it online to sell directly to a buyer.
I took it to multiple dealerships and quickly learned that they will low-ball you by thousands of dollars…they have to in order to mark it back up to resell. The best offer at a dealership I received was $3,000 less than I thought I could get selling it myself. So, that’s what I decided to do – sell it myself.
I searched for multiple online marketplaces to sell the truck on and landed on Car Gurus, which was an amazingly convenient experience.
Car Gurus allowed me to easily create a listing, upload photos, add a description and has a cool pricing tool that helps you understand how competitive your sell price is versus other sellers. After listing my truck, I started receiving multiple messages from potential buyers that same day!
Long story short, I setup a couple of test drives for the potential buyers and sold Pearly for more than I originally thought I could make as a private seller!
I freed up $16K+ in about one month and got rid of a depreciating asset! In addition to earning more money, I was able to multiply my available cash for other investments by not purchasing another second vehicle due to lower auto insurance payments, lower gas bills, lower expenses on oil changes and other maintenance and no new auto payment.
That’s how I combined earning more with spending less to multiply my available cash for the foreseeable future!
If you have a second or third vehicle that you’re able to sell, look into freeing up that cash so you can payoff higher interest debt or put in an appreciating asset investment!
P.S. I’ll share details in a future blog post on how to sell a vehicle with information on how to ensure safety when selling to strangers, how to protect your vehicle and finances when test driving, completing a Bill of Sale, transferring the vehicle title, obtaining funds while avoiding fake bills or bad checks and many more tips.
4.) Provide consulting services on the side
Speed of earnings: Low
Okay, I know I’m probably the one millionth person to recommend providing consulting services on the side, but it truly does work. All you need is to understand what skill you have that other’s need and are willing to pay for. And you have to deliver.
I’ve done a couple of side consulting engagements in the last two years and earned over $5,000 charging anywhere between $50/hour to $150/hour based on the deliverables.
The types of consulting engagements I’ve done have all centered around financial model development, business model strategy, performing startup valuation analyses and helping startups raise money from investors via their pitch decks. This stuff is second nature to me, but there are a ton of startup founders and small business owners that do not have the skill set to complete those items so they hire for them.
There’s one catch though, which might actually be the hardest part of consulting. And that’s obtaining a consulting engagement, which requires sales or business development. That’s why I rated the speed of earnings for this one as low. Business development takes time. But, once you have clients you could get follow on engagements with them or referrals from them and not have to sell so much!
I’m not a natural sales person and actually lean more towards the introverted side in social and networking situations. So this can be tough for many like me.
But, it can be easy if you do what comes natural for you. For me, I simply started attending startup events in Dallas, TX that were put on by the Dallas Entrepreneur Center and had conversations with founders and business owners over a cocktail in a non-intimidating environment.
If I hit it off with a business owner and felt I could offer them some credible advice based on our conversation, then I’d offer to help them think through their business model or strategy just to help them out – with no intention of actually trying to sell them upfront on a consulting deal.
Afterwards, we’d meet, I would get to understand more about them, their business and what they are trying to accomplish. If, during our meeting, they told me they needed help with something that I consider myself an expert at, then I’d offer to help them complete that work or they’d flat out ask me if I’d be willing to complete it for them for a fee.
Then, we’d discuss what they would be comfortable paying and how (i.e. $X/Hour or $X per deliverable). If they couldn’t afford my range, and if the startup/business had a lot of promise, then I’d try to work out an equity share in the business to support them based on my skill set and possibly even join as a founder.
There are a ton of options to make a deal work and you don’t have to halt a deal based on one number not working for you. Be creative with it and take a consultative approach to selling your talents.
What are the top skills and expertise you have that others may be willing to pay for?
Once you know that, try attending a local event focused around your target market and just start by getting to know people, what they’re trying to accomplish and what problems they need solved.
5.) Ask for a raise or start a new job
Speed of earnings: Medium
The four methods I’ve outlined above have all focused on adding new income channels. This one, however, focuses on increasing an existing income channel: your current job.
I’ve increased my personal income multiple times over the last 7 years by (a) either asking for a raise or (b) starting a new job within the same company or taking a job with a different company. Both work, but timing is critical to success.
When asking for a raise from your boss, make sure you’re in good standing with the company and that you’ve received outstanding performance reviews recently. You’re almost certain NOT to get a raise if those are not true.
Also, make sure the company is hitting its financial goals and not in a cash crunch. Then, do some market research on Glassdoor and understand the salary range your role gets paid within your company and at other companies in your local market so you know your worth.
After that, all you need to do is develop your talking points and have the conversation with your boss to obtain your raise. The main talking point you need is to be able to clearly articulate the value you add and create for your team and your company.
Unfortunately, in my experience, you don’t get the biggest raise you should by asking for a raise under the same role at the same company. Most companies have internal policies that will not allow mangers to go above a certain percentage increase in your base pay.
So, the next step if you want to earn a higher income and to do new work is to obtain a different role at your current company or get a new role at a different company. Again, from my experience, you’ll get a 15% to 30% higher base pay by gaining a job with a new company (especially in this 2018 economy) rather than staying with your current company.
If you’re curious what you’re worth, don’t just stick to what Glassdoor says – it’s not always relevant for your situation. Simply apply to a few jobs and try to get a couple of interviews with companies and roles you’re interested in. Oftentimes, a HR rep will be your first interview via a phone screening and most of the times they’ll ask you for your salary range and tell you what range the role pays.
Now you’ve done an easy market check and know your worth based on real evidence. Use it to your advantage and start earning more in your career!
Start earning more money now
There you have it!Those are the 5 ways Ashley and I have been able to earn more money fast. I hope you learned of at least one method you can start implementing today.
Let me know in the comments below if you’ve tried any of these or if you have other quick methods to earn more money.
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