How Can I Get Emergency Money Fast?

Few people say no to easy money, especially when you need it NOW. 

Let us guess: Unexpected expenses? Account problems? Something wrong with your main income stream?

We got you covered. You’re about to find four ways to make money as soon as today, whether you have funds already or not.

We’re NOT talking of all the mediocre advice you found in other sites (surveys, affiliate marketing, betting, food delivery). What you’ll learn can make thousands of dollars this week, depending on the action you take.

Although most ideas are well-known and common sense, they work quite well. Before you keep looking for secret earning tactics, start here.

Problems are always coming, some of which we fail to foresee. The question isn’t whether you will make a mistake or not, but how to minimize its effects.

Emergency cash comes handy when:

An emergency fund will save you from stress in those situations. But what if you haven’t one yet? You have to prepare before the emergency happens.

Types Of Emergency Money Strategies

Some people will give you free money if you test their service. Others won’t mind lending if you can repay later. Others pay you for simple tasks you’d do anyway.

Most of these make decent money but require you to prepare months before they work. So if you don’t have money, time, or skills, here’s where you can start:

#1 Sell yours or other people’s goods and services

With market inefficiencies, it’s possible that two people buy at different prices and still get a good deal. If you buy and sell from the right person, the difference makes you profit.

It sounds like trading, except that you don’t need to buy before you sell. If you own items you don’t use, reselling them could count as infinite ROI.

If you don’t have much to sell, arbitrage works as well. Go to any deal page, giveaway site, or group, and find discounted products. Create a listing in the official e-commerce brands (Ebay, Amazon Merchants) and sell it for a fair price.

The lower your price, the sooner they buy. You’ll earn a few dollars more per product if you’re patient and pick well. Unlike Amazon, you don’t need any marketing on Ebay to sell other than creating the listing.

But if you’re like us, you don’t like the idea of waiting until someone buys. Try drop-servicing instead:

Right now, there are countless clients on freelance websites looking for professionals. At the same time, there are many freelancers with high-quality work that don’t charge $100/h. If the client pays more than what the worker is willing to charge, you can pocket the difference doing no work.

Joe wants to hire a video producer for $100, but Bill offers his service at $50 because he’s new and wants to build credibility. They don’t know each other, but you can be that bridge and get paid for it.

Many agencies do that. That worker could be on Fiverr, Freeeup, or GoLance; you could find the client on Upwork.

You ask the worker to send you some samples and data to show the client. If they like it, you’ll get a contract and pay the worker to do it for less (which happens to be the rate he had in mind).

#2 Trading your time

If you have less money than you need, you can admit to yourself you didn’t give it the right priority. Now that you do, you’re willing to find the time to do it (and fast).

Although clients prefer expert workers, someone will always find your skills valuable. It could be something you never thought about, such as speaking English, writing, or cooking.

Aside from local jobs, you can try freelance sites such as Upwork, Freelancer, or Fiverr.

If good enough, try joining specific agencies that offer those services. After they approve it, you won’t need to worry about finding clients anymore.

For example, strangers are willing to pay per hour (often starting from $12/h) to practice English with someone who knows the language. Learn more at Cambly.

Depending on your availability, there will always be a job for you. If you need the money urgently, make sure to charge per results/project and not per hour.

#3 Get paid for the money you already have

If you have savings or high monthly expenses, you can get free money by using it differently. New companies will pay you a welcome bonus when you use their cards for purchases you’d do anyway.

You can later downgrade or close those cards (or reopen later). Credit card churning may earn you over $1K if you make big purchases, but you need to qualify first.

Here’s an effective guide for increasing your credit score.

If your score isn’t ideal, there’s still an alternative: exchanges. Platforms who need more traders offer rewards to new members based on activity.

For example, you get paid $20-$50 (or more) after closing ten contracts or more (another money opportunity). You could instantly open and close those to meet the minimum and collect the reward.

You can find a dozen of those on the Internet, both about Forex and crypto. That could make $300-$600 this month.

If you share finances with your family, you can take advantage of affiliate offers as well.

#4 Borrowing money

You can get interest-free money from friends and family who trust you. If you borrow from a bank or private lender, they will have a credit score requirement too.

What if your social circle doesn’t lend you anything, but you neither have a good credit score? If any of them has, you could ask to qualify for the loan and give it to you later. 

Of course, not anybody will do it. Look for someone with good credit who trusts your repayment plan but can’t lend because of a lack of money.

However, you’ll be using another person to ask a private lender. When you repay, remember that interest rates will apply. It’s the least you can do for risking someone’s credit score.

You may need smaller amounts or plan to repay fast (within two weeks). If you are good at avoiding debt, try looking for pay-day or hard money loans from trusted lenders. Some may not require any credit scores.

When you’re investing that money in something that will help others, consider fundraising. You don’t need a corporate business plan to get trust when you can create a campaign on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or RocketHub. Within a few hours, you could learn how to deliver your message and market your idea.

You might also be interested in the topic of recession froof jobs.

Emergency Strategies To Keep Your Money

We now have a bit of an idea on making emergency money. Learning how to generate some more passive income can always be beneficial. But if you can’t keep it, it defies the purpose of saving money.

Luckily, it’s easier to save than to earn after you do it enough times. Even with a bad strategy, you’re more likely to make money when your urgency increases. When you have less time left, you become more resourceful on ways to pay those expenses.

But not everybody does well under pressure. It takes far less work to save when you prevent emergencies from happening:

#1 Slow down with your expenses

Review everything that’s consuming your savings and filter out unnecessary expenses. If you have payments or debt pending, delay them.

In an emergency, you need money available. Paying for the bills will solve problems short-term, but it doesn’t make you money. If you can invest it before dealing with recurrent payments, do that.

You neither get rewards for paying debt sooner. Stick with the minimum monthly payments.

The next time you buy anything, ask yourself: if I pay for this, is my money gone forever? Can I revert the action if I made a mistake?

When purchases are irreversible (no refunds), think twice before spending. If you bought items recently and still qualify for a refund, consider getting your money back.

#2 Define your average monthly expenses

Make sure to account for unpredictables and debt. 

If you don’t know your numbers, you won’t know what strategy works most for you. 

Ironically, it’s easier to save money when you have a higher income/expenses. Once you know the number:

#3 Adopt a sense of urgency

You will overlook all these strategies unless you start treating it like a real emergency. You can become more self-aware if you:

This last one creates a massive difference. Instead of aiming for, say, $900 per month, you think of $30 per day ($33 for emergencies). You’re unlikely to procrastinate until the end of the month because you’re demanding yourself results every day.

You can skip a lot of work if you borrow money. However, you will still need a repayment strategy.

Are Emergencies Really the Problem?

You can think as if you had nothing to do with the problem. Or you can take responsibility: how can I prevent it from happening again?

Here’s the cheapest and fastest way to make emergency money: an emergency plan. You can’t avoid emergencies, but you can prepare so that they can’t affect your life.

When you need money fast you can become susceptible to various get rich quick scams, so beware and make sure to learn how you can avoid them in your most vulnerable times.

These strategies will only work when you have a long-term commitment to your personal finance:

If you can’t find the right moment to start, adopt the habit of putting 5-10% aside. You know what they say: if you can’t invest a few bucks, you neither will with big money.

Only diversification “guarantees” financial stability. But if you’re earning low and need emergency money, you’ll make far more by focusing on one.