By: Raymond M. James
About the Author:
Ray is a sought after thought leader and an expert in financial and money management. He has been published and featured in over 50 leading sites and aims to contribute articles to help novice financial planners. One of his goals is to impart his knowledge in finance to educate and help ordinary people create and achieve their financial goals.
In a crisis, supplementing your income is critical if you need money for food, bills, or prescriptions. However, as much as you might need extra revenue, actually obtaining it can be elusive. That said, to help you get a little extra cash in your pocket, there are a variety of methods, such as old-fashioned elbow grease, ingenuity, and financial management.
- Gig work
If you have a skill that others require, you can obtain clients for such work as graphic design, web design, or taxi driving. If you are handy with tools, you can earn extra money as a handy person by assisting people selling their homes. For instance, you can do repairs that will help them pass an inspection. Even if you do not want to work as a taxi driver, you can rent your own vehicle to others. Other gig work can include dictation, medical billing, or pet sitting.
- Loan
Of course, getting a loan from a relative or friend is something of a last resort because relatives and friends need their money as well. However, if you are in a jam, you can obtain personal loans, which can provide enough money to get you through your crisis.
If you consider a personal loan as a solution and your credit is not quite high enough, you can often pay off a few debts ahead of time prior to applying for a loan. In doing so, you can help increase your credit score, which just may bump you into the acceptance zone.
A personal loan also allows you to pay the total amount back over a fixed or flexible period of time, so you benefit from a large influx of money without having to pay it back all at once. Of course, you do want to ensure to get a personal loan from a reputable loan company, and you want to make sure you obtain an interest rate that works for your budget.
- Cutting expenses
Of course, it is not always possible to bring in additional revenue. In these instances, protecting your existing funds is required. To do this, you can forego alcohol, cigarettes, or movie rentals. Additionally, you can stop buying desserts or other unnecessary items. In fact, if you examine all your extra costs, you can often save enough money in a month that it will equal a 10-percent to 20-percent increase in revenue.
- Landlord
If you rent your home, you can sometimes negotiate with your landlord to skip one month of rent and spread it over the remaining months of the lease. Doing so will land you hundreds of dollars. If you own your own home, you can become a landlord by renting out a room.
- Grace periods
When it comes to paying your bills, grace periods exist to help you pay your payment if you cannot pay it on the due date. When times are tough, you should take advantage of these grace periods and pay as late as your agreement allows. Additionally, such bills as water or electric can often be a month late before you are required to make a payment. Holding off your payments by a month can net you a few hundred dollars.
- Sales
A garage sale can help you get rid of items that you no longer need. If you have enough time and stuff, you can earn hundreds of dollars or even a thousand dollars. Another way to earn sales is if you are crafty. For instance, you can sell crafts on such sites as Etsy. Doing so is as simple as signing up for an account and taking photos of your crafts. Once you have the photos taken, you can post them to your Etsy account. As people search for things to buy, they will soon come across your crafts. All you need to do is ship the products when they are ordered.
- Extra hours
If you already have a job, you can often work extra hours to earn extra income. Depending on the crisis, this is one of the best ways to bring in the money you require because it can be repeated as long as you need.
