The following is a guest post by Zach Larsen. He is a small business owner, finance and investment expert, and co-founder of PineappleMoney.com. He enjoys teaching others about personal finance and spending time with his family.
If you’re in college or headed to college you’re going to be in need of some fast cash. There are always unexpected expenses related to college. Here are 11 ways to get some fast cash for college.
Freelance Writer
Are you knowledgeable on a topic? Have you ever thought about monetizing that knowledge? Freelance writing is one of the easiest ways to make money online. If you can type quickly, it is also a fast way to make money.
To get started, all it takes is to make a profile on a popular freelancing site like UpWork to start getting clients. The best part is you can take your niche knowledge and use that to pump up your earnings. Writing about specialized topics like finance will garner higher paying clients than writing about the latest movie you watched.
Virtual Assistant
Being a virtual assistant is a great way to earn money online. Many people and businesses are looking to arbitrage their time and have someone do their assistant-level work. This is where you come in. You can respond to emails, research, organize, handle phone calls, etc for these busy people or businesses.
Sell Fiverr Gigs
Fiverr started out with sellers selling gigs for $5 and keeping $4. Now Fiverr allows you to sell gigs of any price, and that can really add up. Whether you are a freelance writer, a programmer, a designer, or so much more Fiverr could be the place for you.
There has been a recent trend of learning a skill using Fiverr. You take a skill that you want to learn. Let’s use programming in Python as an example. You create a gig at the lowest price of $5 for a simple Python task. As you continue to get gigs on Fiverr, you increase the price and complexity of your gig until you have learned your new skill. You just got paid to learn something new.
Become a Notary
During the pandemic becoming a notary and assisting in the home buying process surged in popularity. It’s no wonder because you can make upwards of $100 an hour and can set your own schedule. You won’t find being a notary on a list of jobs that pay over 300k, because becoming a notary in some states is as easy as filling out an application.
After you have become a notary, the most lucrative gigs are the loan signing gigs. You can sign up through a variety of companies and be available for gigs. You just need to learn how to work your way through loan paperwork, and you’re off to the races.
Airbnb
Do you live in an area that people want to visit? Probably, especially if you are in college. Get started on Airbnb, and see what the going nightly rate for a room is. Then go crash with your friends or family, and rent out your room. To take it to the next level, you can start saving your 3 paycheck months to buy an entire house and Airbnb all the other rooms to continue growing your real estate empire.
Rent Your Car
To be able to rent your car out you only need a few things. You only need a car that people want to rent and be in an area where people rent cars. Then you can sign up on sites like Turo and be able to start earning once you are approved.
How much can you make? There are a lot of users with multiple cars on Turo and are clearing over 60k a year. You may be asking yourself, “is 60k a year good?”. For most people that would be worth the hassle of renting your car out.
TaskRabbit
If you haven’t heard of TaskRabbit, you’ve probably never been to IKEA. As a TaskRabbit, you do tasks that other people will pay you for. This includes tasks like assembling furniture, picking up someone’s dry cleaning, or picking up their dinner from a restaurant and bringing it to them. You can set your hours and do tasks when it makes sense for you.
DoorDash
As you well know, DoorDash is an on-demand delivery service where you as a dasher are paid to deliver food. If you have a fuel-efficient car and are available during primetime (lunch and dinner) DoorDash quotes that you can make up to $25 an hour. That’ll pay for some books or lab fees in no time.
Rideshare
What if you don’t want to deliver food, but you want to drive people around instead? There’s Uber and Lyft as an opportunity for you to do just that. The only caveat is as a college student, you may not have a car that rideshare apps will deem as acceptable for their service.
A tip for earning more from a rideshare app is to be available when surge pricing hits. You can significantly increase your hourly rate and earn more money by working during surge pricing and can put fewer hours in and have less wear and tear on your car.
InstaCart
If you like going grocery shopping, InstaCart is where it is at. You get paid to shop and buy what other people would buy. Then you drive it to them, and you also get a tip for doing it. I know people that could spend hours at the grocery store, so why not at least get paid for it? This is similar to DoorDash, but you aren’t buying fast food. If you have access to a club store like Costco or Sams Club, you can earn even more.
Petsitting
Do you like pets? If so, pet sitting might be right up your alley. The best part is that if you get rated highly enough, you can also house sit for the pet owners as well. This could reduce your housing costs, and effectively be increasing your income by lowering your expenses.
Conclusion
This was only 11 ways to get fast cash for college, and there are literally hundreds of other ways. If you put your mind to it, you can achieve it.
What did I miss? What are your favorite ways to make fast cash?