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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

What's the quickest way for me to raise $1000?

Q:  I won't do anything illegal, like deal drugs or prostitute myself. I also won't make myself homeless by selling the house, and I really need my car. 

I've thought of bake sales and yard sales, but baked goods sell cheaply and I don't have lots of nice things to sell. 

I'm a working college student. 

Thanks in advance!



A:  Fastest? Loans are the fastest. Of course, that's at huge interest rates. Fast loans: pawnshops, payday lenders, prosper.com, family. 

Fastest without a loan? Selling extra's you have, they don't need to be nice. Clothes will sell on ebay, really. $10/$15 for a pair of Levis or named brand shoes. When I was a poor college student and ebay was new, I bought named-brand clothes for $5 at Goodwill and sold online for $30, nice mark up. CD collections sell for $1 a disk, DVD collections about $3 a disc or $10 for new stuff. 

Next fastest - extra jobs. You can find piecemeal work on craigslist. At college? Sign up to be a tutor. Through the school I was making $2 per student per hour in 1988 for 12 hours a week. I also worked for a temp agency, sliced meat at a restaurant, and was the receptionist for a financial planner. $9 an hour of min-wage work gets to $1,000 in about 7 weeks of part-time work. Tips are even better if you can get into an upscale place, a friend's wife pulls down $50k a year waiting tables at a PF Changs.