How To Make $4,000 Fast – 16 Proven Methods To Try
So, you're wondering how to make $4,000 fast and need some ideas for inspiration.
Well, the great news is there are plenty of online and in-person ways you can make extra cash fast when in a pinch.
This post is covering some of the very best ideas out there. I've also tested out plenty of these hustles in the past to make some fast cash, so I know they're legitimate. Hopefully, one or more of these ideas works out for you.
How To Make $4,000 Dollars Fast
1. Freelance Online
In my experience, one of the best ways to make $4,000 fast is to sell your skills online as a freelancer. This is what I've done with freelance writing since I quit my job in digital marketing and moved to Colombia back in 2020.
When I quit my job, I only had one main client and was working on expanding my client list. But within about 6 months, I was earning as much as my previous day-job and then surpassed that income after a year.
And freelance writing is just one example of a way to make money with freelancing. Other popular freelancing gigs include:
- Bookkeeping and accounting
- Business development
- Digital marketing
- Graphic design
- Online tutor
- Proofreader and editor
- Private tutoring
- Search engine optimization
- Social media management
- Transcription
- Web design
- Video editor
- Virtual assistant work
Plenty of freelancing gigs can pay $25 to $50 per hour or more as well. At $50 an hour, you can make $4,000 dollars in 80 hours, which is about two weeks of work!
And the best part is there are numerous ways to find your first clients. Between remote job websites, your own networks, or finding jobs on Upwork, you have plenty of options to try. You can also find high-paying remote gigs on FlexJobs if you're serious.
2. Deliver Food For Money
If you want a simple way to get $4,000 fast, you can always try side gig apps that pay you for delivering food to people.
Apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats are the perfect example. These gigs let you deliver on your own schedule, and you can deliver with a car, bike, or scooter in many markets.
DoorDash is the leading food delivery app in North America and is available in 5,000+ cities. Uber Eats is also extremely popular and pays quite well. Plus, you keep 100% of all tips with these gigs, so getting lucky can help out.
My friend Grant actually delivered for Uber Eats and DoorDash to make money after college, and he could easily clear $100 to $150+ in an evening of delivering food on his bike.
Again, this takes a lot of grinding to make 4K fast, but it's a reliable option you can try if you need to get started quickly. You can also stack other delivery apps with it, like Grubhub or Shipt. But I think a good starting point is the two main delivery apps.
Sign up for Uber Eats and DoorDash!
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3. Sell Your Unused Stuff
Has it been a while since you've done some decluttering? If so, you can try to sell your unused stuff to get quick cash.
There are plenty of ways to start selling stuff for cash as well. The best option is to look through your home for popular categories of things to sell like apparel, electronics, toys, and video games. From there, you can host a garage sale to sell stuff locally. Alternatively, you can use online selling apps to find local and international buyers.
Some popular apps you can use to sell unused stuff for cash include:
- Worthy: A reputable way to sell watches, jewelry, diamonds, wedding rings, and precious stones online.
- Mercari: A popular selling app where you can sell pretty much anything.
- The Facebook Marketplace: The best way to sell stuff like clothing, home goods, and electronics for cash.
- OfferUp: Another popular local selling marketplace like Facebook.
- Poshmark: The best way to sell designer-brand clothing, shoes, and accessories.
- SidelineSwap: A popular marketplace for selling used sports equipment and apparel.
Granted, making a quick $4,000 requires selling a lot of stuff, so it's best to stick with valuables here. This means selling things like jewelry, precious metals, electronics, or rare collectibles like watches or even random collector items like Pokemon cards.
4. Complete Odd Jobs For Money
Willing to put in a hard day of work? If so, there are lots of ways to find local cash gigs thanks to the Internet as well and the rise of new odd job apps.
I've used these apps and websites in the past to find same day pay jobs. Some of my favorite options include:
- Steady: A free gig economy app that helps you find new side hustles.
- Oppizi: This gig pays you to walk and deliver flyers to people in your city and can pay $20+ per hour.
- Wonolo: Another popular on-demand job app in the United States.
- Instawork: A similar app like Wonolo that helps you find quick cash gigs.
- TaskRabbit: One of the largest on-demand gig work platforms in the world.
- Rover: One of the best ways to find dog walking and pet sitting clients.
These apps have plenty of jobs like event staffing, restaurant work, construction, and warehouse work at any given time. And they're an effective way to get free money if you're willing to hustle.
It might take several weeks to earn $4,000 with these sorts of apps, but they can help you find your next gig very quickly.
5. Ask Your Boss For A Raise
One of the simplest ways to increase your income is to ask for a raise.
If you think about it, this one single conversation could net you a fast $5,000 to $10,000 or more depending on your position and seniority, so you might get more than $4k.
This is what happened to me when I asked for a raise after my first year working at a digital marketing agency out of school.
The downside to this strategy is you don't get the money right away, but rather over your next paychecks. However, this is a regular and important aspect of wealth building that is good to keep in mind.
6. Deliver Groceries For Money
There are plenty of ways to get paid to shop for people's groceries. And you can often earn $15 to $25 per hour and work on your own schedule.
Instacart is the leading grocery delivery service. It pays around $15 to $25 per hour, and you get paid for shopping for grocery orders and then delivering them to people's homes.
Jobs like Instacart are also popular since you don't do as much driving as with gigs like DoorDash since you spend more time in-store.
And if you follow some Instacart Shopper tips like shopping at peak times, you can maximize your hourly pay with this gig. It might take a few weeks to earn $4,000, but these gigs have enough demand for you to find steady work and extra cash.
7. Borrow The Money
Sometimes, the best way to get out of a financial pickle is to ask for assistance. And this is where borrowing money comes into play.
There's also numerous options you can turn to like:
- Asking friends and family for the money
- Using a credit card
- Trying cash advance apps
- Going to your bank for a loan
- Using loan providers like Zippyloan to borrow money
You have to decide what you're comfortable with, and you know your friend and family situation better than I do! And if you decide to go with a company like Zippyloan or your bank, make sure you read terms carefully.
Zippyloan provides next-day loans anywhere from $100 to $15,000, but it's important to know the exact terms you're signing up for. And don't hesitate to ask a professional financial advisor for advice.
8. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the main ways I make money these days. And it's an incredibly lucrative business model if you know how to scale it.
Personally, I make $10k a week or more from affiliate marketing with my blog and YouTube channel. In fact, there are plenty of times I make $1,000 a day or even more just by promoting various partners for people to sign up for.
Now, it took me more than five years of blogging and practice to make this type of money. But affiliate marketing is an incredible business model with so much potential.
For starters, you have low start-up costs because you're promoting someone else's products and services, not your own. There are so many ways to begin building an online audience for affiliate marketing. Popular ones include influencer marketing on social media, starting an online business, blogging, YouTube, and podcasting to name a few.
Scaling to $4,000 is going to take time. But in terms of making this kind of money online and as a low startup cost side hustle, affiliate marketing is quite realistic.
9. Flip Stuff For Profit
One common method to get money fast is to flip stuff for profit. And the idea is pretty simple on paper.
In a nutshell, flipping stuff for money involves buying popular products on sale from retailers like Walmart and Macy's. Next, you resell that same merchandise for a profit using various selling apps or marketplaces.
This is retail arbitrage 101. And many sellers start out by buying popular products in categories like clothing, electronics, and toys and then reselling them through Amazon.
The fulfillment by Amazon service, or Amazon FBA, is popular for resellers because Amazon handles all of your shipping. All you need to do is source inventory, send it to Amazon warehouses, and then it handles all the logistics.
I interviewed a retail arbitrage couple on WebMonkey, and they're clearing $1 million in annual revenue with the business.
So, you can get $4,000 fast with this method, although it takes time to build up your inventory and learn the ropes. But you can start flipping with $500 or some small investment to test out this business model.
10. Pawn Stuff For Cash
Like selling stuff for money, another option you can use to earn quick cash is to pawn stuff for money.
There are plenty of popular things to pawn like:
- Antiques
- Cars and motorbikes
- Collectibles like sports cards, rare coins, comic books, or even rare collectibles like Beanie Babies
- Expensive electronics
- Instruments
- Jewelry
- Precious metals
- Sports equipment
- Tools
The downside to pawning is that you get way below market value for your stuff since the pawn shop needs to protect itself in case you default. However, if you have some jewelry, precious metals, or even luxury watches, you can consider pawning them for fast cash.
11. Try Other Delivery Gigs
If you're still wondering how to make $4,000 fast, you can always try other driving apps that pay you.
Food delivery gigs are popular, but there are numerous other ways to deliver stuff, or people, for cash. Several driving gigs you can consider include:
- Amazon Flex
- Uber
- GoShare
- Lyft
- Roadie
- Walmart Spark
Jobs like Amazon Flex, Roadie, and GoShare are perfect if you just want to deliver packages for cash instead of people. As for Uber and Lyft, they're steady rideshare gigs you can use to make money on your own schedule.
Just remember to track all your expenses like gas and vehicle repairs since you're an independent contractor and can potentially claim some of these expenses when filing taxes.
12. Rent Out Valuable Assets
If you prefer passive income, you can always try renting stuff out for money instead of starting a new hustle.
People often prefer renting stuff out than forking over lots of money to buy an asset. This is especially true for very expensive assets as well. And you'd be amazed at some of the options you have for making money with rentals:
- Rent a spare room through Airbnb
- Rent extra storage space with Neighbor
- Rent out cameras, instruments, tools, and anything you can think of on Fat Llama
- Rent out your car on Turo
- Rent out an RV on RVShare
A handful of rentals per month with these platforms could easily hundreds of extra dollars in your pocket. Again, this is a way to make $4,000 fast if you want to make money on autopilot. But it might take a few months if this is your only hustle.
13. Join Focus Groups
Online and in-person focus groups are another excellent side hustle that can pay a high hourly rate. And this is actually how I'm starting to make more money as well.
Personally, I find studies on websites like User Interviews and Respondent. These platforms connect researchers and study participants, and studies often pay $50 to $150 an hour!
14. Sell Scrap Metal
Do you have a truck or cargo van? If you do, you can always try collecting scrap metal on junk days and then selling it.
Some of my friends do this every year. They also pick up old appliances and furniture, repair them, and then flip them for a nice profit.
You can sometimes find freebies on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace as well. Just note that this idea takes some serious hustling, and you need the right vehicle for it.
15. Start Investing For Income
Investing for income is another strategy you can use to make quick money. And my favorite part about this strategy is that even young adults can get started.
This is because there's plenty of beginner-friendly investing ideas that don't require being a millionaire to start. Some prime examples include:
- Investing in real estate properties with platforms like Arrived
- Investing in bonds or CDs
- Investing in dividend stocks and ETFs
- Using a high-yield savings account (you can check out Current and get a nice $50 bonus too)
- Investing in an online business or side hustle
Granted, these ideas probably won't make $4,000 by themselves. But again, you can stack this idea with some more active options in this guide to reach your goal.
16. Pick Up A Part-Time Job
One final option for earning 4,000 dollars fast is to pick up a second job.
Of course, you need to find a job that doesn't conflict with your day job. This might mean part-time night shift work somewhere or even something like a weekend serving job.
If your current job offers overtime, you can also explore that option as well!
Extra Reading – The Best Jobs That Make $5,000 A Month.
Tips For Getting Started
Now that you know some ways to make $4,000, here are some tips you can use to increase your odds of success while you get your hustle on:
- Set Smaller Goals: Making $4,000 quickly is a tall order. So to make things easier mentally, break this financial goal down into smaller ones. Maybe that means making $50 a day in extra income, or an extra $500 a month. Pick something reasonable for your current situation.
- Don't Burn Out: You need to ensure you're sleeping and eating enough while you're hustling all these extra hours. Burnout is a real threat, so pace yourself!
- Try Several Gigs: The best way to find what pays the most in your area is to keep testing different gigs. So try out delivering for Uber Eats, selling stuff on the Facebook Marketplace, and gig apps like Steady. Over time, you can focus on a few gigs you enjoy and the ones that pay the most.
Extra Reading – How To Make $100 A Day Guaranteed.
Final Thoughts
I hope that this guide on ways to get $4,000 fast helps you reach your financial goal as quickly as possible!
There are so many ways to make extra cash these days, especially if you use technology and the Internet. And remember: you can also explore ways to save more money so you play some financial offense and defense!
This is what I did during college. And with the right side hustle mix and some budgeting, I was able to increase my income, even while in school. There's no reason you can't do the exact same thing!
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