Personal Finance Advice

If you want to make a little extra money and you don’t mind people staring at you, you might consider becoming an art model. Models pose for art students so they can learn to draw the human form. Some models pose clothed and others pose nude. Nude models are in particularly high demand since fewer [...]

If you live in an area where parking is scarce or in high demand, you can make a little money by renting out your parking space. Around here there are several large fairs and festivals held every year. While most provide free parking, the free parking is often a good hike away from the venue. [...]

Sometimes you have to quickly create some breathing space in your budget. Maybe you lose a job, take a pay cut, or have an emergency that eats up your available cash. Things like getting another/better job, starting a vegetable garden, or moving can help, but they take time. When you need to find extra money [...]

Places like airports, businesses, theme parks, and even the post office are often stuck with property that cannot be returned or delivered to its proper owner. Baggage turns up at the airport and no one claims it. The mail service has packages that go unclaimed or things that become damaged in handling and separated from [...]

If you’re in college, you know how hard it can be to find motivation to study. Enter Ultrinsic.com, a website that lets you “bet” on your grades. Here’s how it works: You set a target grade for a single course, multiple courses, or a semester’s GPA and then you lay down money “betting” that you [...]

Many businesses are willing to pay you to refer your friends to them. It’s far cheaper for a company to pay you for a referral than it is for them to advertise and discount in order to recruit new customers. Some companies pay you in cash, while others give you a credit on your bill. [...]

Golf balls end up in some strange places. The woods, the water, people’s yards (or windows), and in swimming pools. All those lost golf balls can mean money for you, if you have the energy and desire to collect them, clean them up, and resell them. There are varying levels of dedication to the craft [...]

If you’ve ever wished that you could get paid to go out on a date, maybe you should sign up at What’s Your Price. This site matches “generous” users with “attractive” people (these are the site’s words, not mine). Generous users are those who are willing to pay for the date, while the attractive people [...]

Dumpster diving can be a great way to both make and save some money. You save money when you find things you can use and you make money when you find things you can sell. Many things that are thrown away are usable. In my time I’ve found a working treadmill, tons of toys, a [...]

I saw a small sign on the corner outside my neighborhood advertising “We buy junk cars” the other day. I started wondering why anyone would want to do this and I soon discovered that it can be a way to make some extra money. If you have access to a truck and trailer that can [...]

If you need a way to make money that requires very little work on your part (but some possible pain), you can look into selling various parts of your body. To get the most value out of your body, it needs to be in great condition. Non-smokers of appropriate weight and with few overall health [...]

If your lifelong ambition is to play video games for a living, there are ways to do that. Even if you don’t make enough to pay all of your bills, your video game habit can still generate a little extra spending money. Here are some ideas to turn your game playing habit into cash. Game [...]

I visit a number of finance-related forums. On many of these boards I hang out on, one of the most frequently asked questions is, “How can I make some extra money from home?” The question is usually asked by women who are home with kids. They want to contribute to the family income, but aren’t [...]

I have a friend who works at a tire shop. When possible, he takes some of the old tires and uses them to create art. His latest creation is a big, whimsical bug sitting in a lawn chair. There is another person in town who makes art from discarded yard supplies like mowers, garden hoses, [...]

In the wake of the post-Christmas sale frenzy, I found myself wondering, “Why is it that people will beat each other senseless to save 75% on wrapping paper and cards, but they won’t take advantage of the biggest sale of all: A down stock market?” Back when the market was tanking in 2008 and 2009, [...]

If you already use coupons, chances are that you get coupons in the paper that you don’t use. Even if you don’t use coupons, you probably have access to coupons from the paper or magazines that you receive. Wouldn’t it be nice to turn unwanted coupons into a little extra cash? You can if you [...]

I have two friends who both run businesses. Both have told me similar stories lately about how, in such a down economy, they cannot find people to work for them. The first friend runs a construction business that specializes in renovating restaurants. He routinely has people come to him, begging for work. They plead for [...]

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how you could make some extra money by picking up things that people had dropped. If you want to take this a step further, you can take up treasure hunting. Metal detecting, amateur archaeology, and finding other lost treasures can net you anything from a few dollars [...]

A new trend has cropped up over the last few years that may present an opportunity for you to make some money to help pay for some of life’s biggest expenses. Many people are now having their events and big expenses sponsored by advertisers. Weddings, college educations, cars, and even housing can be sponsored these [...]

An easy way to make a little extra money is to simply watch where you walk and pick up the things that people drop. You’d be surprised at how much money people drop, either by accident, because they can’t be bothered with it, or because they simply don’t know what they have. Here are some [...]