Whether you need to buy a car, pay off credit card debt, or save for a mortgage down payment, an extra $10,000 fast wouldn’t hurt.
But what if you don’t have time to save up for years? What if you need the money ASAP?
Turns out, there are many ways to make $10,000 fast. They require work, and you won’t get rich overnight.
But if you’re willing to put in the effort, that extra ten grand is well within your reach.
24 Ideas to Make $10,000 Fast
What does it mean to “make $10k fast” anyway? Are we talking about a week, a month, a year? You can make an extra $10,000 fast, in less than three months, with the following strategies.
In some cases, you only need to choose one method, other times you may have to bundle ideas together. It all depends on your dedication and willingness to hustle.
If you go all-in with some of these strategies, you could reach your goal within weeks. Focus on low-risk money-making opportunities you can do outside your full-time job.
TIP: Each income stream is subject to taxes, so don’t forget to factor those in as well.
1. Open a New Bank Account
One of the quickest ways to earn extra cash is through new bank account promotions. Many banks offer new customers hundreds of dollars when they sign up for an account.
However, earning this money isn’t as simple as opening an account and waiting for a payment.
Banks offer these promotions in hopes of turning you into a loyal customer. To get your money, you usually have to meet certain requirements with your new account.
For instance, a new BMO Relationship Checking Account comes with a very generous sign-up bonus. But you only get this payment once your new account has completed the necessary requirements.
Accounts are subject to approval. BMO Bank N.A. Member FDIC
2. Open a Credit Card
Many credit cards also offer sign-up bonuses for new customers plus cashback on purchases, giving you an easy way to make money fast.
For example, Chase Freedom Unlimited® is a cash-back credit card that pays:
- 1.5% cash back on most purchases
- 3% on dining out and drugstore purchases
- 5% on travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Plus, new customers can earn 5% back on combined gas and grocery purchases up to $12,000 in the first year and earn a $200 bonus after spending $500 in the first three months.
The American Express Blue Cash Preferred® is another great option and pays a $250 bonus if you spend $3,000 in the first six months. It also pays impressive rewards of:
- 6% on at U.S. Supermarkets up to $6,000 per year (then 1%)
- 6% on select U.S. streaming subscriptions
- 3% on transit
- 3% at U.S gas stations
3. Transfer Funds to a New Brokerage Account
Even brokerage houses offer new account bonuses, and since these accounts often hold quite a lot of money, their bonuses can be bigger than for bank accounts or credit cards.
If you have $5,000 or more to transfer to a brokerage house, consider J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing, where you can earn a $700 bonus if you:
- Transfer at least $5,000 to your account within 45 days of opening the account
- Keep the funds in the account for 90 days from the enrollment date.
You’ll get unlimited commission-free trades, powerful investing tools, and access to thousands of investments.
4. Invest in Real Estate
You might think investing in real estate requires significant capital, housing market knowledge, and risk. That’s not always true.
Real estate crowdfunding sites make it easy for anyone to invest in real estate, including commercial real estate that would normally be out of reach for the everyday investor.
Realty Mogul is a popular option as it’s open to non-accredited investors, but the minimum investment can be as high as $5,000. Non-accredited investors can invest up to 10% of their income in a portfolio of commercial real estate properties with other investors, allowing you to reap the benefits of real estate investing without the work.
Another real estate investing option is Arrived, a platform that allows you to invest in vacation homes. However, with Arrived, you can invest with as little as $100 and diversify your investment across many vacation properties to increase your chance of making $10K fast.
5. Rent Out Your Home Space
If you don’t mind jamming your house full of strangers’ stuff, renting your space for storage can easily boost your income.
With Neighbor.com, you can rent your empty basement to a small business needing inventory space or turn your backyard into a parking lot for RVs and boats.
Recently, we were hunting for long-term storage for our camper van in Los Angeles, where the average 10-by-20-foot parking space costs $254 per month. We found one listing with six vehicles jammed into their small fenced-in backyard.
At $254 per month per vehicle, that’s over $5,000 in three months. Renting space is most lucrative in big cities where demand outweighs supply. But people need storage in small cities as well. And if you offer a lower price than traditional storage units and parking garages, you can make a healthy side income.
6. Teach Your Skills Privately
There are many ways to trade your skills for cash. What do you know how to do that others would pay to learn? Some ideas include:
- Cooking
- Art
- Photography
- Tennis
- Graphic design
All it takes is a handful of students to scale to $10,000. You can teach online through Outschool, in person, or both.
The easiest place to find your first clients is your current network. If you’re a charismatic teacher, your classes might even grow on word-of-mouth alone.
7. Sell Unwanted Jewelry
Just because you don’t wear it any longer doesn’t mean no one else will. There’s always a market for unused jewelry. And with the right partner, that market is much bigger—and less local — than you might think.
That’s why we’re fans of Worthy, a jewelry auction platform that makes it easy to sell unwanted rings, necklaces, watches, and other baubles without leaving home.
Here’s how it works:
- Prep your jewelry. Worthy’s certified gemologists give your items a professional deep clean and take magazine-quality photos in preparation for listing. They’ll also have your items graded by neutral, third-party jewelry experts.
- Monitor your auction. Worth has more than 1,000 professional jewelers looking at listings. You can set a reserve price to ensure your item won’t sell for less than you’re willing to accept. Auctions typically last 48 to 72 hours.
- Get paid. This is the fun part. If your item sells, you’ll get paid within four business days.
Worthy only gets paid if and when your item sells. It has an incentive to sell your items for fair value since its fees are based on your earnings — anywhere from 10% to 18% of the final sale price, depending on the dollar amount.
8. Sell Your Stuff
Take a look around your house and garage. What haven’t you used in the past three months? Is there anything you wouldn’t miss if you sold it?
Selling items you no longer need is one of the easiest ways to earn $10,000 fast.
Here are some top places to sell your items:
- SellCell.com: If you have old phones to sell, try SellCell.com where you can list your phone for sale and have 40+ companies send offers.
- Facebook Marketplace: This is a great way to sell large items to locals. Most people don’t ship from Facebook Marketplace, but you can offer this option too.
- Craigslist: Like FB Marketplace, people mostly sell items locally on Craigslist, just watch out for scams and only trade items in public places, like the local police station.
- eBay: If you have smaller, unique items, you can set up an auction listing to make the most money for your items.
If your house is full of valuable items you’re willing to sell, you could hit $10,000 in a matter of days. If not, you can combine this idea with other side hustle strategies to reach your goal faster.
For more tips, see our guide on how to turn clutter into cash.
9. Offer Freelance Writing Services
You don’t need to be Shakespeare to make good money with freelance writing. Any halfway decent writer can do it.
Freelance writing commonly involves writing blog posts for companies to publish on their website. But it could also include any type of written content a business uses, from emails to brochures to e-books.
To get writing jobs, look for jobs on freelancing platforms like:
- Upwork
- Media Bistro
- Fiverr
If you start with gigs paying $100 per project, you must complete one project daily for 100 days to reach $10,000. It seems like a lot, but the more you write, the faster you become.
For more help getting started, read our tutorial on how to become a freelancer.
10. Freelance Other Skills
If writing isn’t your forte, you can freelance any skill or service others need help with including:
- Photography
- Graphic design
- Consulting
- Translation
- Voiceover acting
- Illustrating
- Modeling
- Programming
- Tutoring
- Personal training
If it’s a service people pay for, you can freelance it. That said, if the goal is to make $10,000 fast, choose a high-demand service you already know how to do. Learning a new skill from scratch takes too much time.
Similar to freelance writing, the easiest way to get your foot in the door and gain experience is to first offer your service to people you know.
11. Drive for Uber or Lyft
Driving for ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft is one of the easiest ways to earn extra cash. All you need is:
- A smartphone
- An eligible car
- A driver’s license
- Personal Insurance
- A clean criminal record
- A relatively clean driving record
Even if you only squeeze in a few hours of driving per day, you can still generate a hefty chunk of change driving for Uber while moving closer to your financial goals.
12. Rent Your Car to Rideshare Drivers
Don’t let your extra vehicle sit unused, collecting dust. Instead, put it to work for you.
Companies like HyreCar and Turo connect car owners with rideshare drivers who need a car.
Your earnings depend on your vehicle, location, and how often you rent. But HyreCar claims users can earn up to $9,000 per year renting their vehicles.
You can combine this with other side business ideas to reach your $10,000 goal.
13. Rent Your RV to Campers
If you have an RV you don’t use most of the year, you can make a lot of money renting it out on platforms like Outdoorsy and RVshare.
Your earnings depend on your location, rental demand, and the size and condition of your RV. But according to RVshare, you could earn up to $40,000 per year, or $10,000 in three months.
Of course, you must still pay for RV maintenance, insurance, and any financing and storage costs. But if you already have an RV sitting outside, you pay these expenses anyway.
Both Outdoorsy and RVshare let you list your RV for free and take a cut of your rental earnings.
If you feel uneasy about letting strangers drive your RV, you could also park it next to your house and rent it out on Airbnb.
14. Deliver Packages and Food
If you don’t like the idea of carting strangers around as a rideshare driver, you can also earn extra cash with your car by making deliveries with companies including:
- Amazon Flex: Deliver packages from Amazon for $18 – $25/hour
- Uber Eats: Combine this gig with a rideshare gig to maximize your earnings
- DoorDash: Work with one of the largest food delivery services nationwide and make money delivering food
- Grubhub: Has the same concept as DoorDash, but isn’t in as many cities
How much you earn varies based on location, what the app pays, and how much customers tip. If you want a comparison of which food delivery app to work for.
15. Take Advantage of Retail Arbitrage
Retail arbitrage involves buying underpriced products and reselling them for a profit.
It can take many forms but commonly entails searching for clearance deals at retail stores, thrift stores, and wholesale websites, then reselling them on Amazon or eBay.
Here’s how to make it work:
- Flip items in high demand
- Look for high-profit margin items
- Stick to lower cost items, usually between $10 – $40
- Go slow and see what works
Don’t create an inventory you cannot sell or you’ll experience a loss. Instead, try your hand at a few things and see how it goes before stocking up and taking a chance.
If you want something with higher profit margins, car flipping is an option, but it can be riskier since cars require a much higher investment. For more tips on how to get started, read our full guide to making money with retail arbitrage
16. Earn Commissions Through Referral Marketing
Many companies offer referral marketing programs that pay you for every new customer you bring in their doors.
It’s a win-win for everyone. The new customer gets their problem solved. The company gets business, and you get a cut of it.
To make $10,000 fast, you’d have to promote high-value services. For example, Michigan-based Renaissance Roofing Inc. offers $100 for every referral customer who spends over $2,500 on a roofing job. If you set up referral agreements with companies offering high-ticket services across various industries, you can hunt for people who need those services.
You essentially work as an informal salesman working on commission. The more referrals you generate, the faster you hit $10,000.
17. Earn Commissions Through Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the digital version of referral marketing. It involves a unique tracking link you use to promote a product or service. If someone clicks and purchases through your link, you earn a commission.
Affiliate marketing is easier to scale because you don’t need to interact with your referral directly.
For example, you could create a YouTube channel and post videos reviewing products you love. Add your affiliate link to the description, and anyone who watches your videos could turn into a potential referral, whether you know them personally or not.
Affiliate marketing is easier for bloggers, podcasters, and social media influencers who have followers and subscribers to promote products to. It’s one of the most popular ways to monetize a following.
But if you work hard to connect with potential referrals, you don’t need an established audience to earn with affiliate marketing.
18. Teach English Online
If you’re a native English speaker, millions of people around the world would be happy to hire you.
The easiest way to start teaching is through platforms like VIPKid, Qkids, and PalFish. Requirements vary by platform but commonly include:
- A Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certification
- A Bachelor’s degree in any subject
- Experience working with children
- Nationality from certain English-speaking countries
Some platforms only require you to be a native speaker. For example, you can teach English on SkimaTalk without a degree, TEFL certification, or experience with children.
Your pay rate depends on the platform you use and any bonuses they offer. Teaching through VIPKid, you can earn up to $22 per hour. If you ramp up to a full-time teaching schedule, you’d tally $10,000 by the end of three months.
Once you gain confidence, you can earn even faster by recruiting private students directly and cutting out the middleman.
To discover the best websites to look for TEFL jobs, read our guide on how to make extra money teaching English online.
19. Create an Online Course
Private lessons are a great way to trade your knowledge for extra income, but there is a limit to the number of students you can fit in each day. To scale, organize your knowledge into an online course.
With an online course, you don’t need to be present to earn money. It requires front-loaded effort to create, but after that, you earn passive income in your sleep.
And with platforms like Teachable, you can create and sell professional-looking courses without any special tech skills.
If you earned $200 per course sale, you’d only need to find 50 buyers to reach $10,000.
For some, finding buyers is the most challenging part. Creating an online course isn’t a build-it-and-they-will-come type of deal. You have to market yourself.
If you don’t have an audience to sell to, you can borrow someone else’s audience with similar interests. For example, if you create a training program that helps athletes increase their vertical jump, you could drum up business by:
- Offering a free sample of your training to high school sports teams
- Sharing vertical jump tips on a podcast that targets athletes
- Creating YouTube videos with free tips
Find creative ways to put yourself in front of large audiences of potential buyers.
You can also offer your online course as a lower-priced alternative to one-on-one coaching sessions.
20. Open an Online Store
With today’s technology, opening an online store is easier than ever, requiring no advanced technical skills.
With an online business, your customer base isn’t limited by geography. You can sell your products worldwide.
You can choose a DIY marketing approach and sell products off your own website or social media channel, or you can open your store on a platform that already attracts millions of shoppers, like Amazon or Etsy.
You can also take advantage of the Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) service. With the Amazon FBA model, you list your products on Amazon and store your inventory at their warehouses. Whenever someone buys, Amazon fulfills the order and ships your product.
21. Start a Manual Labor Side Hustle
If making money online sounds too technical, you can also make $10,000 the old-fashioned way — with your hands.
Finding manual labor gigs is easy with platforms like TaskRabbit and HomeGuide, which connect handy people to clients who need help with projects around the house.
For example, on TaskRabbit, freelancers offering home repairs typically charge $40 per hour or more. If you took on a $120 task after work each day, you’d make an extra $10,000 in less than 84 days.
TaskRabbit pockets 15% of the project fee, but you can earn more if you feel confident about finding your clients yourself.
22. Offer Virtual Assistant Services
A virtual assistant (VA) is a digital sidekick for busy business owners. As a VA, you can either offer generalized or specific services.
General VAs take basic tasks off their clients’ plates, such as:
- Email inbox management
- Data entry
- File organization
- Document formatting
Specialized VAs are experts in one specific aspect of their client’s business, like:
- SEO
- Graphic design
- Social media
Businesses with multiple virtual assistants may even hire a Head VA to manage them all.
Pay as a VA depends on the skills you bring to the table. The more unique value you offer, the more you can charge. According to ZipRecruiter, the average work-from-home virtual assistant earns $24 per hour in the United States.
It’s one of the most flexible work-from-home jobs you can do without any special skills. If you know your way around an email inbox or Word document, you can find a VA job.
23. Donate Your Fluids
If you don’t mind parting with your plasma, sperm, or eggs, you can donate them to make money fast.
Pay rates for plasma donations depend on the donation center and current promotions, but new donors at BioLife Plasma Services can earn up to $850 in their first month by donating twice per week.
As a qualified sperm donor, you can earn up to $1,500 per month depending on the sperm bank you work with.
Or hit $10,000 with just one egg donation cycle. Bright Expectations, a private egg donor program, offers $5,000 to $10,000 per cycle. The exact timeline varies depending on the company you use. But with Bright Expectations, it takes about two months and six to eight doctor appointments.
24. Volunteer for Clinical Trials
You can earn surprisingly well volunteering yourself as a human lab rat.
Paid clinical trials and medical research studies base their rates on the risk involved. Expect higher pay for less understood treatments.
Clinical trials can be hard to find. Most require you to have a certain medical condition that the researcher is trying to cure. Use the Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation search tool to find clinical trials you qualify for.
That said, other paid research studies need healthy test subjects. For example, NASA runs studies paying healthy astronaut-like individuals to lay in bed for months to study the effects of weightlessness.
FAQs
How can I make $10,000 fast legally?
With the internet today, it’s easy to find ways to make $10,000 fast legally. First, consider what you’re good at, like writing, graphic design, handiwork, or handling pets. Then, find ways to offer those services online on sites like Fiverr, Upwork, TaskRabbit, or Rover based on what you can do.
The key is to diversify your efforts to increase your earnings the most. The more you can do and the more time you give it, the more money you can make!
Is it possible to make $10,000 a month?
It would take a lot of work to make $10,000 fast in a month, but if you can add some passive income streams, like renting out storage space or selling items you don’t need with active working gigs, you could make $10,000 a month.
How can I turn $1,000 into $10,000 fast?
There’s no way to turn $1,000 into $10,000 overnight, but diversifying your investments and investing wisely may make your $1,000 grow fast. You can also use some of the $1,000 to invest in yourself to improve your skills and be able to earn more money, making your $1,000 grow.
Final Word
With some hustle and grit, there’s no reason why you can’t make $10,000 fast, in three months or less. And the more legit money-making strategies you combine, the more time you can shave off the process.
That said, if you’re on a tight timeline and need $10,000 immediately, see our step-by-step guide on how to get a personal loan in a matter of days.
