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newstfionline · 7 years

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In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

By Paul Mozur, NY Times, July 16, 2017

SHANGHAI--There is an audacious economic phenomenon happening in China.

It has nothing to do with debt, infrastructure spending or the other major economic topics du jour. It has to do with cash--specifically, how China is systematically and rapidly doing away with paper money and coins.

Almost everyone in major Chinese cities is using a smartphone to pay for just about everything. At restaurants, a waiter will ask if you want to use WeChat or Alipay--the two smartphone payment options--before bringing up cash as a third, remote possibility.

Just as startling is how quickly the transition has happened. Only three years ago there would be no question at all, because everyone was still using cash.

“From a tech standpoint, this is probably one of the single most important innovations that has happened first in China, and at the moment it’s only in China,” said Richard Lim, managing director of venture capital firm GSR Ventures.

There are certain parts of the Chinese internet that have to be seen to be believed. Coming from outside the country, it’s hard to comprehend that Facebook or Google can be completely blocked until you are forced to do without them. It’s tough to fathom how critical the messenger app WeChat is for everyday life until the sixth person of the day asks to scan your QR code--a sort of bar code--to connect the two of you.

What’s happening with cash in China is similar. For the past three years, I have been outside mainland China covering Asian technology from Hong Kong, which has a very different internet culture from the mainland. I knew that smartphone payments were taking over in China, as the statistics were stark: In 2016, China’s mobile payments hit $5.5 trillion, roughly 50 times the size of America’s $112 billion market, according to consulting firm iResearch.

Even so, the attendant cultural shift was graspable only in person. I recently moved to Shanghai and felt the change with cash acutely because my first few weeks in the metropolis of more than 20 million were spent cut out of the system. Because of an issue with my bank, I couldn’t immediately link my account to WeChat, which has become a virtual wallet for so many.

That meant I had to navigate China the way I would have three years ago: with a stack of red 100-renminbi notes.

At coffee shops and restaurants, I held up lines as I fumbled out my wallet and peeled off the bills to give the cashier. If I was hungry I had to go outside and find a restaurant, while bowls of noodles, groceries and coffee materialized at our office, ordered by my colleagues and paid for on the phone. If I had to get somewhere, I couldn’t use my phone to unlock one of the ubiquitous bicycles that are a part of China’s bike-sharing craze.

Even the buskers were apparently ahead of me. Enterprising musicians playing on the streets of a number of Chinese cities have put up boards with QR codes so that passers-by can simply transfer them tips directly.

“It has become the default way of life now,” said Shiv Putcha, an analyst with the research firm IDC. “Literally every business and brand in China is plugged into this ecosystem.”

Some Scandinavian countries have also weaned themselves from cash but still use cards frequently. In China, the change has been to phones. One friend didn’t realize how reliant she had become on mobile payments until her bank called her. She had left her A.T.M. card in the machine three weeks earlier and had not noticed its absence.

In practical terms, this means Tencent and Alibaba’s financial affiliate, Ant Financial, the two Chinese internet companies that run WeChat and Alipay, respectively, are sitting atop a gold mine of staggering proportions. Both companies can make money off the transactions, charge other companies to use their payment platforms and all the while collect the payments data to be used in everything from new credit systems to advertising.

Mr. Lim said that according to recent data, Ant Financial and Tencent were set to surpass credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard in total global transactions per day in the coming year. The key is that both companies are able to provide payments on the cheap, partly by allowing smaller vendors to make use of a simple printout of a QR code or their phone, instead of an expensive card reader. A back-end system that stores a record of user accounts, instead of having to communicate with a bank, also keeps costs down.

While Tencent does not break out what it makes from mobile payments, in the fourth quarter of 2016 the “other services” item in its earnings almost tripled from a year earlier to 6.4 billion renminbi, or $940 million, driven largely by mobile payments.

There are some potential future problems with China’s sweeping embrace of online payments. As the country builds its entire consumer economy around two private smartphone payment platforms, it is slowly locking out people unable to get onto those networks, and locking itself into those companies.

At the simplest level, that makes life difficult for tourists and business travelers who are unlikely to open a bank account in China and so will find it hard to turn their phones into wallets.

More broadly, it means things could get harder for foreign and local businesses alike. Foreign companies hoping to sell to Chinese consumers now must deal with Alibaba and Tencent or risk being unable to take payments. Likewise, Chinese companies reliant on Alibaba and Tencent have to build out separate structures to deal with the world of Facebook, Google and credit cards that still dominate elsewhere.

There is a corollary for what could happen here. In Japan in the early 2000s, flip phones could do everything from stream cable TV to pay at stores. But because the phones were so advanced, Japan was slow to adopt smartphones, and it went from tech giant to tech laggard in 15 years.

Now in Japan those flip phones, which are still being used, are called Galápagos phones because they evolved perfectly for an isolated environment.

No doubt aware of this, Alibaba and Tencent are pushing to expand beyond China to ensure their newest innovation doesn’t go the way of the dinosaurs. Still, competition is most likely looming.

“The million-dollar question is: Will Western firms decide to build a system and compete?” Mr. Lim said. “The answer is probably yes.”

Until then, new arrivals like me have to deal with being locked out of China’s online payments infrastructure.

#China #WeChat #Alipay #cashless society #cash in China

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prosperopedia · 4 years

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Investing in Bitcoin

Sometime during 2010, I heard a lot of buzz in my work office, where there were lots of developers and other technical types, about a shiny new digital currency experiment that the most geeky of geeks in the office were referring to as Bitcoin. It seemed gimmicky to me at the time, besides being complicated, so I chose to ignore it despite feeling some temptation to investigate it and maybe buy some just to see what happened. At the time I when heard first about Bitcoin, the fledgling currency was up for grabs for as little as five to ten cents each.

My previous experience with investing in something I knew little to nothing about happened a decade before I ever heard about Bitcoin, in 1999 to be exact. Following the optimism of one of my co-workers, I had opened an eTrade account, purchased $1,000 worth (which was a lot for me as a college student intern, entry level programmer) of a company called JDS Uniphase, and went to work the next day eager to share my excitement about being a co-investor with my work buddy. When I told him the news, he responded that he had sold his stock in JDS Uniphase, and that it was in the process of tanking.

“Well, that would have been helpful to have known yesterday.”

Within the year that followed, I finally closed my eTrade account after having locked in a complete erasing of my $1,000 investment, plus some extra thrown in for eTrade administrative fees. The whole experience made me pretty gun-shy about investing, especially in things that were complicated or that required knowledge that I couldn’t easily obtain.

Just over a month ago someone told me they had a friend who had just cashed out some of his Bitcoin stash, which amounted to half a billion dollars. He’d purchased it nine years ago when the price was at about 10 cents each. After hearing about this Bitcoin success story, I mentioned to my wife that I’d thought of buying a thousand dollars worth of the cryptocurrency when I first was told about it in 2009. We calculated how much I’d missed out on because I decided against it: a whopping $72 million!

Oh well. We’ve had a good life over the past ten years without winning that lottery.

This and other interactions with Bitcoin have given me a lot more education about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. I’ll share with you what I’ve learned.

How Currencies Have Traditionally Worked

What we know today as currency (or more commonly money) has been a part of economic interactions for almost 3,000 years. In 1100 BC, the ancient Chinese developed the most primitive currency as a successor to bartering when they started using small bronze replicas of actual goods. In 600BC, the first recognized official currency was created by King Alyattes of Lydia (modern day Turkey) to facilitate trading in the Mediterranean area of the world.

The invention and advancement of currency has allowed economies to behave more efficiently. Currency creates a store of value and acts as a nest for holding the ability to pay for things.

Traditionally, currencies have been comprised of precious metals such as gold, silver, bronze, or copper. In its early history, the United States was on the gold standard, meaning that America’s currency was tied to and got its value from the gold supply. During the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to stimulate the economy by pouring more money into it, so he unofficially cut the link between the value of currency and its gold equivalent in 1933. Richard Nixon officially severed the ties between US dollars and the value of gold in 1971.

Since 1971, the US dollar is now a fiat currency, not tied to any physical commodity. Instead, the dollar gets its value from the US government’s declaration of the currency for use as legal tender, which has some control over how many dollars are in circulation.

In the current world, there are no currencies that use the gold standard, which means that all of the currencies used throughout the world are somewhat volatile. For instance, the country of Venezuela has responded to its economic difficulties and deficits by printing money particularly irresponsibly, which has led to hyperinflation, which has further crippled the country by making severely depreciating its own currency. Most Venezuelans, those who have not fled the country, live in poverty now.

With a little bit of extra corruption in a government and some bad choices regarding monetary policy, any country could see something similar happen to its economy and currency.

What is a Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency, similar to old fashioned physical currency, can be used to purchase physical goods and can be transferred from one owner to another electronically. Beyond that, there are mostly differences between cryptocurrency and physical currency.

Here are the major differences between cryptocurrency and traditional currency.

Management: cryptocurrencies are managed by a network of computers that use open source code; traditional currencies are managed by the government entities that created them

Value: cryptocurrencies get their value mostly from the interaction of supply and demand; with traditional currencies, the value comes from the perceived confidence of the issuing government, although supply and demand also factor in

Access and Security: cryptocurrencies are kept secure by the network of computers on which it operates, which verifies every transaction, and which allows anyone with access to the internet to participate in trading; cryptocurrencies can be bought and sold using virtual wallets; traditional currencies are secured by banking and government institutions, which hold on to cash reserves

Presence of Physical Money: cryptocurrencies do not have any physical representation, whereas traditional currencies do have physical representation, usually in the form of paper bills or coins

Ubiquity: cryptocurrencies are limited to being used only where merchants have chosen to accept it; traditional currencies are normally limited to being used in the countries where they’re issued, except for the US dollar, which is accepted in many different countries throughout the world because of its prominence

Creation of New Currency: cryptocurrencies can have new units of currency created through a process of mining, which involves validating and timestamping transactions that exist in the blockchain (a distributed ledger); additional units of traditional currency is created by printing paper money or minting new coins

What is Bitcoin?

The most popular of the cryptocurrencies by far is Bitcoin. News headlines in 2017 regularly reported on the meteoric rise of Bitcoin from an obscure, unknown hobby to a legitimate currency that made thousands of holders of the currency into millionaires and that created a $200 billion market.

Bitcoin is the first of now more than 6,000 cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin was invented in 2008 by an anonymous person or group of people using the pseudonym Nakamoto. In the white paper (written in October, 2008, entitled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System) describing the purpose of the invention of Bitcoin and its mechanism for accomplishing the desired outcome, authored by Nakamoto, the purpose of Bitcoin is stated thus:

A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.

Bitcoin kicked off its public existence worth essentially nothing from January 2009 until March 2010. In March, 2010, a Bitcoin exchange was launched, with Bitcoin trading at a value of 3/10 of a cent each. By April 2011, Bitcoin had reached parity with the US dollar.

Over the next six years, from April 2013 to December 2017, Bitcoin’s volatility and uncertainty saw it climb to new highs, then topple back down, only to rebound again. Speculation, regulation, and the interaction of a new type of currency with economies and systems that operate very differently and that were being challenged created a roller coaster scenario for Bitcoin investors. On December 17, 2017, Bitcoin reached its all-time high of $19,783.06, only to see a fall to less than half that price in early 2018.

As of the time of this article’s writing, the price of Bitcoin is around $7,300.

Current Bitcoin Price

Bitcoin doesn’t really have a timestamped “price”, because the currency is traded on different exchanges at slightly different prices. However, you can find a close approximate that consists of a weighted average of recent trades in several ways.

One of the easiest ways to find the most recent Bitcoin price is to simply google “Bitcoin price”, and Google will give you the current weighted average price provided by their partner Morningstar, along with an interactive graph that allows you to see the historic price numbers.

There are several other ways to find out the most recent weighted average of Bitcoin trades, including:

BitCoinAverage.com – This web page shows Bitcoin’s historical numbers an includes some tools for using the data, including an API for making use of the pricing data in other environments

BitCoinity.org – The home page of Bitcoinity.org is a simple update of the weighted average of Bitcoin trades. There are links from the home page to access the various markets throughout the world where Bitcoin is being exchanged, a link to extensively detailed data and evaluations of the trading history, and a section for webmasters who want to embed the data on their own websites.

How to Buy and Sell Bitcoin

Unlike what’s required with traditional currencies, which simple require you to have the money in hand if you’re paying with cash, or which can be sent and received through transaction vehicles (banks, credit cards, checks, etc.) with which you are likely familiar, using Bitcoin safely requires becoming somewhat educated on the process of acquiring and spending the cryptocurrency.

The official Bitcoin website has some advice for those who are getting started with the cryptocurrency, including making sure that your wallet is secure and using an offline wallet for Bitcoin savings, understanding that Bitcoin pricing is highly volatile and that transactions can’t be reversed (like a credit card chargeback or stop check), and learning what government tax and regulations could have implications on your transactions.

Buying Bitcoin requires you to have a Bitcoin wallet, which is a software application that acts as a holding place for your Bitcoin money. You can choose from wallets that are specific to mobile Android or iOS devices, for Linux, Mac, or Windows computers, web wallets that are not specific to any device but instead are accessible through a web browser, or you can use a hardware wallet, which is recommended for storing large amounts of Bitcoin.

Finding Your Bitcoin Wallet

As described above, finding a Bitcoin wallet that meets your specific needs, in regards to technical specifications, security, and ease and convenience, depends upon your preferences, experience, and interaction mechanism of choice. Here are some of the most popular Bitcoin wallets:

Bitcoin Wallet

Bitpay

BRD

Electrum

Exodus

Ledger Nano S

MyCelium

Trezor One

Samourai

Wallet Generator

Risks Of Investing in Bitcoin

As discussed in this article, Bitcoin is still an experimental currency, new enough that it is still finding its place in a very diverse and dynamic worldwide economy. Investing in Bitcoin should only be done as much as you’re comfortable, including having spent the required time learning and understanding the limitations of the wallet you’re using to invest and being familiar with the various aspects of how Bitcoin works.

Greg Herlean from Forbes lists his top 10 risks associated with investing in Bitcoin. I’ll include some of the most relevant risks from his list below.

Bitcoin is a young technology

Bitcoin has limited use

Complications related to a heavily technology-based money

Bitcoin is not very well regulated

There is substantial fraud that takes place in the Bitcoin world.

Bitcoin is subject to cyber theft, which is harder for a layman to protect against than other forms of money theft.

The Bitcoin market is volatile and constantly fluctuating, often unpredictably.

Alternatives to Bitcoin

The safest alternatives to Bitcoin involve sticking with other types of investments that you already know well or that are already time-proven, such as mutual funds, stocks, hard money lending, real estate, investing in businesses with which you’re familiar and other more traditional investment vehicles.

If you’re not comfortable with Bitcoin, but would still like to try out cryptocurrency, you could also consider Ethereum. Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency. It’s currently much cheaper than Bitcoin, and may ultimately have a higher upside, although the risks that apply to Bitcoin also apply to Ethereum as well.

Bitcoin as An Investment

As with other investments, understanding that Bitcoin on the riskier side of the investment spectrum compared to traditional investment methods, it’s highly recommended that you invest only as much into Bitcoin as you can comfortably lose should such a misfortune come to pass. Starting out slowly and learning as you go with Bitcoin will help you to hedge against unforeseen issues.

Also, looking at the investment using a long-term perspective versus doing speculation will help you not make knee-jerk decisions that could prove costly.

The post Investing in Bitcoin appeared first on The Handbook for Happiness, and Success, and Prosperity Prosperopedia.

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#Prosperity #Wealth #Riches

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takebackthedream · 6 years

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The Middle Class is So Christmas Past by Leo Gerard

Republicans promised the American people a tax bill for Christmas, and this week they delivered. It’s definitely a bill for working people and the poor because by 2025, they’ll pay more. For them, poverty is the new black.

By contrast, Congress bestowed 83 percent of the new tax law’s benefits on the richest 1 percent. For them, greenbacks are the new black.

On the first day of Christmas The GOP gave to me A tax break for the wealthy

The 1 percent have already roasted and eaten the partridge, the pair of turtle doves, the three French hens, the four calling birds, the six geese, even the seven swans. They are, after all, very rich. And now, with these tax changes, Republicans in Congress have swiped Tiny Tim’s turkey and handed it to the wealthy so they can gorge themselves on it too.

Republicans hate income redistribution when it flows from the tony top down to impoverished Cratchits. But they delight in reaching into working people’s pockets and converting those coins into golden rings for the rich. That’s exactly what the GOP tax bill does.

The meager tax breaks awarded the working poor and middle class in this tax bill expire, like Cinderella’s outfit and entourage, before the tolling of a decade. In addition, the bill increases other costs for workers.

For example, it changes the way tax brackets are indexed to inflation. That means workers will enter higher brackets faster, even though their incomes don’t rise any quicker. This will cost the middle class and poor $25.6 billion, which the GOP used to offset the big fat breaks it gave the rich and corporations.

The new inflation index is meaningless to the rich. They don’t change tax brackets after reaching the top. For them, the marginal rate – lowered from 39.6 percent to 37 percent – remains the same whether they earn $500,000 or $5 million.

On top of the inflation index scam, the tax bill will raise health insurance premiums because it repeals the mandate that all Americans carry coverage. Without the requirement, fewer people will buy insurance. Initially, that’s likely to be younger and healthier people. As a result, older and sicker people will be concentrated in plans, increasing costs by about 10 percent every year. That, in turn, will force out those who can’t afford the higher premiums. The number of uninsured by 2019 is estimated at 4 million; by 2027, it’s 13 million.

But, hey, look on the bright side, the feds won’t pay as much to subsidize poor people’s health insurance when so many drop out. Thirteen million uncovered Americans enabled Republicans to give $53.3 billion in tax breaks to the rich! That’s jolly, right?

Have a holly, jolly Christmas; It’s the best time of the year I don’t know if there’ll be snow but have a cup of cheer

Workers will need some cheer when the bills come due even as they watch the wealthy use their tax handouts to buy extra Mercedes for Christmas. Every year. The average tax break for the 1 percent will be $55,000. That’s a couple thousand dollars more than the median income in the United States, in other words, what all of the workers in a typical American household make together for an entire year.

Also, fewer wealthy people will have to pay that pesky alternative minimum tax charged when excessive loopholes zero out tax bills. Real estate tycoons and others operating “pass through” corporations get a huge break as well. And couples can now bequeath $22 million to their kiddies tax free, instead of the current piddling $11 million!

And it is the rich who will benefit from the slashed corporate tax rate – which free falls from the current 35 percent down to 21 percent. That big fat turkey doesn’t expire either. It means higher dividends for shareholders – that is CEOs, trust fund babies and others rich enough to own stock.

Corporations could invest that money in new ventures, new factories and new jobs. But precious few will. Here is what Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan said he would do with the extra cash: increase dividends and share buybacks. When corporations buy back shares, stock value rises and CEO pay with it.

During a forum for CEOs in November, a Wall Street Journal editor asked how many would invest their tax breaks. Almost no one raised a hand. Corporations already are hauling in record profits, and they’re not investing. They’re handing the cash to the already-rich – shareholders and corporate executives. Just like Republicans did in their tax bill.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas Let your heart be light From now on your troubles will be out of sight

Well, if you’re rich, that is. Troubles are just starting for the rest of us.

That’s because this tax bill is worse than NAFTA in promoting offshoring. As it is now, corporations are charged the 35 percent tax rate on profits whether they are made at U.S. factories or overseas plants. But the new tax bill virtually eliminates the charge on overseas operations. The result is that a corporation will pay four times more taxes if it locates its big new factory in the United States than if it puts the plant overseas. That creates a perverse incentive to move even more jobs offshore.

We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas, And a Happy New Year.

Hope that New Year doesn’t include a pink slip because your CEO decides to ship your factory to China.

But there’s likely to be some bad news anyway. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has said he intends to “reform” Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security next year to help pay down that $1.45 trillion he just added to the national debt with his tax breaks for the rich and corporations.

Republican “reform” always means pain for working people – like raising the age at which a worker would qualify to collect Social Security and Medicare. And like cutting Medicaid funding so grandma can’t stay in the nursing home and the kid next door can’t get into treatment for heroin addiction.

The GOP really is the Grinch that stole Christmas. Republicans filched it and handed it to the wealthiest 1 percent – that is households worth at least $26.4 million. Unlike the Dr. Seuss story, this Grinch isn’t going to find a heart or the spirit of Christmas future or whatever it takes to stop robbing workers and the poor.

You’re a rotter, Mr. Grinch You’re the king of sinful sots Your heart’s a dead tomato splotched with moldy purple spots, Mr. Grinch Your soul is an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful Assortment of rubbish imaginable mangled up in tangled up knots!

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trendingnewsb · 7 years

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20 Ways to Help You Out When You Desperately Need Money

We’ve all been there. You’re between pay checks, running low on cash and then disaster strikes and you need money–now. Or you get paid on Friday and find yourself broke on Monday. You have too much integrity or are too scared to rob a bank…but the thought has crossed your mind.

Don’t fret! I am here to help.

20 safe and legitimate ways to get money fast

Below is a list 20 perfectly legal and legitimate ways to get your hands on some cash in a pinch. Some of the ways are more suitable for some than others but the list will provide you with options and more importantly get you to generate your own creative ideas on how to increase your cash flow.

Keep in mind that these are short term solutions. The real solution to your money problems is proper money management and planning (a.k.a. budgeting). Learning to live below your means, delaying gratification, eliminating debt and reducing your dependency on credit are the keys to financial freedom.

If you need money today…

1. Pawn or sell something

If you’re REALLY in a pinch, you may need to pawn or sell that prized possession you’ve got stashed away. Your desperate situation may call for you to have to part with that old comic book collection, your grandmother’s antique pearls or china or that coin collection you’ve had since childhood. I do advise that you think long and hard before making this decision. Once it’s gone–it will be incredibly difficult to get it back and your desperation will ensure that you probably won’t get what the item is actually worth.

Another option is to dig through your closets, and basement for stuff that may still have some value such as an old DVD or video game collection, your 10-year-old’s baby clothes, a toddler bicycle, that espresso machine ( or juicer) that you only used once.

There are tons of apps[1] that let you snap a picture of your stuff and post it online immediately.

2. Sell an old cell phone

Almost everyone has an old smartphone lying around that still works. You decided to upgrade from that perfectly functional phone because it was the chic thing to do. Now the old phone is just laying around collecting dust. Sell it! If you need money today check out the website ecoATM. This site allows you to safely sell and recycle your old phone. They also pay cash for old tablets, iPods and MP3 players.

3. Sell your clothes at a local consignment shop

If you have quality designer clothes or furniture you no longer want or need go ahead and sell it outright to a consignment or thrift shop. A lot of consignment shops will buy your items outright eliminating the consignment fee and the wait for your items to sell. You won’t get top dollar this way but you will walk away with some cash in hand.

4. Borrow from a friend or family member

This is the one method most of us want to avoid. However, you can receive the money the same day using apps such as PayPal. Keep in mind that borrowing from a loved one takes humility and sincerity. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT borrow from friends or family if you have no intentions of repaying the loan or if you know you cannot meet the terms of repayment[2]. This is the quickest way to ruin a relationship. Proceed with caution.

5. Sell your plasma

You can get paid for your plasma. Most donation centers will pay you anywhere from $25-$50 for it. The best part about selling plasma is that most places will allow you to sell it up two times per week.

**Quick note: There is a difference between selling your plasma and donating blood. You do not get paid for blood donations so make sure you distinguish between the two and are clear with your request.

6. Get A Cash Advance

This is a bad idea! I do not recommend this unless there is a life and death situation and you have a plan for quick repayment. Some credit cards offer the opportunity to take out cash against your credit limit. Please understand that the terms of repayment are going to be MUCH different than the terms for regular credit card purchases. Between the fees for accessing the money and the jacked up interest rate, it is not unusual for you to end up spending $1,000 for an $800 cash advance. It’s simply not worth it.

If you need money in 7 to 10 days…

7. Sell your clothes online

Selling your clothes is one of the easiest and quickest ways to make money fast. The clothing resell industry has become very trendy and is reportedly a $16 billion dollar industry[3]. There are hundreds of online apps, websites and avenues to get your clothes sold. Some apps and websites even pay the shipping costs for you.

8. Sell your junk online

Websites such as Craig’s List, Amazon, Ebay, and the list goes on, are great and cheap ways for you to sell your junk. You can resell ANYTHING these days. If you bought it, chances are there is someone out there who will pay you for it. These sites take time as you have to ship items, items have to be verified and then you are paid. Payment on these websites usually take seven to ten business days.

9. Sell your unused gift cards

Sites such as Cardpool, Raise and Cardcash will al low you to resell your unused gift cards for slightly less than face value. You can get you money in as little as two days and even quicker for e gift cards. It’s a quick, easy and painless process.

10. Become an Uber/Lyft Driver

If you have some extra time on your hands–just a few hours a week would do it–and live in or near a populous area, driving for Uber/Lyft is a very lucrative way to make money fast. It is also a great long-term side hustle. Uber drivers can make as much as some full-time jobs if they work in the right area. You could earn $100 mark in as little as five hours per week.

11. Sell your sports/concert tickets

Got season tickets or concert tickets? Sell them. In some cases you may not get face value for the tickets but you can recoup a good portion of your money. For really popular events–such as play off games or marquee performances–you can make well above the ticket face value. If you’re that desperate for money, missing a concert or the big game isn’t that big a deal.

12. Do odd jobs

Babysitting, pet sitting, house sitting, cutting grass, house cleaning, walking dogs and other odd jobs around the neighborhood are great ways to get some quick cash in your pocket.

13. Inbox Dollars and Swagbucks

Inbox Dollars and Swagbucks are websites that pays you cash (very small amounts of cash) to perform various tasks such as watching videos, commenting on ads, taking surveys, shopping and the list goes on and on. You will not get rich using these website, but you can earn a couple extra bucks by spending a few minutes (or hours) online. The websites requires you to bank $30 before you are paid.

If you need money in 30 days…

14. Negotiate with your creditors

If you need money to pay bills or debts, call your creditors and try to negotiate. Explain your situation and request an extension or make arrangements to pay a portion of what you owe. Most creditors will work with you. Their primary goal is to get their money. They are willing to wait a few days or take a portion of the payment in lieu of you not paying them at all.

15. Get a part time job

Look, I get it. You are already overworked, under paid and stretched thin as it is. But a part-time job isn’t forever. It’s only temporary. If you can work long enough to avert the crisis and then establish an emergency fund, you won’t find yourself in this predicament again. You may have to deliver pizzas in the evenings or work retail on weekends but anything worth having requires work. We live in the age of the side-hustle and in the era of multiple streams of income. This is one bandwagon worth joining. The more you do now, the less you have to do later.

16. Become a Secret Shopper

Secret shopping is the perfect side hustle for those who love to shop, stay-at-home moms and anyone who loves good customer service. Mystery or secret shoppers are independent contractors posing as “shoppers”. You are paid to visit your local stores and shops as a regular customer and report back on various aspects of your experience. A word of caution! This industry is full of scams. Be sure to check out the company reviews online or stick with companies that are tried and true[4].

17. Garage/Yard Sale

There is nothing like a good ‘ole fashion yard sale to generate additional pocket money. I’m talking about the kind where you search every nook and cranny of your house and completely de-clutter and purge all of the items that are not absolutely necessary for you to live.

When planning the sale, make sure you advertise in your local area and also blast it on social media. A great thing about these sales is that anything that does not sell at the physical location of the event can be sold online. A great place to sell leftover items is on the Facebook Yard sale page.

18. Conventional Loan

This is an option–just not a good one. By taking out a loan, you are compounding your money problems in lieu of fixing them. However, if you feel you must take out a loan, experts suggest visiting your local credit union. Many local credit unions are getting into the short-term loan game and offer rates far superior to pay-day and other short-term loans. You do have to be a member of your credit union in good standing. Credit unions offering short-term loans work with those with poor credit and offer better rates, terms and conditions than other short-term lenders.

19. Become a Virtual Assistant or Bookkeeper

Virtual assistants provide a wide range of services to individuals, organizations or companies, but they do it virtually in lieu going into an office. It’s an excellent work from home opportunity and one of the most cost-effective ways of making money online. Rates for providing virtual services online could range from $10 an hour for simple data entry tasks to hundreds of dollars an hour if you have a highly specialized skill or expertise. You can work for a company online such as Upwork, Elance or Problogger or you can work as an independent contractor.

20. Rent out a room or become an Airbnb host

Got extra space? Rent it out. Getting a roommate is a great way to cut cost and save money fast. As with anything, make sure you do your research and due diligence when it comes choosing a roommate. If you live in or near a high tourist area, working with a service such as Airbnb is a great way to get a steady stream of qualified guests. They vet your potential guests for you and provide you with referrals.

Everyone needs some cash from time to time. The ways listed above are fairly quick and easily accessible ways to get a hold of some extra cash. The best way to avoid these money crisis is by living modestly and well below your means, saving for emergencies and following a budget.

Reference

[1]^Money Pantry: 15 Awesome Apps and Sites For Selling Your Stuff Locally[2]^The Simple Dollar: 4 Steps to Take If You Loan Money To Friends Or Family[3]^Business Insider: Selling Your Old Clothes Is Now A Billion Dollar Industry[4]^The Penny Hoarder: The Best Mystery Shopping Companies to Work For

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trendingnewsb · 7 years

Text

20 Ways to Help You Out When You Desperately Need Money

Don’t fret! I am here to help.

20 safe and legitimate ways to get money fast

If you need money today…

1. Pawn or sell something

There are tons of apps[1] that let you snap a picture of your stuff and post it online immediately.

2. Sell an old cell phone

3. Sell your clothes at a local consignment shop

4. Borrow from a friend or family member

5. Sell your plasma

6. Get A Cash Advance

If you need money in 7 to 10 days…

7. Sell your clothes online

8. Sell your junk online

9. Sell your unused gift cards

10. Become an Uber/Lyft Driver

11. Sell your sports/concert tickets

12. Do odd jobs

Babysitting, pet sitting, house sitting, cutting grass, house cleaning, walking dogs and other odd jobs around the neighborhood are great ways to get some quick cash in your pocket.

13. Inbox Dollars and Swagbucks

If you need money in 30 days…

14. Negotiate with your creditors

15. Get a part time job

16. Become a Secret Shopper

17. Garage/Yard Sale

18. Conventional Loan

19. Become a Virtual Assistant or Bookkeeper

20. Rent out a room or become an Airbnb host

Reference

The post 20 Ways to Help You Out When You Desperately Need Money appeared first on Lifehack.

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