Found Money:
How To Generate Quick Cash In An
Emergency
Increase
your Cash Flow without Going Further
into Debt
• Take on a hobby that you can
translate into dollars. Can you walk a
neighborhood dog? Teach basket weaving?
Host a dining room? Baby-sit for your
sister’s kids? Do Computer graphics?
Consider which of your talents might be
worth a few extra bucks and then go out
there and do it.
• Take on a part-time job. The
holidays are soon coming up, and many
people supplement their salaries with
part-time retail jobs. Just don’t spend
it all on holiday gifts and be sure to
bank it into your savings.
• Spend more wisely. We all have
our own ways of wasting money. Now see
how you can eliminate the ones that you
wouldn’t miss. Just saving the dollar
you would normally spend on that cup of
coffee each day adds up.
• Borrow from a trusted friend or
relative. The interest rate is low to
nil, the cash is quick—but guilt is even
higher. Be sure you have a plan for how
you’re going to pay back the loan even
before you approach them.
Nowhere to go but up
You can spend your precious time crying
in your milk wondering why you have been
singled out in this way or you can get
busy and look at how this could have
happened to you in the first place. You
will need to face some touch answers if
you want to avoid future financial
crises.
Suffering a serious financial crisis is
an excellent time to self-assess. Ask
yourself where you went wrong, where
you’re not paying attention—and how you
might be setting yourself up for future
financial setbacks. Understanding the
answers to these important questions
will help you out next time around
should the same befall you.
Be prepared before the crisis starts.
You won’t be able to anticipate every
time a financial burden lands in your
lap, but, if you want to be cushioned
against it, you have to anticipate the
unanticipated.
Be very careful. An emergency fund is
set up for . . . emergencies. It’s not
supposed to be depleted on a whim and
every month. Take a closer look at your
expenses these last few months, and if
you have had to lean heavily on your
emergency account to pad your budget,
it’s time to rethink your money
management issues and in a hurry.
Pay special attention. Take a page out
of this lady’s book…she noticed that her
towels were slightly singed when she
took them out of the dryer one day.
Instead of calling the repair guy, she
shrugged it off—until the next load
caused her entire house to go up in
flames. We all have these same moments
where we glimpse a potential crisis
hovering on the horizon and do nothing
until it is all too late. Pay attention
to the smaller details and avoid the
larger calamities.
Plan further ahead. Your clutch is
likely going to give out every 80,000
miles or so. The roof can give out every
15 to 20 years. A vacuum cleaner might
give up the dust in as much as five.
Avoid the obvious and pay excessively
later. It is your call.
Your five-year-old desktop is getting
creaky. You could wait until it dies.
However, according to Murphy’s Law of
Money, it will expire at the worst
possible moment. Either way, paying for
a new computer might not be part of the
budget so planning ahead gives you some
control over when you take the hit.
Start to plan today for what you know
will be coming—come hell or high water.
Plan smartly for the inevitable.
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