Ways to Make money Now

When I told my husband last summer that I wanted to throw a big weekend yard sale, he took in the news with his usual stoic resolve. He's seen my cockamamy moneymaking schemes before: the eBay store that quickly fizzled, the "resellable" cupcake stands from our wedding that are still moldering in the garage, previous yard sales where I mostly chatted with neighbors before lugging our stuff back inside. Expectations were not high. So this time, I really worked it. I advertised ahead of time on Craigslist and in local papers, put a sign in my yard days ahead, and prepriced everything so people wouldn't have to ask. We made $700 in two days.

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"Done right, yard sales can bring in good money, " says Chris Heiska, founder of the website yardsalequeen.com, where I gleaned many of my tips. Another yard-saler, Carrie Grindle, a mom in Oregon, OH, regularly clears $500 a day at her sales. Her strategy: Any time one of her kids outgrows a piece of clothing or tires of a toy, she prices it before tossing it in a box to await the next sale.

"Everyone needs a side hustle, " says Jason White, who started the personal finance blog frugaldad.com as a hobby that now brings in cash from ads. "In this economy, it's risky to depend on one source of income. And for most of us, it's the best way to pay down debt." The secret, White says, "is to cultivate a business around something you're already good at." Learn from these five smart-cookie readers, who found ways to make bank without a lot of extra time.

Interesting facts

• MoneySense is a Filipino personal finance magazine published by MoneyTree Publishing Corp.
  MoneySense is written for middle and upper-middle income readers who want to know about the best ways to earn, save, spend, borrow, invest, and protect their money.
• A Borrowing limit is the amount of money that individuals could borrow from other individuals, firms, banks or governments. There are many types of borrowing limits, and a natural borrowing limit is one specific type of borrowing limit among those. When indiviuals are said to face the natural borrowing limit, it implies they are allowed to...