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Interest Rate

7 Ways to Raise Cash in a Hurry

By //  by Kevin M

Most everyone hits a point where they need cash, like yesterday. While it’s not quite that easy to raise cash that quickly, there are at least seven ways to raise cash within at least 30 days.

But before we get into that, we’ll start with one common method you should avoid.

Rule #1: Stay Away From Loans!(!!!)

Let’s start with every American’s favorite source of quick cash – loans. Stay away from them unless it’s a life threatening emergency.

Though getting a loan may be the quickest and easiest way to raise cash in a hurry, each loan type comes with it’s own set of problems, and some can be severe.

Credit cards. Spend some time ruminating on the word “revolving” – that’s the most basic feature of credit cards. As in revolving door – as in, you never get out of it! That’s why you should avoid credit cards.

Bank loans. Generally speaking, a bank loan is a long term solution to a short term problem – it gets you the cash you need now, but in doing so it creates a drain on future income. That guarantees future cash shortages.

Payday and title loans. If bank loans and credit cards have the potential to lock you into a cycle of future cash shortages, payday and title loans have infinite capacity to do that even more efficiently. The high interest rates, penalties and short payback periods guarantee a future of greater misery.

Loans from family and friends. Borrowing money from family and friends is a classic way to destroy important relationships. If for any reason you are unable to repay the loan in a timely manner, the liability will be a storm cloud hanging over your relationship. The best time in getting a loan from family and friends is when you first get the money you need – after that, it’s pure agony.

No matter how tempting loans may be, you should avoid them at all costs.

OK, we’ve beaten loans to death – what are some viable alternatives?

Cash Envelope

1. Sell anything you don’t need

Most of us have any number of items sitting around the house that we can sell to raise quick cash. Inventory all of your storage areas – the closets, garage, basement, and any storage units in your backyard. If you have not used in item in at least a year, you probably have no real use for it.

Have a garage sale this weekend, and sell as much of it as you can. If you think that any items are potentially high dollar sales, you may want to consider selling them online. Try eBay for small items (to keep shipping costs low), and Craigslist for larger items that will not ship easily. You can easily generate an extra several hundred dollars this way.

2. Sell your skills for cash

Do you have particular skills that are in demand, or a willingness to do certain jobs that most people don’t like to? You may be able use this to your financial advantage.

For specific skills that have a retail market, try taking an ad on Craigslist (it’s free) seeking quick jobs to earn cash. Otherwise, for general work offer to family, friends, neighbors and coworkers that you are available for jobs. This can include painting a couple of rooms, cutting lawns, raking leaves, trimming hedges, doing laundry, or any other jobs you are comfortable doing.

3. Baby sit or pet sit for a weekend

If your weekends are free, and you have space in your home, offer to either baby sit or pet sit for people you know. It can earn you some quick cash without even leaving your home.

Girl With Stack Money Fan

4. Increase your withholding allowances at work

A lot of people like to over-withhold in their paychecks so that they will have a generous tax refund. But this is one of the quickest and easiest ways to raise cash. By adding a couple of exemptions on your withholding, you can quickly increase your paycheck. Think of it as taking an advance on your income tax refund.

5. Offer to work overtime, or on any major projects at work

If your employer is offering paid overtime, get to the front of the line and make yourself available. Likewise, if there are any major projects at work that need to be done, step up and offer to do the job if you can. It may provide you with a surge of overtime income in a short amount of time.

6. Skip a week of grocery shopping

Most of us have more money tied up in groceries then we need. Try skipping grocery shopping for a week and drawing down on your existing food supplies. You may be surprised at how creative you can be in working around any shortages.

If you normally spend $200 on an average grocery shopping trip, skipping will make that money available to you for any purpose that you need.

7. Cancel or transfer services to cheaper suppliers

Are there any services you are paying for you don’t need? Or are there some that you can quickly substitute with less expensive alternatives? Eliminating or lowering one or more recurring bills could get you some quick cash.

As an example, we are about to cancel our discount landline phone service and replace it in a bundle provided by our Internet service provider. The switch will save us about $50 per month. If you can find two or three of these, not only will you get some cash this month, but it will improve your cash flow every month thereafter.

If you need quick cash, try some of the strategies above. You should resort to more costly methods of raising cash, such as loans or tapping retirement plans, only after you have exhausted all other methods.

What you do when you need to raise cash in a hurry?

Filed Under: Personal Finance Tagged With: Cash In A Hurry, Cash Shortage, debt, Earn Cash, finance, Future Cash, Interest Rate, Quick Cash, Raises Cash

How to Create Your Own CD Ladder

By //  by Kevin M

Lots of people are really disappointed with the rate of return they are getting on their savings. That’s even causing a lot of people choose not to save. After all, the alternatives are a lot more exciting. Instead of putting your money in the bank, you can spend it on things that you like, or take a chance at higher returns by investing in the stock market.

Both outcomes are the exact purpose behind the super low interest rates we are seeing. If you are out shopping and/or investing your money in stocks, you are doing exactly what policymakers want you to do with your money. But what if that’s not quite what you want to do?

If you like having money in the bank, and you want to get better interest rate returns than you are getting in money market funds and savings accounts, you may be interested in building your own CD ladder.

CD Ladder Strategy

What is a CD Ladder Strategy?

A CD ladder is a portfolio of certificates of deposit (CDs) with varying maturity dates. The best way to explain this is with an example. Let‘s say that you have $12,000 that you want hold in your savings. You want to invest it in CDs because they pay more than savings accounts or money markets. But at the same time, you don’t want to tie all of your money up in one CD for six months or a year.

You can create a CD ladder by investing $1,000 each month in a one year CD. Since you have $12,000, you can purchase one $1,000 CD each month for a year. After one year you will have a portfolio of CDs, with one renewing every month.

In effect, you will have created your own high interest rate money market fund, complete with FDIC insurance. Since you will have a CD renewing every month, you’ll be able to take advantage of higher interest rates as they become available. Should rates drop (which is hard to imagine considering how low they are right now) you will still have a large number of older CDs drawing higher interest rates.

Why Should You Want To Build One?

The reason for building a CD ladder is simple: money market funds and savings accounts are paying interest rates that are a low fraction of 1%. Because they are time deposits, CDs have higher interest rates. By laddering several CDs you avoid tying your money up in a single security.

Using A CD Laddering Strategy For Liquidity

In the example above, we described a CD portfolio in which one CD will be up for renewal every month. That will enable you to have access to at least some of your cash each month, with more coming available with every passing month. This will enable you to earn higher rates of return than you will get in savings accounts and money market funds, while still preserving some measure of liquidity.

If you want to increase the liquidity of your CD ladder, you can always invest in short-term CDs. You can build your ladder using three months or six months CDs, rather than one year CDs. That will improve your liquidity but it will also cut down CD rates of return, since shorter-term securities pay lower rates of interest.

CD Ladder Strategy For Interest Rate Return

You can also extend your CD maturities in order to increase the rate of return. You can do this either by investing in longer-term CDs, such as 18 month or two year CDs, or you can build a portfolio of CDs with various maturities.

As an example, you can make a CD ladder that includes maturities of six months, one year, two years and five years. Longer-term CDs will generally pay higher interest rates, while the shorter-term CDs pay less. The blending of the various maturities will create an even higher rate of return than you will get on a ladder composed entirely of short-term CDs. But with the longer term CDs you will also be losing liuidity, since longer maturities also mean slower renewals.

How Complicated Is It To Develop A CD Ladder Strategy?

Building your own CD ladder isn’t that complicated. In fact once you get it going it’s a completely passive undertaking. You can set up your CD ladder, then authorize your bank to automatically roll the CDs over as they mature. Typically, you will have them rolled over into CDs of the same term.

You can purchase CDs out of your savings account or bank money market fund. You can make your monthly purchase, or purchase a portfolio of CDs with varying maturities, either of which is a simple process. There will be little to do, and higher interest income to collect.

It will be like creating a high interest money market fund, but one that you control.

photo credit: Freedigitalphotos.net

Filed Under: Investing Tagged With: A Cd, bank, Building A Cd Ladder, cd, Cd Ladder, Cd Laddering Strategy, Certificate Of Deposit, funds, Interest Rate, Ladder Strategy, Laddering, low interest rates, Money Market Fund

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