How To Make Money Fast

My 1.5 million Instagram followers have two main problems.

I own two Instagram pages with a total number of 1,700,000 followers. I post inspirational content about how I and other successful investors earn and invest money. As you can imagine, my Instagram followers have two main struggles. First, they want to know how to make extra money. Then, they need to know how to invest that money.

Most of my followers are looking for a silver bullet that will magically fix their money problems. But when looking at my own process, I can identify three simple truths about earning more money.

1. The fastest way to make ‘extra’ money is to spend less.
2. The second fastest way to make money is to get a job, any job.
3. The third fastest way to make money is to invest it wisely.

Let’s get into each one.

1. The fastest way to make money is to spend less.

However cheesy it may sound, building wealth is all about managing your money. When Covid hit, the first thing I did was remove unnecessary expenditure. I opened my banking app and started scrolling through monthly payments. I canceled everything, even my $5 monthly Medium membership (sorry, not sorry). Soon, I had $250 of extra cash every month. This is really the fastest hustle you can do right now.

This is not just a Covid-exclusive strategy. Just a week ago, I reviewed my accounts and found all the subscriptions and impulse purchases that seemed so essential the past two years were adding up again. I managed to free up another nice monthly amount to use more wisely.

To do this, just write down your recurring expenses, then ask yourself: Do I really need this? If not, cancel it!

Everybody able to read this article already has a big financial advantage over a lot of other people in the world. You are reading it on a smartphone or computer, using costly WiFi or data, and probably paying a monthly fee for your latest iPhone. Maybe you are reading it on a paid Medium subscription or while listening to Spotify, commercial-free.

You are wealthy. Ask yourself, why do you need more money? Is it truly to find happiness or to buy more unnecessary shit that you think will add up to a happier life? Saving money on the latter will help you spend money on the former.

Related article: The advice I gave someone on Reddit asking for ways to make $2200 fast.

2. The second fastest way to make money is to get a job, any job.

Yes, another very easy money-making hack that everyone hates to hear: Work for it.

When I went to college (the worst investment I ever made, by the way) I worked a full-time job cleaning buses. The shifts started at night so it was a perfect job to combine with a daytime study. I scraped chewing gum from seats and mopped up puke from drunks on a Saturday night. But it paid me a decent amount of money, and I earned it while others were out spending. Call it a financial win-win.

If you’re looking for a way to make money, just go out there and get a job.

It takes more time to find and get a job than to stop spending, but it’s a long-term plan that will help you earn extra money, and probably a lot faster than building a side hustle.

These days it’s even easier to find a job. Remote work is no longer an unknown word for many employers. I’ve listed 20 job sites to find your next ‘Work From Home Job’ right here. Dig in and start earning.

3. The third fastest way to make money is to invest it wisely.

First, the quick and easy way to invest. If you already have a job and are solely looking for an extra income stream, go back to step one and cut your expenses. Use that income to buy dividend-paying stocks. Or even easier, just buy the S&P 500. You don’t even have to know how to trade for this, you just need to know where and how to buy them, and then go out and actually buy them. Nothing more. No trading or difficult charts. Just use a part of your income to consistently buy some steady dividend-paying stocks or the S&P500 and don’t touch it ever again, only to buy more!

But investing is NOT just playing around with stocks. The biggest investment you can make is investing in yourself.

Invest in knowledge, invest in schooling, invest in learning a new skill that could bring you future income on the side. Invest money or invest time and effort.

Many of my followers ask me how to best invest in stocks. I always tell them the same thing: If you have to ask this, then please don’t. If you don’t know how to invest in stocks, then go out there and invest in a book about stocks, or a course, or invest time and just watch videos on YouTube for free. Go out and put in the work, invest in knowledge!

Don’t go and ask random people how it’s done — this is where you get scammed. Don’t buy stocks because someone says you should buy them. Make sure they share a reasonable argument as to why you should buy into them. Just because Michael Burry was right in 2008 doesn’t mean he’s always right. He probably knows a lot more than you and me but please, think for yourself, do your own research! And don’t forget, trading stocks is more than buying them. It’s also knowing when to sell them. Most people trouble their minds about the right entry point but forget that the actual profit is made selling the stocks. Taking home some profits when the time is right, and of course, taking your losses when it’s still manageable.

I am investing right now as I write this article. It’s Sunday, my apartment has a rooftop garden, it’s located in the center of my hometown. I had a nice lunch, enjoyed the sun, and went back up to work on one of my hustles, the Instagram page that probably brought you here: @thegrowinginvestor. I read an article about side hustle scams, which led me to the author’s Instagram, which led me to subscribe to her newsletter about making money by writing. I signed up with this account and started writing.

All of this is an investment in myself. I am learning to write down my thought process, which could hopefully help others, which in return helps me if it’s popular and starts generating revenue from my blog. Time will tell. The worst-case scenario is I’ve just created a long-form piece of content of which I’m going to use snippets to use as content on my Instagram page.

This is the longest of the three money-making hacks, but it’s also the one that will pay the highest rewards over time.

These unpopular money-making hacks actually work.

Side hustles are the topic of the year as people scrape to make extra money during Covid. But the truth is that If you are looking for a quick way to make money, this is it, believe me. You can start with these three tactics before you even start a single side hustle.

Every wealth-building shortcut is a scam. Either it’s you being scammed, or you end up scamming others. One thing is for sure — your success won’t last for the long run this way. So if you want to start building wealth as fast as possible, get out there and put in the work.