Lost Your Job? 4 Tips to Generating Fast Cash during Financial Uncertainty

Even though the “financial powers that be” insist the job market and economy are slowly but surely improving, unexpected layoffs, downsizing, and companies going out of business still occur. Financial stability isn’t what it used to be and the threat of unexpected job loss remains a harsh reality. Many already teeter on the edge of barely meeting financial obligations. An unexpected job loss could throw you into a cyclone of financial chaos. If that happens, knowing how to hunker down and access cash quickly becomes a matter of survival.

#1 Budget Down to Bare Necessities

Most people already follow a loose budget of sorts, knowing what they can and can’t afford to spend. When you lose a job and there’s no income, you have to hold on to as much as you can for as long as you can. That means following a budget on steroids.

First, identify the things in your budget you can’t live without like food, rent and transportation. Focus only on necessities – that is, the things you can’t live without. Anything that’s not a necessity is a luxury you can’t afford right now so you’ll need to get rid of the extra expense. You may be looking forward to the season premiere of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” but your cable service, let alone the HBO premium channel, is not a necessity. No more wasting money on extras that can eat away existing funds like cigarettes, Starbucks, and fast food.  Time to get into survival mode.

#2 Sell Items Online

A lot of people don’t believe they have anything of value that someone would want to buy. You’d be surprised. Take a look online at websites like Craigs List or Ebay to get an idea of the types of items people are looking to buy.  Then take a look around at your own belongings using a scrutinizing seller’s eye. Do you have an old mobile phone or DVD player that’s still in good condition? Do you still have a box of baby clothes packed away? A designer purse, jacket or shoes? Chances are if you once loved them, someone else will too.

People love getting a great deal which is why selling items online is such a lucrative way to earn fast cash. Craigslist is an especially great way to connect with people and sell your items locally. Whether you decide to meet up and conduct transactions with interested buyers at home or in a public location, be sure to observe safety precautions at all times.

#3 Sell Your Services for Pay

Do you have a marketable skill others would be willing to pay you to perform? Writers, graphic/web designers, virtual assistants, advertising/marketing professionals, IT programmers and other professionals sell their services online to a global market in exchange for cash daily. Some advertise their services on local directories and websites like Craigs List, while others turn to freelance bidding websites like Elance, Guru and Odesk. Some freelancers make a full-time living utilizing these sites so there is definitely earning potential.

Start by completing the website’s professional profile and posting a few samples of your work so employers get an idea of what you can actually do. As you win job bids and earn good ratings from employers, you’ll build a reputation which leads to more paid projects. Most of these sites offer both free and paid membership levels.  These freelance gigs can help you keep your skills sharp. You may even develop new skills along the way. Freelancing can be a great way to generate reoccurring income until you find a new job.

#4 Turn Your Car Title into Cash

Do you have a car that’s completely paid for? It could be your ticket to instant cash if you apply for a title loan. One big misconception about title loans is that applying for one is the same as selling your car. Not true!  You can borrow up to $10,000 dollars and keep driving your car. There are a lot of title loan companies to choose from, but it’s always best to deal with a reputable company like TitleMax.com.

Losing a job can be an intensely stressful experience, but facing the situation head on and creating a plan can get you over the hump until the next job opportunity comes along.

About the author

Carl Tanner writes about budgeting and money saving tips for frugal families.  He draws inspiration from his own experience of finding himself unexpectedly unemployed as a sole income earner with a wife, five kids and a mortgage. He is deeply committed to helping others dig themselves out of financial uncertainty.

Felix Baumgartner is the man who fell to Earth and lived to tell the tale

“I would not do it again because there’s nothing else to accomplish … The fact that it worked once, does not mean it will work again.“

Felix Baumgartner is a rock star. At least, he is to the bright-eyed group of tween boys crowding his Red Bull Stratos exhibit at the Smithsonian, the pieces of which are now set to become part of the museum’s permanent collection. Baumgartner could also probably be an action movie star. He’s brimming with braggadocio in that way only men who’ve dared and triumphed over the impossible can be; ruggedly handsome in a way you wouldn’t expect from a daredevil. And he’s also very stylish.

Baumgartner refers to himself as the “fastest man in the sky,” and the distinction is well-earned. In October of 2012, the Austrian stepped out from a custom-made space capsule 24 miles high and space dove toward terra firma, breaking the sound barrier along the way. As you might imagine, a free fall from the edge of space is not without significant risks. “I heard a lot of nightmare stories about flat spinning,” he told me. “Which, if it happens too fast, you’re facing too many RPMs; you cannot stop that spin anymore. And, at a certain point, the blood has only one way to leave your body and that’s through … your eyeballs. That means you’re gonna die.”

As history and this interview reflect, Baumgartner not only survived, but he also broke several world records for the “longest, fastest and highest skydive in history.” The achievement seems a dubious and frivolous one until you take into account the wealth of valuable scientific research data that the Stratos project yielded — all of which the Red Bull Stratos team has made freely available. Not since US Air Force pilot Joe Kittinger took a similar jump in 1960 has any information on the physiological effects of a safe bailout from high altitude on the human body been made accessible to scientists.

“I heard a lot of nightmare stories about flat spinning. Which, if it happens too fast, you’re facing too many RPMs. And, at a certain point, the blood has only one way to leave your body and that’s through … your eyeballs. That means you’re gonna die.”

The beneficial applications of this data, however, aren’t anything consumers will see in the short term. It’s more geared toward the advent of space tourism, an industry that’s very nearly about to become a reality, albeit initially for a privileged few. It’s this inevitable future that Baumgartner anticipates with the pragmatism of someone who’s willingly faced death from the hostile world of our upper atmosphere. That is to say, he knows the risks involved. “We all know that one day … there’s going to be a spaceship that will blow up. And our equipment can save a lot of lives if they use it.”

The equipment he’s referring to includes the custom-built, pressurized capsule, suit and helium-filled balloon that ferried him to his 24-mile-high diving point. Of the bunch, Baumgartner’s suit is perhaps the key piece that could easily be adopted for star-gazing space tourists. Based on a standard U2 pilot’s suit, this next-gen pressure suit was heavily modified to make it more flexible for someone in a free fall, and featured an emergency jump chute, triggered by a G-force meter, to help arrest any potential free spin. None of which, thankfully, Baumgartner had to rely on as his jump went off mostly without a hitch — that is if you don’t take into account his 55-second free spin.

One other world record Baumgartner and his Red Bull Stratos team unintentionally broke was for YouTube. The space dive was streamed simultaneously by more than 8 million viewers. From the outset of the project’s planning, his team knew that they wanted to share the experience live with the world. To accomplish that, a custom “flying studio” was developed with a special cooling system to manage the cameras’ heat in the vacuum of space. Baumgartner also had a few GoPro cameras on-hand to record the dive, but he admits these were only there as a backup plan. The bulk of the communications equipment was housed within a large box mounted to his chest, while antennas for contact with ground control were laced into the pant legs of his suit.

“We all know that one day … there’s going to be a spaceship that will blow up. And our equipment can save a lot of lives if they use it.”

You’d think that an adrenaline junkie like Baumgartner would literally jump at the chance to once again hurtle toward Earth at supersonic speeds from an impossibly high point up in the heavens. But the plain truth of it is there won’t be a space dive part two. Baumgartner’s moved on, but not without a little perspective: “I’ve been doing difficult stuff around the world for almost 25 years. And even if I was always prepared in a very good way, you still need a lot of luck. And at a certain point, you run out of luck. This is the top. I cannot top this one and I don’t have to.”

Fair enough.

Photos and video by Zach Honig

Filed under: Science

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