Dear Penny: What Short-Term Investments Should I Make if I Need Cash Quick?

Dear In Need,

This depends a little on what you mean by “quick,” but in general, experts don’t advise turning to investments as a source of short-term income.

That’s because investment is about the long game. Your money grows over time, even as the stock market ebbs and flows, and you benefit from reinvesting your gains so they compound. You can’t ever count on short-term gains, because the market is unpredictable. People playing the stock market that way risk big losses as much as they hope for big gains, so it’s only feasible if you already have a lot of money to gamble with — and a skilled advisor to guess where the wins might be.

If you need cash quick, like, today, look around you to see if there’s anything you can sell. Books, electronics, DVDs, records, furniture and clothes could all net you a little cash in hand quickly if you connect with a local seller, send them to a resale site or sell them to a consignment store.

You could also try a cash advance app, which lets you borrow a small loan based on your income and automatically repays it with your future paychecks. The loans take one to three days to fund, if you’re eligible, and it might take a few days for the app to approve your account, so this might pay out in a week or two. These apps operate similar to payday loans, but without the exorbitant fees.

Other payday loan alternatives include peer-to-peer lenders, crowdfunding, pawn shop loans, secured loans, paycheck advance or a credit card advance, depending on what you have access to. A peer-to-peer loan from an app like SoLo could get between $50 and $500 in your account today from an individual for the small cost of a tip of your choosing.

Dana Miranda is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance® and author of YOU DON’T NEED A BUDGET. She writes Healthy Rich, a newsletter about how capitalism impacts the ways we think, teach and talk about money.