With Christmas and Hanukkah right around the corner, many people are looking for ways to earn extra money to get those special gifts for friends and family. Even if the boss has no additional hours available for you at work, you may still have some options for extra cash now and whenever you may need it throughout the year. All you need is a car and suddenly numerous simple options for either additional income or a full-time income become available to you. Unless your vehicle is paid off, you are still having to make monthly payments on it in addition to the cost of insurance and maintenance. Below are a few ways to make your car start earning its keep financially as well as bringing you in needed money.
Consider Becoming an Uber Driver
Uber is all the rage lately. The media are talking about how it’s really giving cab companies a run for their money. Breaking into cab driving is difficult and expensive because you have to purchase a special license giving you permission to drive a cab, which doesn’t usually come cheap, and then there are additional ongoing costs. With Uber, in addition to its competing service Lyft, all you need is your car, and your own driver’s license and insurance and, of course, a smartphone so people can contact you through their app and you’re making money.
Give Pizza Delivery a Try
We’ve all ordered a pizza delivered to our home at one time or another. It’s a great convenience for the customer, but when your finances are tight, it’s important to realize that it’s also a great way for the driver to earn extra money. When doing pizza delivery, try to get a job at a store that serves a nice neighborhood. This will help to assure you get better tips than if you were to work in a pizza shop that serves low income neighborhoods.
Get a Car Title Loan
This is different from the other methods for making money with a car in the sense that it’s not actually earning money but is a loan. Sometimes, however, a loan may be all that’s needed, and you might already have a good job that you can be confident will give you the cash flow to pay the loan back. This good job might also be taking up too much of your time to enable you to actually work a second job with your car. The great benefit of a title loan is that even if you’ve made a few late payments on bills recently, they are based on the value of your car and not your credit rating. However, as of earlier this year, only about 17 states allow car title loans, so make sure they are even an option where you live.
Deliver Food Even When People Aren’t in the Mood for Pizza
According to Techcrunch.com, food and grocery delivery services are now more than a one billion dollar business annually as of 2014. An additional half a billion dollars was invested in this industry just in the first quarter of 2015. Grubhub and Takeout Taxi are two of the most common examples of such services. They are similar to a pizza place or Chinese restaurant that delivers their own food except that these services pick up food from a multitude of restaurants to bring to customers. For those looking to make money doing food delivery with their car, one of these services may provide an alternative to the local pizza chain.
Get Paid to Put Advertising on Your Vehicle
The great thing about this money-making method is that once the ad is on your car, it doesn’t take any more of your time. You are, therefore, free to be making money in this way while also pursuing another one of the above money making options. That is, assuming that none of the delivery option employers mentioned above take exception to hiring someone with advertising on their vehicle. Obviously, if you plan to do a car ad in addition to a delivery job, make sure the ad is not promoting something that in any way competes with the type of business you’ll be delivering for.
Choose the Best Option for You
A lot of these methods are great and fairly simple for part-time income. Even if they have the hours available, you may not want to do some of them full-time as they will drive your car into the ground over time. If you do consider any of these options for full-time employment, be sure to be putting money aside on a regular basis to make sure to save for repairs and, depending on the age of your car, an eventual replacement for your current vehicle. With regard to wear and tear as well as depreciation on your vehicle, getting a title loan or letting a business run an ad on your car may be two of the better methods. Of course, a title loan, as the name implies, is simply a loan and not actually earned money, but if you do truly need quick extra money for a temporary use and don’t have a lot of extra hours to work a second job, it can be the perfect answer.
