If you’ve read any of my previous posts or my book, you know that I’m not into the get rich quick, too good to be true type of stuff. So when someone asks how to double $10,000 quickly, I’m naturally cautious. With that said, it is possible to quickly double $10,000—there are actually many ways to do it.
Why?
Before we get into the how to double $10,000 quickly, it’s important to address the why. Why do you want to double $10,000 quickly? Is there a specific reason, or is $10,000 just a nice even number that sounds good?
Maybe you’ve got a medical bill due, your car just broke, or there’s an emergency that requires $10,000 quickly. Or maybe you’ve just accumulated so much stuff over the years that you’re ready to get rid of most of it and feel like you can sell $10,000 worth of personal property.
Whatever your reason for wanting to quickly double $10,000, make sure it’s a good one, and keep reading to find out how to do it.
Number One: Sell Things
One of the easiest way to double $10,000 quickly is by selling things. There are a lot of ways to sell things. You can go online and sell on sites like Amazon, EBay, or OfferUp. Or you can sell the old fashioned way by having a garage sale, telling friends and family about items you have for sale, and much more.
Depending on how many valuable items you have, you can potentially double your money very quickly. Even having one valuable item can double $10,000 almost immediately.
Here are a few examples of such items:
- An expensive car you no longer value and are willing to exchange for a much less expensive vehicle
- Jewelry you don’t value anymore
- A recreational item such as a boat, RV, trailer, etc. (you may think twice on this one after seeing the section on renting out RV’s)
All of these items can easily sell for more than $10,000. Using the car as an example, suppose someone has a vehicle they used to really like but don’t value as much anymore. All they want now is a good, reliable car to get to around. For example, a car that was originally purchased for $50,000 and is now worth $35,000.
Selling the car for $35,000 and then buying another car for between $15,000 and $20,000 would net the seller between $15,000 and $20,000. Maybe a little less after registration fees for the new car and advertising costs for the old one.
Even if you don’t have big ticket items you want to sell like a car, RV, or boat, you can still find other things to sell so you can accomplish your goal of doubling $10,000 in a short amount of time.
Most people have items they no longer use or value. Starting by gathering up those items and selling them can result in a quick profit. After that first round of sales, there are probably more things in the house that can be sold.
You may not reach your goal of $10,000 quickly just by selling smaller items, but it will give you a good base and allow you to move on to other activities that can help you move towards that goal.
Number Two: Short Term Rentals
Almost anyone who owns property in a semi-desirable area can double $10,000 quickly by renting out their house on a platform like Airbnb or Vrbo.
A Google search on short term rentals will yield hundreds of results, but here are a few articles to get you started:
- How To Turn Your Place Into an Airbnb Rental
- How To List Your Home on Airbnb and Earn Easy Travel Cash
- 14 Things to Know About Renting a Property on Airbnb.
There are a lot of options in this space. You can rent out your own personal residence for the weekend, rent out a room or two in your house, or for the more serious investors, actually purchase property specifically for short term rentals.
For quick money, most people turn to renting out their house for the weekend/week or renting out a couple rooms from time to time. A way to earn money even faster is by researching big events where you live. Sporting events, concerts, conventions, etc. are all opportunities to earn more on your short term rental.
For example, in towns with a major college football program or professional football team can charge a lot of money on a game weekend. If you want to double $10,000 quickly, football season is a great time to do it.
While you’re renting your house for a few days, stay with a relative or friend nearby or go somewhere inexpensive for the weekend.
Number Three: Rent Out Your Car
Yes, that’s right, you can actually rent out your car. A popular platform to do this is Turo. I’ve used the app as a consumer and it’s easy and convenient. It also often saves the customer from having to make a trip to the airport where many rental car companies are located.
Depending on the time of year and make of car, your vehicle can rent for well over $100 per day. At $100 per day (after fees), renting out your car between seven to 10 times per month will provide you $700 to $1,000 per month. If you are in a work from home situation, able to take public transportation to work, or involved in a carpool, you can rent out your car more often than this.
Some people even buy a car specifically to rent out. This is moving away from the side income into an actual business. Here are some good sites to learn more, including a video on the peer to peer car rental process.
There are a lot of positives to renting out your own car, but also some things to look out for. These sites give you a good overall picture on both the positives and negatives.
Going back to our original question of how to double $10,000 quickly in less than 45 days, it’s unlikely that renting your car out on the side is going to accomplish this goal for you on its own. Unless you establish a quick business, you’re going to need to combine this strategy with other strategies.
Number Four: Rent Out Your RV
Since the early stages of the pandemic, the RV rental business has been booming. This boom has prompted many people to rent out their personal RV’s for really good profits. Sites like Outdoorsy provide a platform to rent out your personal RV for a hefty profit. Some people have reported making over $50,000 per year doing this.
During peak season, it might actually be possible to get enough bookings to double $10,000 in 45 days or less. A few good weeks during the peak of summer will really give you a boost. During off season, it’s less likely, but still possible.
Much like with Turo, there is obviously risk that comes with renting out your personal RV. Anything with wheels and a motor inherently carries more risk than other things. Make sure to look into the pros and cons, and consult with your attorney and tax professional prior to beginning.
Number Five: Side Hustle
There are literally thousands of side hustles out there. Especially in the gig economy. Side hustles can be anything from a serious side business with potential to become full time to an evening job now and then to make a little extra money.
For example, an engineer with a blog she writes in the mornings or evenings. That is a consistent side hustle with an opportunity for growth. It might even lead to full time work if done well and consistently.
Another example is a person with a nine to five job who takes on odd jobs every couple weeks for a little extra money. That type of side hustle doesn’t have the same growth potential but can provide quick cash.
Both are fine, one just has more long-term growth potential than the other. Both can also move you towards doubling $10,000 in a short amount of time. Someone making $100 extra five days a week on a blog or another type of side work will accumulate $500 per week and $2,000 per month. In five months they will have $10,000.
That’s a much longer timeframe than 45 days but it’s still a relatively short amount of time in general.
Side hustles come in many different shapes and sizes. There’s driving for Uber or Lyft, delivering items for Doordash, and picking up gigs on TaskRabbit. There’s also acquiring jobs like editing papers or designing websites on sites like Fiverr and Upwork. The possibilities are endless.
Earlier in this post, I wrote about renting a car out on TURO, an RV on Outdoorsy, or your house on Airbnb or VRBO. These can also probably go under the side hustle category.
I chose to separate them because they all involve taking something you own like a car, RV, or property, and renting it out. It’s a different type of side hustle that requires a slightly different skillset and potentially less work.
For more on side hustles, try these posts from other websites.
- 50 Profitable Side Hustle Ideas
- 15 Best Side Hustles You Can Start Earning With Now
- 31 Best Side Hustle Ideas To Make an Extra $2,000/Month
Number Six: High Risk Speculation
I was undecided whether to include this topic. I ultimately included it because I want to deter people from taking unnecessary risk in the hopes of a “quick buck.” It’s possible to double $10,000 quickly by taking engaging in high risk speculation.
Examples of high risk speculation:
- Contributing a large sum of money on a new cryptocurrency that has the potential to gain value very quickly
- Lending someone money for a business venture that promises 50% returns in the first 30 days
- Gambling—literally gambling on table games, sports games, and the lottery
These activities all have the possibility of doubling $10,000 or more quickly. Here’s why I’m including them in this post. They also have the possibility to lose $10,000 or more very quickly. In fact, the odds are that you will lose money in ventures like this.
We all have seen stories about the lottery winners and the people who win $80,000 one night in a casino. The reason we hear about these stories is that they are very rare. If they were commonplace, nobody would know or care about them. We don’t read headlines like this:
“Jessica consistently went to work for 10 years, invested in real estate and slowly built up a million-dollar portfolio.”
That headline isn’t exciting or rare. But a headline involving a lottery winner or big winner at the casino is exciting and gives us the idea that we could be the next one in a million winner.
It is possible to make a lot of money speculating or gambling. It’s just not very likely and I caution anyone who has this as part of their plan. I’m a big proponent of making smart investments for the long term. I’m also naturally against short term speculation and gambling as a primary method of earning money.
I abide by a Warren Buffett quote about investing. “Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”
Number Seven: Make More at Your Job
Making more at your job can come in many different ways. For this post, I’ll address four of the most common ways.
- Bonus
- Commission
- Pay raise
- Overtime
Bonus
You’ll likely know this is a possibility at the start of your employment. Most jobs that provide an opportunity for a bonus will advertise it. Bonuses can come at various times throughout the year. It’s not uncommon for employers to pay out bonuses when certain metrics are hit, at the end of the fiscal year, or around the holidays.
Depending on where you work, a bonus can be a few hundred dollars or five figures plus. A job that pays out a high bonus can very quickly double $10,000 or more. If you’re in a job that provides the opportunity for bonuses, make sure that you understand exactly how to earn them and work towards that opportunity.
Commission
Commission is money earned from a sale, referral, or if you own the business. The business owner also makes the profit off the sale, not just straight commission. Many sales jobs are solely commission based, meaning you’re only paid when the sale closes.
Some jobs that offer commission also pay a base salary, but many don’t. Some of the best sales people in the country work solely on commission because of the huge upside.
For example, a salesperson who sells cars will make money every time they sell a vehicle. A very skilled car salesperson has a great opportunity to quickly double $10,000 by selling multiple cars in a short amount of time. There’s no limit on how many cars can be sold other than the amount of inventory, so there is lots of opportunity in a position like this.
Pay Raise
This is probably the least likely way to double $10,000 quickly because pay raises are dispersed equally over multiple paychecks. A pay raise is great for building long term wealth and dollar cost averaging, but it’s probably not the best way to try and double $10,000.
For example, someone making what’s traditionally known as a good salary of $100,000 per year who gets a 10 percent raise. 10 percent for the year equals $10,000. However, that money doesn’t come all at once, it’s dispersed throughout the year. That’s a really good raise but it won’t double $10,000 quickly unless combined with other methods.
Overtime
It’s definitely possible to double $10,000 quickly by working overtime and double time. This can easily be done in 45 days or less. Here’s a scenario in which it’s easily achievable in a short amount of time.
Assuming overtime is time and a half, someone with a base pay of $40 per hour would earn $60 per hour of overtime. If the goal is to double $10,000 quickly, this person would reverse engineer the goal to find out how much overtime they’d need to work to earn $10,000.
$10,000 divided by $60 per hour equals 167 hours of overtime worked. Taking a deeper dive, if the goal is to make this money in 45 days or less, divide 167 hours by 45 days. This person would have to work an average of 3.7 hours of overtime per day to reach the goal of $10,000 in 45 days.
Not easy, but definitely possible over a short time period. This isn’t a lifestyle most people are going to want to carry on forever, but it’s a method to reach a financial goal quickly. Almost like a financial sprint.
Number Eight: The Combination Method
Last but not least, the combination method. One of my favorite methods to double $10,000 quickly, or any amount of money for that matter, is to combine strategies. That allows us to be creative and pick a few different things that work for our personal situations to more quickly reach a financial goal like doubling $10,000 quickly.
Here’s an example using multiple strategies of how to reach that goal in 45 days or less.
- At $60 per hour, work 10 hours of overtime per week (2 hours per day M-F)
- Weekly amount: $600
- $600 multiplied by 6.43 weeks (45 days divided by 7 days/week): $3,858
- Rent out a room on Airbnb for $50 per night four days per week
- Weekly amount: $200
- $200 multiplied by 6.43 weeks: $1,286
- Rent out a car on Turo for $60 per day, 3 days per week
- Weekly amount: $180
- $180 multiplied by 6.43 weeks: $1,157
- Sell old collectibles and other items you never use or look at: $4,100
- Total: $3,858 + $1,286 + $1,157 + $4,100 = $10,401
- Original goal: Doubling $10,000 quickly
- Goal met? Yes, exceeded by $401
The original goal was to double $10,000 quickly; 45 days in this case. The goal was actually exceeded by $401 by combining multiple methods.
Summary
It’s not easy to double $10,000 quickly, but it is possible. Some people are able to achieve this goal using just one method. A large commission check for example will meet the goal quickly. Others may use a combination of strategies and reach the goal more methodically. Fortunately, there are many options to reach this goal, and it is very achievable.
How would you double $10,000 in a short amount of time?
