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If you had to raise $500 by tomorrow, what would you do?
4 points by zackmorris on March 20, 2012 | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments
I've been thinking a lot lately about the nature of money and work. I've lived without credit since winter of 2007, when I ran out of money after trying to do my startup for 2 years. The only thing I've charged since then was getting my wisdom teeth out (which shows the unfortunate decline of job benefits like dental insurance). I did the day job for 3 years but have since been living on eBay/PayPal and designing apps. No matter how small a sum of money seems, if you don't have it, it can feel very large.

So my question is, assuming you have no credit, can't get a loan from friends/family, have no assets to sell, WHAT WOULD YOU DO to get $500 by tomorrow? Amount chosen because it's more than day laborers make, b̶u̶t̶ ̶l̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶a̶y̶d̶a̶y̶ ̶l̶o̶a̶n̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶c̶e̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶g̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶o̶f̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶i̶n̶c̶o̶m̶e̶. (edit: excluding payday loans and loan sharks)




Some credit unions will loan you small amounts (1-2k) with a same-day or next-day turnaround. If you have an asset as collateral, you can sometimes get as much as 5k.


Sell my sexy body, might take a few years to raise $500 though, lol


Dip into the cushion fund that you wisely kept for just such an emergency.




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