 |
|
|
|||||
The 2001 Tilda Swinton film The Deep End features a scene that has stuck with me for nearly 25 years, even though Ive forgotten almost everything else about the movie. Swintons character is being blackmailed for $50,000 and is given 24 hours to come up with the cash. Although her character is shown to live a comfortable, upper-middle-class life, she spends a stressful day on the phone trying to find the moneyand she misses the deadline. As a budding money nerd, I wondered what I would do in her situation. I had some go-to sources of cash for smaller financial emergencies, but there was a limit to how much I could gather quickly. The thing is, everyone has a limit to the cash they can accesseven those financial experts who wag their fingers at anyone whose limit seems too low. But wherever your financial limit is, a need for more cash than you can access feels insurmountable. It doesnt have to be. Here are some ways to find money in an emergency that you may not have thought of. How soon is quickly? In the film, Tilda Swintons character has 24 hours to come up with a substantial amount of money. If shed had a month, or even a week, she probably could have found that money with a minimum of fussbut it takes more than one day to take out a home equity loan, liquidate investments, or sell anything worth tens of thousands of dollars. While few emergencies have a 24-hour turnaround time (unless youre being blackmailed by Goran Višnjić), they do generally come with looming deadlines. Thats why all the options on this list should take no more than two to three days. Additionally, the best options for quick cash wont hurt your future finances, your credit score, or your relationships. The options below are as low-impact as possible, but remember to always do your due diligence and understand the potential drawbacks. Up to $500 Downgrade your credit card If you have a credit card with annual fees, you could potentially recoup some of the fee youve already paid. Eric Roberge, CFP and founder of Beyond Your Hammock, offers this suggestion: Call the credit card company to downgrade the card to one with no annual fee. Most credit card companies will refund you the prorated amount of the annual fee. Doing this will help you avoid the credit-score-hurting move of closing the card, while still helping you recoup the fee. How much you receive depends on the fee and when you cancel. If you paid an annual fee of $100 in August and call to downgrade your card to the no-fee version in March, the credit card company will provide you a statement credit of ~$50, Roberge says. This may not hold true for every credit card, and the found cash is a statement creditbut this option can help if youre in a situation where every penny counts. Sell stuff on Facebook Marketplace Selling something is usually the easiest way to drum up a couple of Benjamins. Financial coach Justin Brown-Woods recommends using Facebook Marketplace to quickly sell unwanted items. Ive sold over $16,000 of items on Facebook and I love using it as a quick spurt for my financial coaching clients, Brown-Woods says. Brandon Lovingier, a Chartered Financial Consultant based in Maryland, seconds this option. I did this the other day. I sold an old standing desk and monitor I had laying around for $50 each, Lovingier explains. Took a few minutes to take pictures and about an hour total of meeting people. Sell your plasma Plasma donation has a stigma, but it can be a good way to generate cash quickly. According to Jim Wang, founder of Wallet Hacks, plasma donation is not a fun process, which is why it pays so much, but does offer a high hourly payout. How much of a payout? You can get up to $100 a visit, Wang says. It takes a few hours the first time but becomes faster as you don’t have paperwork and are more familiar with the process. Additionally, many plasma donation centers run promotions, where you can get bonuses for frequent donation. $500 to $2000 Leverage your car Your ride may be a source of ready cash, according to Lovingier. You can make $500 in a week by listing your car on Turo and bumming rides from friends for the week, he says. Turo is the app-based peer-to-peer car rental company that allows travelers to rent cars from local vehicle owners. Just note that Turo requires cars that are younger than 12 years old with less than 130,000 miles on the odometer. Another alternative Lovingier recommends is driving for Uber, Lyft, or DoorDash for a few days. Ive heard of people earning a lot of money by driving during peak hours for a weekend, he says. These can be really lucrative during peak times. Rent out your home This option depends on your location and timing, but putting your house up on AirBnb could potentially net you big bucks for a short stint. For example, I live in Milwaukee, which hosted the Republican National Convention last summer. Some Milwaukee residents were able to get as much as $2,400 per night by renting out their homes to visitors. Use your skills Like Liam Neeson, you have a very particular set of skills that can equal quick cash. For example, freelance writer Paulette Perhach has photography experience and a great camera, which she used to generate cash in a hurry several years ago. It was nearly Mothers Day, so she took her camera and business cards to a local park and offered to take photos of the moms and kids for $20 per portrait. Similarly, my husband is an automotive engineer and lifelong grease monkey. He could easily make some money by offering to vet used cars for potential buyers. He has the knowledge and technical skills to know what to look for in a good used car and what issues may present a problem down the roadand that kind of expertise is worth money. Whatever you know well is something someone else needs and is willing to pay for.
Category:
E-Commerce
Looking forward to more evening sunlight thanks to daylight saving time this weekend? Many in the golf industry like the time change, too, and they are pushing to make that annual switch permanent. The move is intended to encourage more evening golf and to stave off efforts to establish permanent standard time, which would leave less time for an evening on the links. And it is those late afternoon players who tend to buy food and drinks in the clubhouse. We would lose 100 tee times a day if daylight saving time goes away, said Connor Farrell, general manager of Stone Creek Golf Course in Omaha, Nebraska. Switching to permanent standard time would cost us $500,000 a year.” Golf played a big role in daylight savings time Golf has deep roots in the history of daylight saving time, which begins for most states at 2 a.m. Sunday when clocks spring forward by one hour. Some credit goes to William Willett, a British builder and avid golfer who in 1905 published a pamphlet advocating for moving clocks ahead in April and returning them back to their regular settings in September. The U.S. adopted a version of that during World War I and again in World War II. Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966 that set up the biannual time change, and lobbying efforts by the golf industry are largely credited for Congress expanding daylight saving time by a month in the mid-1980s. Lawmakers try to make standard time permanent But for as long as it has been around, the constant clock adjusting has drawn the ire of Americans weary of losing an hour of sleep in the spring only to be faced with the early onset of darkness in the fall. That exhaustion has led to hundreds of bills introduced in nearly every state over the years to halt the practice. The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that in the last six years, 20 states have passed measures calling for a switch to year-round daylight saving time, many at the cajoling of golf industry lobbyists. But while states could switch to permanent standard timeas Arizona and Hawaii have doneCongress would need to change the law to allow permanent daylight saving time. That hindrancealong with arguments that permanent standard time would improve sleep quality and foster safer morning commuteshas seen more states consider opting out of daylight saving time. Lawmakers in more than a dozen states have introduced bills this year to make standard time permanent. Nebraska is among several states considering competing bills to make either standard time or daylight saving time permanent. That drew Joe Kohout, a lobbyist for the Nebraska Golf Alliance, to testify in favor of year-round daylight saving time. Late afternoon golf leagues account for up to 40% of the annual revenue of some Nebraska courses, Kohout said, while a majority of golf instructors reported that nearly 50% of their lessons are taught after 4 p.m. Under permanent standard time, Nebraskas golf courses will lose revenue, be forced to raise prices, and in some cases could be driven out of business, he said. The Utah Golf Association is also fighting a bill to make standard time permanent. The argument that changing clocks twice a year is an inconvenience does not outweigh the year-round benefits of having more usable daylight hours in the evenings, it posted on social media. In Indiana, golf course owner Linda Rogers succeeded in lobbying the Legislature to institute daylight saving time in 2006. Now a state senator, Rogers is fighting an effort to return to permanent standard time. Daylight savings time allows someone that, you know, worked until 5 oclock to come out and still play at least nine holes, she said. And its not just golf. There are so many outdoor activities that people want to be outside for and enjoy later in the summertime. Golf course owners like the status quo The National Golf Course Owners Association, which has about 4,000 members, recently polled stakeholders on the matter. The vast majority favored either permanent daylight saving time or the status quo of changing the clocks, said CEO Jay Karen. Only about 6% backed a change to permanent standard time. If standard time was to be made permanent, thousands of courses would be harmed by that, Karen said. Even so, Karen’s group is not advocating for a change to permanent daylight saving because it could hurt hundreds of courses that cater to early morning golfers, he said. Those include courses in retirement communities, vacation resorts where late tee times interfere with dinner plans and Sun Belt courses where extreme late-day heat sees golfers favoring early tee times. We feel like status quo is no harm, no foul, Karen said. Republican Iowa state Representative John Wills introduced a bill this year to make the change to permanent daylight savings. But he has been under pressure to amend the bill to permanent standard time. Wills was considering it until he heard arguments on how that change could affect golf. I think I might push back in the future and say, you know, the golf industry needs this, he said. By Margery A. Beck, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
This week, Apple updated half of its iPad lineup. After updating the iPad Pro and iPad mini in 2024, the company has just unveiled a third-generation iPad Air and an eleventh-generation iPad. Many fans of Apples tablets have been eagerly awaiting these updates, especially since before this week, the companys entry-level iPad had not had a refresh since October of 2022. But if you’ve been waiting until this weeks reveals, hoping for a clear picture of Apple’s iPad offerings in order to select the one best for your needs, well, Ive got bad news: the iPad lineup remains as confusing as ever. Heres why. Not all models support Apple Intelligence Apple makes four different types of iPads: the iPad Pro, the iPad Air, the iPad, and the iPad mini. Yet despite each model getting an update within the last yearone of them still lacks the hardware to run Apple’s much-hyped Apple Intelligence AI platform, which debuted in October 2024. That would be the new iPadyes, the eleventh-generation tablet that Apple announced just this week. In 2025. In a baffling move, Apple decided to equip the new iPad with just 6GB of memory and the A16 chipthe CPU Apple first introduced all the way back in 2022 in the iPhone 14 Pro series and later included in the iPhone 15 series. None of these devices can run Apple Intelligence because the AI platform requires at least 8GB of memory. It’s shocking that Apple decided to limit its new 2025 iPad to just 6GB of memory and the A16 instead of giving it the more advanced A17 Pro chip and 8GB of memory that can run Apple Intelligence and that the smaller iPad mini, introduced in 2024, has packed inside. Why would Apple do this? Ive reached out to the company for comment and have yet to hear back, but the most likely reason is that Apple wants to push customers into its higher-priced iPad models, like the iPad mini ($499) and iPad Air ($549), instead of having them buy the entry-level iPad ($349). Consumers are starting to go crazy for AI, and, in my opinion, Apple knows that by excluding Apple Intelligence from the entry-level iPad, many of them will instead opt to shell out another $150 to $200 more on an iPad that supports it. You cant fault a company for wanting to make more money. But the lack of Apple Intelligence support on the new iPad is going to confuse a lot of people. Some may buy it thinking it comes with Apple Intelligence since, you know, every other iPad does. This device is kind of already obsoleteat least if you ever want to use Apple Intelligence. The thinnest and lightest model..is not the one you would think The lack of Apple Intelligence on Apples newest iPad isnt the only thing likely to confuse consumers. Many people are drawn to tablets because they are thin and light and thus easier to lug around than a laptop. Historically, Apples thinnest and lightest devices have all fallen under a unique moniker: Air. Theres the MacBook Airthe thinnest laptop Apple sells. Theres the (very likely) upcoming iPhone Air, which will be the thinnest iPhone ever, and of course, there is the iPad Air, which is the thinnestwait, no. You would think the iPad Air would be the thinnest iPad Apple makes, but thats not true. If you want the thinnest iPad, you actually need to buy the iPad Pro (which is 5.1 mm or 5.3 mm thin, depending on screen size) and not the iPad Air (which is 6.1 mm thin). But what if you want the lightest iPad? Surely, thats the iPad Air, right? No. Thats the 11-inch iPad Pro, which weighs in at 0.98 pounds. The 11-inch iPad Air is 1.01 pounds (and if you think it’s fair to compare apples to oranges, the iPad mini with its 8.3-inch screen comes in at just 0.65 pounds, beating the iPad Air by a long shot). Do you see how confusing this could be to the average consumer? And dont even get me started on Apple Pencil compatibility (the Apple Pencil Pro works with the smaller iPad mini from 2024, but not the larger, newer iPad Apple introduced this week). Which iPad should you get? Ive long hoped that Apple would fix its confusing iPad lineup. They didnt do it last year, or the year before, and with the new iPads this week, it looks like they arent going to do it in 2025 either. So, if you are in the market for a new iPad, maybe this little cheat sheet will help you out: If you want the thinnest iPad, get an iPad Pro (not the iPad Air). If you want the lightest iPad, get the iPad mini. If you want to be able to use the Apple Pencil Pro, get the iPad Pro, iPad Air, or iPad mini. If you want Apple Intelligence, get the iPad Pro, iPad Air, or iPad miniand avoid the new iPad. And if you want a lack of confusionI guess maybe wait to see if the 2026 iPad family finally brings much-needed simplicity to Apples tablet lineup? The new 2025 iPad and iPad Air are now available to pre-order and will be released on March 12.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||