50 + 50 Ways to Leave Your Debt
Do you remember the Paul Simon song “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”? I always liked this song because it cut through all the bull about doing what needs to be done, leave. No excuses.
I used the same mindset to make a list of 50 ways to leave your debt.
- Extra job
- New job
- New career
- Inheritance
- Receive a gift of money
- Win a law suit
- Tax refund
- Refund of other type
- Tutor students in subjects you’re good at
- Clean houses
- Mow yards
- Garage sale
- eBay sale
- Craft sale at flea markets
- Snack and drink sale along with a garage sale or craft sale
- Book sale
- Wash houses
- Paint houses
- Repair furniture
- Build furniture and sell it
- Make clothes and sell them
- Change oil in cars
- Detail cars
- Minor home repair
- Honey-do list service
- Write an ebook or report and give away for small donations
- Accept donations
- Sell a piece of land
- Sell a house
- Sell a car
- Sell all your electronic gadgets
- Sell your kid’s old video games
- Sell music CDs you don’t listen to any more
- Sell your vinyl record album collection
- Sell movies you don’t watch any more
- Sell your old camping equipment
- Sell a camper
- Sell your unused dishes
- Sell your unused small kitchen gadgets and appliances
- Sell old, unused furniture (not family heirlooms)
- Sell advertising on your blog
- Sell old luggage
- Sell old or unused software
- Sell old but useful computer (wipe your stuff off of it first)
- Sell your old printer
- Sell your old modem
- Sell you cassette tape deck
- Sell your cassette tapes if you don’t listen to them any more
- Sell a collectibles collection you no longer want
- Sell your used textbooks
Ok, that didn’t take very long. Let’s try another 50.
- Beg at the interstate off-ramp
- Play music in a downtown outdoor mall for donations
- Draw caricatures in a mall
- Be a clown part-time
- Become a wedding planner part-time
- Freelance at anything you can in your spare time
- Work at your child’s school if you’re the parent home with the children
- Open a home-school
- Open a day care
- Open a day camp
- Work at the YMCA as a camp counselor during the summer if you work a school schedule
- Write a book and sell it
- Throw boxes at UPS part-time
- Deliver pizza’s in a wealthy neighborhood
- Throw boxes at FedEx part-time
- Join the National Guard
- Join the Navy Reserve
- Join the Army Reserve
- Sell Avon
- Sell Mary Kay
- Sell Amway
- Bookkeeping for small businesses on the side
- Help small businesses with QuickBooks
- Assist an accountant part-time
- Work at a coffee shop
- Work at a bookstore
- Work at a casino (but never play there)
- Help people organize their homes
- Work for an elderly person doing small chores they can’t do anymore
- Shop for the elderly or a busy executive, doctor or lawyer
- Run other peoples’ errands
- Sharpen knives and tools
- Be a wait-person at a restaurant
- Shovel out horse stables
- Dog grooming
- Dog kenneling
- Veterinary assistant
- Nursing assistant
- Night commercial building custodian
- Security guard
- Work night shift at a hotel
- Night help desk for a business
- Answering service
- Work part-time at FedEx/Kinko’s during evening and night hours
- Make a cookbook out of all your recipes, self-publish and sell it
- Collect aluminum cans and turn them in for cash
- Trim trees and bushes
- Give an inexpensive seminar on a topic you’re proficient at and charge $10 - $20 per person or couple
- Bartender
- Declare bankruptcy (as a last resort and only if it will help you)
The second list took a lot longer. But there you have it, 50 + 50 ways to leave your debt.
Now stop reading blog posts and get busy! I’m quiting writing for today and getting busy with a few of the above that I can do right now. It’s time to take action!
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