In this episode of Motley Fool Answers, Alison Southwick and Robert Brokamp want to help you get rich quick. Well, richer, and with a reasonably small investment of your time, even if you'll have to wait to see results. And these generally aren't just hypotheticals -- they're things that Brokamp has applied in his own life.
In this segment, he kicks it off with a simple one he and his family have been doing for a while: selling what you no longer use -- or never used. Why leave all your excess items cluttering up basements, garages, and bookshelves when you can list them online and convert them into cash you can invest. And that doesn't even address the Etsy option.
A full transcript follows the video.
This video was recorded on Jan. 9, 2018.
Alison Southwick: What is the first thing that people can do on day one? If they are going to tackle one a day, what does day one look like?
Robert Brokamp: Let me kick it off by saying a lot of these are things that I have actually done over the last year, or the last few years, that have helped me financially. Last year, in particular, was a big year for selling things. No. 1, sell something. We in the Brokamp family always, every year, go through our stuff, determine what we no longer need, and sell it on Craigslist. It's a pretty easy thing to do, and it works well for us.
My wife has also started to sell books on Amazon using Fulfillment by Amazon. You can sell books and all kinds of things. We've made several hundred dollars doing that. And my 13-year-old daughter opened her own Etsy shop... and she's made fifty dollars doing that. It's remarkably easy to open an Etsy shop selling her homemade slime and little clay charms.
Southwick: What is her Etsy shop? We can send some business her way. You've got a podcast, here!
Brokamp: It's Lunar Moon Creations...
Southwick: There we go.
Brokamp: ... featuring homemade slime. Zoe's homemade slime.
Southwick: For all our listeners' slime needs.
Brokamp: So, we just got through the holidays. Chances are you've got lots of stuff you either didn't want or it replaces something you no longer need. Maybe you got a new phone, and so you have an old phone. You may have gotten gift cards that you no longer need.
All of these things can be sold. We all know about Craigslist and eBay. There are lots of sites that specialize in what you can sell. Things like Decluttr and Gazelle, which are good for selling technology [phones, CDs, DVDs]. Cardpool and Gift Card Granny for gift cards. Poshmark for fashion -- things like clothing, jewelry, and handbags. If you have a specialized thing, just use Google and you'll probably find a specialized site where you can sell it.
