5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Focus on Making Easy Money Online Fast

Money. It feels like we always need more of it and it seems like we’re all in a never-ending search of how to make cash online or ways to quickly make money.

But, you have to be cautious when searching for these “opportunities” to quickly make a buck. It may end up being a detriment to you and your financial goals by focusing just on ways to earn income fast.

Before you even look into ways of making extra money, you should consider looking through your previous expenses to see if there are ways for you to save cash.

If you’re spending a bunch of money that you did not realize you were spending, one of the easiest ways to create extra wealth is by not spending on those items or experiences in the future.

Regardless of what others may say, you are always exchanging something for money.

There is no free money.

And, these “easy and fast ways of earning money” typically favor the payer and not the payee.

1. Making Cash Fast Usually Undervalues Your Capabilities

You are a smart capable person and you have a set of skills. Does filling out surveys take advantage of any of your skills?

The transfer of currency from one party to the other is an exchange of value. It may not always be efficient or true value but there is an exchange of some type of value.

Cash is exchanged for your time and opinion (value) in a survey just as it is for serving people (value) as a waiter or waitress at a restaurant. But, serving people creates more value than answering survey questions and you’re rewarded more for it.

When you fill out a survey or perform some other fast income generating “opportunity” you are not using your capabilities to the fullest extent.

Is there something you could do to create value (and receive money) by taking advantage of your skills?

2. Making Extra Cash Easily Undervalues Your Time

Time is Money.

It may be cliche but it is also true. We only get so many breaths in this life.

Anytime you are earning money you are exchanging your time as part of the value exchange.

The only time this is not the case, is when you are generating income on your own capital or making money off of your money. But, this still usually requires exchanging time for the initial money you used to make money off of your money.

So, when you fill out a survey what is the value of your time? Let’s say you receive $5 to fill out a 15-minute survey. Hey, that’s not too bad, that works out to $20/hour.

But, how long did it take you to find that survey? 10 minutes

And, what about all those other surveys you didn’t meet the criteria for but took the time to partially fill out? 15 minutes.

So, now that survey that appeared to be $20/hour was really $7.50/hour.

This is just one day. What about all of that time you spent looking for surveys, figuring out if you qualify but you end up not finding any surveys on other days?

That’s just additional time that brings down your per hour pay even further.

You have to think about all of the hidden time you may be using to generate that “fast” income.

If you spend 10 hours completing surveys for $25, could you have used the time to generate more income another way, using your skills and capabilities?

Maybe you could have picked up extra shifts at work. Or, maybe you could’ve thought of a new business venture that fits within your skill set.

Put some thought into how to best use your time to make money. It is our most valuable resource that we have to offer in exchange for money regardless of our other added-value.

A lot of the online money making ideas that we’ve come across say you just do this process or fill out this form to make money without highlighting how long it actually takes to generate money.

3. Making Money Fast and Easy Doesn’t Change Your Long-Term Financial Outlook

Why do you need to make extra money fast? Do you need extra cash to splurge or are you about to miss a bill?

Is it to pay for concert tickets? Or maybe its to pay for your electricity bill next week?

If you fall into the prior, have you considered opening a credit card to cover the cost?

While you should not keep a credit balance if possible, there is a delay between when you charge an expense to the card and when payment is due for the credit card bill. Just make sure that you are not spending more than you earn from your day job.

But, if you fall into the latter category, it may be time for you to spend less time focusing on how to make extra cash and instead on your financial health.

Your time and thinking could be better used looking at your expenses and figuring out how to save some of the money that you’ve already earned. If you have not created a budget, check out our post on simple budgeting.

If your aim is to reach financial independence or retire comfortably, ask yourself:

Would Warren Buffett do this?

Earning money through these fast and easy schemes is not going to make you a millionaire or even wealthy.

People become wealthy by creating recurring income streams. Usually, it requires time and skills or capital (debt or your own money). Sometimes, it’s all three.

You have to put in thought into how your time could be used to create another revenue stream.

If you have extra time to fill out surveys or watch videos or even work for another company you have extra time to think about how you may be able to start a small business that takes advantage of your skills and abilities.

4. It Takes You Away from Other Activities

If you were not filling out surveys or uploading receipts in the hope of making a few extra bucks what would you be doing?

Consider all of the other things that you could be doing. Is it truly worth it?

Maybe there is nothing else that you could be doing, but that likely isn’t true.

There are plenty of other ways that you could be creating value and earning value. Or, just doing something you enjoy like going for a walk or spending time with your friends.

Maybe you could be learning a new skill that will create value and result in you earning more money.

Most long-term ways of earning income begin with putting in time and energy to build a foundation. Even starting a blog, creating a YouTube channel or becoming an Instagram influencer doesn’t happen overnight.

But, putting in the time and effort will pay off no matter the outcome. If you start a business venture that fails, it provides valuable experience that you may end up applying somewhere else.

Spending all of that time trying to become an Instagram influencer seemed like a stupid idea until your boss sent out an email asking for someone to manage the company social media accounts.

When thinking of ideas, think about what the world values and how you might be able to apply your skill set.

5. Easy Fast Cash Making Ideas Can Often be Misleading

Make money fast! Just start about a blog about your favorite hobby by purchasing a domain and creating a website and purchasing my course on blogging.

You may have come across something like this in your search to earn extra cash. If you follow the above steps you’ll have spent money before you’ve made any. Also, blogging for income doesn’t make you a salary overnight.

And, whoever wrote that (it’s not actually real but we’ve seen many like it) is making money blogging by making money off of people who want to make money blogging through affiliate links and selling their own course.

Sounds a lot like a pyramid scheme.

There are legit bloggers teaching others how to blog but be very careful if you’re going down the blogging route.

Be suspicious about all of the different ways to make money. You can easily find yourself in a scam or fraud, or something that is totally legal but just a trick to get you to spend more or use your time.

At the end of the day, there are plenty of people available to make money easy and fast. On the other end of you receiving income is someone paying out and they want to pay as little as possible.

Here’s another way:

Earn extra money quickly! When you sign up for this website they track your spending and you receive small refunds on each purchase.

Wait a minute.

If you make money through spending money, that is not making money, that is saving money.

Don’t be fooled by these ways to make easy cash because you’re not actually creating any income. You’re just saving on your purchases which is nice but probably not what you were looking for in your search to create additional income.

Additionally, these websites, apps or extensions can also lead you to spend more money. They work similar to how coupons and other rewards work.

Be cautious when looking through money-making idea lists. A lot of times, misleading ideas can be right next to actually legitimate ideas.

Final Thoughts

Instead of looking for ways where you can make money fast, look for ways that you can use your skills to earn income through creating value.

Using your skills (or learning new in-demand skills) is likely to create more value and more income than anything that easily makes you money.

You want to maximize the time you use earning so that you have more time to do the things that you actually want to do. Work hard, play hard.

We want you to meet your financial goals and aspirations. Making extra money fast is not going to help you in the long run. Instead, look for long-term ways to generate extra income streams for yourself.

And, if you are going to look for ideas, expect some of them to mislead and offer more rewards or money than actually delivered. There are legitimate ways that you can earn extra income but they usually take time and effort to be truly meaningful.