Free Money 2017

Note: Also see Free Money 2018!

Free Money — it’s everyone’s dream, isn’t it? If that motivates you to go after legitimate ways to bring more cash into your life it’s a (very) good thing… if it means you fall for scams and questionable deals it’s definitely not.

Our goal is to help you sort out the good from the bad, the real from the fake —- and to find opportunities you didn’t know existed! There are some legitimately amazing options out there! Though there aren’t a lot of them they’re worth discovering and following up if you are an eligible candidate.

For example: did you know you could win a farm on lots of property for writing a good essay? Or that filling out one application could get you matched with a top college or university complete with a four year scholarship worth over $200,000? Did you hear about the clever kid whose tweet won him free chicken nuggets for life (and lots of great pr)? Or that artists can live rent-free in some New York City apartment houses?

It’s all true. Read on to discover more as well as to see what you may have missed in previous articles regarding Free Money.

Update May 2019

Here's an easy idea: Make it a regular habit to check out recent updates to our articles like I Need Help, Low Income Help and How to Make Extra Money. You may get some very helpful surprises. For example, did you know that you can actually make money from the piles of junk mail you get every day? Or that there are some very interesting new and easy ways to sell your clothes and/or other items? And if you’re a student be sure to include Where to Find Scholarships and Scholarship Contests. Our monthly newsletter archive also provides great leads for improving your financial situation.

Money Making Tweets:

In case your curiosity is tweaked: yes, a 16-year-old boy has won himself Wendy’s chicken nuggets for a year for breaking Ellen Degeneres’ Oscar Selfie retweet record. He asked Wendy’s how many retweets it would take to earn him the reward; Wendy’s replied “18 million.” He said “consider it done” and pasted a picture of the exchange in a tweet. It went viral and he can now enjoy chicken nuggets free all year. What he saves by not having to buy the nuggets is free money! He also has been motivated to use his new fame for a good cause. So he’s selling t-shirts and donating the income to help families of breast cancer patients. Maybe his skills and this experience will help him get a great job one day. And his experience and results could stimulate a great idea in you….

Free Farms:

If you wish you had a farm but don’t have the cash to buy property and equipment, you should definitely check out Grants for Farms. It highlights a couple of situations that seem to be becoming more common. The owners of a farm want to retire and get out of the business but they want their farm to be in good hands. So they announce a contest where you just write an essay about why you want a farm and what you bring to the situation (experience, determination, a passion for farming etc). And the winner gets the existing farm, the property (often in great locations) as well as some training. Take a look and see if there’s a current opportunity that might be just right for you!

Guaranteed Incomes:

Update January 2018

You may have read in our initial Free Money article about experiments that that have involved giving people free money each month. They then see how the money is used and what impact it has on people’s lives. The ultimate goal is to perhaps legislate a program that gives people a guaranteed income in lieu of all the different benefits ad services that are available today. an organization in San Francisco called mybasicincome.org runs lotteries that seek to learn the same thing. Winners receive $1250 per month for a year (total=$15,000). You can go to their website and click to apply for the next sweepstakes. It’s not clear from the site when (or if) the next one will take place but it’s worth a try….

Wondering if this is for real, and what’s happening with it? We were too. So we went to mybasicincome to see if they were still around. And in fact they are — or at least they appear to be based on their website. These folks are serious about testing and following up on what happens if people or families are given a guaranteed income per month — of $1250 monthly for a year (for a total of $15,000. In practice this is proposed to be in lieu of other programs like food stamps. They choose recipients by means of a lottery, and you don’t have to buy anything to apply. They say they will pick another winner this coming spring (late April or early May). However, we have not found mention of the specific year … and the official rules refer to 2016. So this is still interesting as a concept but be forewarned that the website may be out of date. We were unsuccessful finding answers to our questions using their search function. But you can try filling out their form that comes up if you click the Contact tab.

News September 2018 What’s the latest with regard to a universal “basic income”? Not too much in the U.S., though some tech leaders have spoken out in favor of it. One Swiss village though has announced that is going to experiment with the concept. They plan to pay out the equivalent of a little less than #3000 per month to every resident in the village. Interestingly, they do not propose to use government money but will instead count on crowdfunding to raise necessary funds. Two years a proposed similar payment on a national basis was rejected by voters. Stay tuned to see what happens and what impact — if any — is felt in other parts of Switzerland and the rest of the world…

Free Rent for Artists: In order to make their buildings more trendy and cool, developers in several cities (e.g. Los Angeles, Chicago, Nashville) are offering free or cheap rent to artists who can’t afford to live there. They then use the artists’ presence in the building to attract customers to this cool place to live. Artists compete for the places and residents can vote for which ones they want to win. Winning artists get wither a small apartment worth about $2000 (plus or minus $200) per month depending on the city. So if you’re an artist this could mean some real free money for you if you can live rent-free. Do a search in cities that interest you and see if there’s a program in place there…

Welcome to the Gig Economy:

Working for money is of course different from “free money”. But if you’re interested in getting money one way or another, you might want to be aware of the rising percentage of contract workers most companies are hiring these days (up to 14% of all jobs, or about 20 million people.) That means that if you get yourself known to a contracting agency, you could get placements for full or part time or temporary at a number of different firms without having to interview and apply at lots of places. They probably won’t have many if any benefits but if you’re looking for cash this is a possibility to consider.

Other Resources:

In addition to the items discussed above there are lots of possibilities discussed in previous articles you may not have seen. One of the most recent is Travel Grants, where you can learn how to get grants and scholarships to study, volunteer or travel abroad. Free Money discusses a couple of free money experiment, the billions of dollars people leave on the table because they don’t bother to fill out the FAFSA; getting money for a car, scholarships (including contests!) and the pros and cons of playing the lottery. Free Money 2015 provides a nice review of personal crowdfunding platforms and how to use them to raise money for your own needs; credit card programs; how to recover past wages due to you; and a service that can match high potential/low income students with top schools ready to give you a free ride. Free Money 2016 shows you how best to find Unclaimed Money, get cash out of your house, find the IRS tax refund you might have waiting for you and more. And our review of the Free Money Book will give you a very good idea of whether this book is worth your money or not…