Ask HN: If you needed to make $1000 in a week, what would be your strategy?
16 comments
If we're talking no experience, need $1k a week, first place I would go is a warehouse job. If there weren't warehouse-specific options available in my area, I would branch off into other manual labor jobs.
They pay better than most entry level jobs people gravitate to (fast food, retail, etc) and are nearly always hiring.
They pay better than most entry level jobs people gravitate to (fast food, retail, etc) and are nearly always hiring.
> If you had no connections, money, investments, or any property/possessions to sell, what would be your first steps?
That'd a harsh set of constraints.
I think the only answers remaining with those in place are "prostitution" and "crime", aren't they?
Ditch a digit, $100 in a week, and you could do it with any normal job, stack shelves or whatever, but I don't see that getting you to $1k. $500 perhaps, from what I hear of US jobs (you did mean USD not any of the other dollars, right?), but not $1k.
That'd a harsh set of constraints.
I think the only answers remaining with those in place are "prostitution" and "crime", aren't they?
Ditch a digit, $100 in a week, and you could do it with any normal job, stack shelves or whatever, but I don't see that getting you to $1k. $500 perhaps, from what I hear of US jobs (you did mean USD not any of the other dollars, right?), but not $1k.
The median income in the US was $83,730 in 2024
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2025/demo/p60-28...
Now in some cases that is two or three people working, but a $52,000 a year job is not impossible to find for many people.
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2025/demo/p60-28...
Now in some cases that is two or three people working, but a $52,000 a year job is not impossible to find for many people.
Sure, but with:
> no connections, money, investments, or any property/possessions
You're not going to get median, you're getting what you can reach on foot. Informal day labour, not median salary.
> no connections, money, investments, or any property/possessions
You're not going to get median, you're getting what you can reach on foot. Informal day labour, not median salary.
Doing hard work in not-so-cushy environments often pays pretty well. For example:
https://alaskafishingjobs.com/earnings-and-wages/
https://www.goarmy.com/benefits/while-you-serve/money-pay (depending on how you count the various benefits, [re-]enlistment bonuses, etc.)
https://alaskafishingjobs.com/earnings-and-wages/
https://www.goarmy.com/benefits/while-you-serve/money-pay (depending on how you count the various benefits, [re-]enlistment bonuses, etc.)
Manual labor work. I think in the US this is achievable although maybe not exactly easy.
Mowing lawns, gardening, shoveling snow, cleaning, odd jobs, etc... It does depend on your location but this is still a fairly common thing in some places. Knock on doors ask people if they need work. Point out things that they could use help with weeding trimming mowing all of that.
But if you take an average of $40 a job spreading that over 7 days that's 3.6 jobs a day. If you can do an average of 12 hours of work a day it'll be at your $1,000.
Mowing lawns, gardening, shoveling snow, cleaning, odd jobs, etc... It does depend on your location but this is still a fairly common thing in some places. Knock on doors ask people if they need work. Point out things that they could use help with weeding trimming mowing all of that.
But if you take an average of $40 a job spreading that over 7 days that's 3.6 jobs a day. If you can do an average of 12 hours of work a day it'll be at your $1,000.
Your calculation assumes an overhead of zero: for example you assume that knocking on doors takes up no time.
Plus: is knocking on doors obsolete? I'm not sure you'd be able to get a response in my suburb (not that I've tried - too many gates - too many suspicious people).
And prep, traveltime and cleanup all take time too. for example a mower doesn't magically get to a house and it needs time and expense to run (and where I live you'd often be expected to dispose of clippings - costing time or money or favours).
Trite answers are cute, but they are not helpful.
Plus: is knocking on doors obsolete? I'm not sure you'd be able to get a response in my suburb (not that I've tried - too many gates - too many suspicious people).
And prep, traveltime and cleanup all take time too. for example a mower doesn't magically get to a house and it needs time and expense to run (and where I live you'd often be expected to dispose of clippings - costing time or money or favours).
Trite answers are cute, but they are not helpful.
I did mention it does depend on location, which you just ignored. In your paranoid neighborhood maybe not viable but that's not most of the USA. I mentioned this from practical experience, not of me doing it but of hiring people this way.
There's an aging population that appreciate this because not everything is on an app. Really just seems like the fear of hard work.
There's an aging population that appreciate this because not everything is on an app. Really just seems like the fear of hard work.
Get a job. Any job.
vibe code something viral and sell out to OpenAI. Oh, you said $1,000 not $1,000,000,000.
Get a resource extraction job.
Sell a kidney?
Get a job.
Violently tangential:
Lol-inducing article+comments not from the Economist that I'd soft-promised
https://archive.ph/A4M8D
Lol-inducing article+comments not from the Economist that I'd soft-promised
https://archive.ph/A4M8D
If you had no connections, money, investments, or any property/possessions to sell, what would be your first steps?