Jack Raines (We/Them/Boys) • You
Curator of vibes • Writing Young Money for 43k readers • Editing Exec now • (
New personal finance tip: How to generate positive cash flow while traveling the country (or world! right now.
As many of you know, I enjoy traveling. But traveling, especially traveling extensively, has one problem: it costs money. And unless you had a fully-remote job, it was always difficult to sustain long-term travel... until now.
A few months ago, I rented an Airbnb in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, with several of my friends from college for Memorial Day weekend. While we had a blast on our trip, my credit card statement on Sunday morning gave me an existential panic.
I had spent $5,400 in 72 hours. (bottle service at Miami's Club Space isn't cheap!)
As I stared at my credit card, pondering how I would possibly pay off this month's balance, a novel idea began taking shape in my mind.
I glanced around our Airbnb and realized that I was surrounded by furniture.
Furniture that someone might pay a lot of money for.
I snapped a picture of the dining room table, uploaded it to Facebook marketplace, and wrote "dining room table + 6 chairs available for $600! Must pick up today."
Within an hour, the table was gone, and I was $600 richer.
I quickly repeated this process with the outdoor pool furniture, grill, beds, couches, and televisions in the Airbnb. By the time I Ubered to the airport for my flight home, I had $6,500 in my wallet.
My trip, where I spent $5,400, actually returned a positive ROl!
I have since repeated this process in San Diego, Washington DC, and Denver, making between $5,000 and $8,000 per trip, depending on the size of the house and the quality of the furniture.
And before anyone says, "This is theft! You should go to prison!" I would like to highlight that Airbnb has host insurance, so the hosts actually benefit by getting *new* furniture. It's a win-win for everyone, except maybe Airbnb corporate.
But Airbnb is a $100B publicly traded company, so they'll be alright.
Has anyone else tried this? Please share your thoughts below!
#WealthHack #WorkSmarterNotHarder #AirB2C