Learning how to ask for money is not easy.

And you can, of course, mean a number of different things by this.

Are you asking for a direct handout? A loan from your parents? Or, maybe, even a higher initial job salary?

If you are asking others for direct money out of desperation, you are probably doing something wrong. Get help with this. But here goes:

Anyone asking for money should exercise both the reciprocity principle and the contrast principle.

Remember, none of this is a sure thing. But these persuasion tactics will increase your odds nicely.

It might also be the way to sell a car.

If I want you to lend me five dollars, I can make it seem like a smaller request by first asking you to lend me ten dollars. One of the beauties of this tactic is that by first requesting ten dollars and then retreating to five dollars, I will have simultaneously engaged the force of the reciprocity rule and the contrast principle. Not only will my five-dollar request be viewed as a concession to be reciprocated, it will also look to you like a smaller request than if I had just asked for it straightaway.

-Robert Cialdini, Influence