It’s the end of January. Do you know the status of your 2019 financial resolutions?
If you never made any, or you’ve already let them slip, it’s not too late to start or start over. After all, you’ve probably only gotten one paycheck so far this year—or maybe none, if you’re a furloughed or working-without-pay federal worker.
Self-improvement or moral resolutions as a New Year’s tradition go back thousands of years to Babylonian times. During those times, people made pledges to clear their debts or give something back. We still make similar promises today.
The most popular New Year’s resolutions in 2018, according to YouGov Omnibus, are exercise more (59%), eat healthier (54%) and save money (51%). Save money beat out lose weight (48%), reduce stress (38%) and stick to a budget (35%). So if you’re making a financial resolution this year, you’ll have lots of company.
It’s easy to forget your resolution, but there are lots of techniques (okay gimmicks) around that will help you remember your promises to yourself and stay on track. Here are 10 savings challenges to participate in 2019.
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1. The 52-Week Challenge
Out of all the savings challenges out there, this weekly savings challenge is the most popular and comes in various forms. Every week, you’re supposed to deposit a certain, pre-determined, amount into a savings account, jar or envelope.
If this is your first time saving anything or you’re looking for a small savings challenge for your child to start, then I’d suggest you start off small. Each week deposit $9.64 into a savings account. You can set up automatic deposits with your bank or use savings apps like Qapital. The amount is at your discretion too. You could save less or more depending on what you’re comfortable with. This challenge doesn’t have to last 52 weeks; you can sock away $500 in 30 days, 100 days or 6 months – it’s your decision. Once you’ve accomplished this goal, you can use it to fund a short getaway, a new outfit, give to a charity, designate it an emergency fund or use it as seed corn for your next savings challenge.
Save $1,000
Out of all the 52-week savings challenges, this one is the most widely talked about. A simple variation of this challenge is to deposit a dollar amount equivalent to the week you are in. For example, if it’s week one then deposit $1 and at week 52, deposit $52. (If you’re starting in week 3 of 2019, play catch-up with a $6 deposit.) By the end of the year, you’ll have $1,378. You can also reverse the order for quicker gratification by saving $52 on week 1 and decrease your weekly savings by $1 until you are left saving $1 on the last week of the year. Qapital offers a 52-week rule saving feature that you could use to support this challenge.
Aiming for an exact $1,000 savings goal? Try saving $10 per week for the first four weeks and then save $20 per week until the last week of the year.
Save $5,000
If you’re looking to make a major purchase or build up an ample emergency kitty, then this challenge is for you. You could simplify the process and save $100 a week for 52 weeks. But, you might like challenges where you snowball your savings. There’s one challenge where you save $20 in week one, week two is $35, week three is $45 and week four is $125. The next set of four weeks will go up by $5 to $15 dollars (your choice) and then repeat the process every four-week interval until you reach your $5,000 goal.
Save $10,000
Take on challenges like this for major goals like a first home down payment or a wedding. Deposit $125 on the first week, $150 on the second week, $175 on the third week and $300 on the fourth week. On the fifth week, start the cycle all over again and continue the challenge until you reach $10,000. An amount such as $10,000 or greater doesn’t have to be tackled alone, especially if you’re paying down credit card debt. Partner up with your significant other or family members to pay for a mutual goal and have a built-in accountability partner.
2. Bi-Weekly or 26-Week Savings Challenge
Not everyone can handle saving every week. Some people get paid bi-weekly or twice a month and prefer to save according to that schedule. Thankfully, there’s some challenges that consider that. The $1,000 challenge requires you to save $26 from your first paycheck of the year (or the first week if you want to cut the year short) and then add on $1 to your savings deposit every week (i.e. on week 26, you would deposit $51 into your savings).
To save $10,000, you could alternate between saving $275 or $475 from every paycheck between week one and week 24. That will bring you to $9,000. Then, save $425 on week 25 and $575 on week 26 to reach your goal.
3. Save One-Month Of Salary
Your savings are a hedge against unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances such as job loss. Experts recommend saving enough to cover at least a few months to six months of necessary expenses. For this challenge, you can start off with a goal to set aside 8.33% of your annual salary, or one month of salary, by stowing away 10% of your monthly income into your savings account. Throughout the year you can increase it to a higher percentage to increase the number of months you would like to cover. Alternatively, you could increase it the following year when you participate in the challenge again.
4. Round-Up Savings or Save The Change
Your New Year’s Resolution may involve breaking bad habits like overspending or spending frivolously. I’ve found round-up apps to be helpful in helping people like myself see that I do have more money to save and I don’t need to attend Taco Tuesdays every week. Apps such as Qapital,Acorns, Digit, and Qoins save by automatically withdrawing spare change or extra dollars from your checking account. With Qapital, you can choose how much to round up on your checking account purchases and the loose change gets deposited into a Qapital goals account that is FDIC-insured and backed by one of their partner banks. Some apps like Chime and Qoins have the ability to use your spare change to pay down your debts while other apps like Acorns takes your extra cash and invests it.
Banks are getting in on the action, too. Bank of America has a Keep The Change Savings program for its customers that rounds up purchases to the nearest dollar and then deposits the difference into a designated BOA savings account. Be mindful of your bank’s rules for allowing third-party access to your accounts and make sure the savings app you choose offers FDIC insurance.
5. The Weather-Dependent Challenge
Budget blogger Melissa Berry at Sunburnt Saver created a savings challenge that follows the weather. She calls it Weather Wednesday. On Wednesday of every week, you look at the highest temperature for that day and then save an amount equivalent to the number of degrees. For Berry, who lives in Phoenix, Ariz., could be depositing over $100 a week into her savings bucket. If you live in Alaska, turn those negative degrees into positive dollar amounts.
6. $1 A Day or The 365-Day Money Challenge
With 365 days in a year and $1 for each day, you could have – drum roll, please – $365 in your savings account by the end of 2019. Use this simple strategy towards a gift for yourself, a charity donation or towards a trip. If this challenge is not enough of a challenge, try this idea with young family members. Another version of this is to match your daily savings to the number of the day in the year. If it’s day one then save $0.01; on day 150, save $1.50 and on the last day of the year, save $3.65. By the end of the year, you’ll have $667.95.
7. $5 Dollar Savings Challenge
The $5 Savings Challenge has many forms. There’s one that will help you achieve $7,000 by multiplying the number five by the number of the week you’re in. At week one you would sock away $5 and at week 52 you’d put away $260. Another type of $5 challenge involves physical cash. You may have seen photos of stacks of $5 bills floating around the internet; they are probably flaunting the results from this particular savings challenge. It requires you to take any $5 you come across and physically save it in a jar, shoebox or envelope. Then six months or one year later, deposit all of your $5 bills into your savings account.
8. Monthly Challenges
If you like No Shave November, then you might enjoy these savings oriented monthly challenges too. Budget blogger Kumiko Ehrmantraut of The Budget Mom crafted a list of ways you could save each month of the year. For example, her savings calendar includes Pack-A-Lunch January and Freezer & Pantry May (a challenge she said saved her $300), plus Generic July and No Spend November. Blogger and content manager Irina Vasilescu at Don’tPayFull.com, a coupon website, designed a similar challenge.
9. The Bad Habit Jar
We’ve all got a bad habit. When British media website Unilad posted a video on their social media of someone putting cash into an “I Am Late Again” jar, I chuckled. Then I realized that’s a pretty clever way of saving money and playfully penalizing a bad habit. Some of us grew up in households where there was a swear jar to curb children from using any language the adults disapproved of. And others can recall Schmidt’s Douchebag jar on the sitcom New Girl. I’m not sure what happened to the money once those jars were full, but I’m sure whatever you have by the end of the year can go towards a nice reward for yourself or someone else or towards your rainy day fund.
10. The Envelope Challenge
Envelopes aren’t going out-of-style anytime soon. Between the envelope budget method and the envelope savings challenge, there’s a rising demand for them. They are a bit easier to carry and move than a jar or shoe box. To start, mark each envelope with a series of numbers; pick a range you are comfortable with such as 1 to 25 or 1 to 150. Throughout the year, fill the envelopes up to the corresponding number. The envelope marked with the number 10 will hold bills and coins equaling $10, while the envelope marked 25 will have bills and coins totalling $25. The 1 through 25 range will total $325.
A New Year’s resolution to save more money is a worthy promise to make to yourself. To make sure you stay on task in 2019, try to get specific about how much you want to save, take one step at time, get a support system from friends, family members or like-minded communities and don’t sweat your mistakes. Also, make sure you enjoy your money every now and then so you don’t exhaust yourself with the process.
-Asia MartinForbes Staff
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